Why are Conservatives SO Disrespectful, Imperious, and Obnoxious Today?

It is certainly by no means just one’s imagination that today’s conservatives have nearly all become aggressively offensive, domineering, demanding, defensive, and ugly. The only mystery may be how they can be both offensive and defensive simultaneously, and in the same breath!

            To answer the question posed in the title; the truth is that those who currently identify as conservatives are anything but conservative. If there are any authentic conservatives left anywhere, it would be a great relief to have them come back out of hiding and to ask them to instruct the people who have incorrectly claimed that title in what it actually entails. These anti-social, amoral people who have misappropriated that name have no conception of what conservatism is or what it represents. Their lack of knowledge or desire to acquire knowledge is astounding.

            The distinction is more qualitative than quantitative. Conservatives did not merely slide somehow down into a lower form. Conservative thought has been totally and decisively abandoned in favor of unthinking, irrational, bulldozing reactionary extremism. ‘My way or the highway’ has been taken to a new level and to the world stage. The cancer has metastasized.

The goal for this awful new breed is not to outshine or counter liberal ideas or people. The intention is to eradicate from civilized society anyone who has any visible proclivity towards liberal ideation, progressive policies, tolerance, diversity, acceptance of individual identity, or critical thinking. They aim to completely eliminate autonomy and punish it as a separate despised state of being. Autonomy to them represents an unwillingness to bend to absolute authority, which is a concept they cannot fathom. They do not insist that you must worship their god; they have now become the deity to be obeyed and worshiped for all practical purposes.

There is no room for debate, deviation, or dissent. The new philistines have decided how things must be and they have conspired for decades to impose that reality on everyone, everywhere. Any resistance is to be crushed, without mercy. They are evangelists for repression and group thinking. They love trying to insult decent and compassionate liberals with the term ‘snowflake’. But it is they who melt at the thought of someone with brown skin getting a fair shake and outperforming them or someone less fortunate getting a helping hand or starving children getting a free lunch.

Fundamentalism, Fanaticism, Fox, and Factionalism

          Those on the far right, which now includes the majority who take a position on that side of the political and social spectrum, are died-in-the-wool fundamentalists. They have gone over fully to the dark side and have embraced the most extreme iterations of their belief systems. As a group, they have been radicalized.

One is now not just a believer in “free markets” and free trade; one has a strong compulsion instead to make those into a sort of religion to be practiced and proselytized worldwide as absolute truths and enforceable via mandatory policies. One does not merely have concerns about the UN or the deficit; one must portray the UN as a wholly corrupt and feckless exercise in appeasement or unproductive diplomacy and the deficit as the result of terribly foolish and careless economic decisions. The deficit must be cast as an intolerable weight around the neck of the nation which must be completely eliminated as a debt equal in consequence to the onerous obligation a family incurs to buy a home or start a business, no questions asked. They said so many times on Fox, so it must be the case. Then, their dear leader doubles the deficit overnight and they just look the other way.

            The people we are looking at here are dogmatic and self-righteous. The words ‘compromise’ or ‘negotiation’ are not in their repertoire. They are found almost exclusively in “conservative” circles and in Republican run houses of state and national legislatures or political organizations. They are not known for collegiality or compassion. If they had ever been humble, that trait has long been wiped out and forgotten. They use the cover of darkness and closed doors to do their dirty work. Generally, they come from well-to-do families and have lived privileged lives. They aspire to even greater wealth and power, regardless of who get hurt.

            While the use of stereotypes have been seen as undesirable or as a bad habit for the educated and the sophisticated in society for at least a few decades, these people whose orientation has shifted strongly rightward seem unable to resist the temptation to stereotype and mischaracterize others according to their uninformed and myopic prejudices. Moreover, it is impossible to avoid stereotyping them as all the same since they nearly all fit too conveniently into certain regular images and patterns. They typically share a lack of tolerance and a strong tendency toward judgmentalism. They often feel a powerful need to criticize and to follow their criticism up with attempts to control others. They may be very disciplined and rigid in their self-control.  However, a lack of self-control can always be rationalized and justified – strictly for their benefit only.

            One of the most prominent characteristics of today’s brand of “conservative” is a glorification of past times and places. They have rarely studied history or learned about the hardscrabble lives of their ancestors or of anyone who came before them. If they know any history at all it is a cherry-picked and one-sided version that has been designed by partisans to fit preconceived notions. Yet they are obsessed with rejecting much of modern life and the hard won changes that have taken place or the goodness and suffering of the people who worked hard to effect social, technological, political, or other kinds of improvements, many of whom were from different places, cultures, races or ethnic background, and religions.

            Donald Trump has been credited with (blamed for) much of the mean-spirited and narrow-minded thinking, incivility, and retrograde attitudes we have seen recently on the right. He has indeed contributed greatly to the contempt shown by his supporters and by people more broadly in our society for anyone who fails to conform or refuses to tow the party line. Aggression, demonization of out groups, and the elevation of violence are his brands.

However, Trump has merely tapped into, capitalized on, and exploited old pre-existing subterranean and latent animosities and proclivities toward externalizing his own human flaws and faults. The pretension or presumption of superiority and the magnification of petty grievances on the part of disgruntled citizens who perceive a decline in their welfare and happiness are nothing new. Their “suffering” is mostly imagined and is nothing compared to that of many others just down the block. A toxic mixture has been brewing for a very long time.

            Our friends who lean toward a worldview which is reactionary may be good neighbors – if their neighbors have an appearance or lifestyle which is not too different from their own. But their thinking tends to be rule-based, quite narrow in scope, and wary of the unknown or of outside influence. Their self-image may include magnanimity, openness, and kindness. Yet just below the shiny outer veneer are clear indications of dark racial discriminations, unkind judgments and profiles, and sanctimonious sentiments.

            We can expect these people, furthermore, to indulge in conspiracy theories. In reality, of course, we know those are not theories at all in any ordinary sense. They incline toward convenient, false, delusional, or bizarre beliefs and narratives which create a permission structure for promoting whatever works in their favor or makes victims of others with whom they are not comfortable sharing space or limited resources. They need these ludicrous tales as excuses for their militancy in supporting cruel and malicious policies and practices. It’s okay to burn women at the stake, for example, or in the current version of that horror, to allow women to die in a hospital after suffering a medical crisis after a miscarriage, and as a consequence of being refused medical care, if their victims can be summarily suspected or accused of something they disapprove of, or of unexplainable attributes (for their closed minds) and imagined evil.

            We have only scratched the surface, so far. The current crop of individuals wearing the conservative mantle is made up largely of malcontents. They are misfits, and lies are their stock-in-trade, whether they are telling them, believing them, or just reposting them. Their style is to come on strong as bullies and take no prisoners.

Regulations for business must be dismantled. Nothing should be allowed to stand in the way of profits and payoffs. The “survival of the fittest”, “free market fundamentalism”, “trickle-down economics”, and the mythological “invisible hand” guide their untenable and dysfunctional choices and policies, even though all of those are totally inapplicable and have been proven failures everywhere they have been tried.

            The US was founded as a secular nation, with overt measures written into our Constitution proscribing an official state religion or the merging of religion with government. This country was about liberty, equality, and justice. It was about promoting progress to be shared by all people (which was eventually to include freed slaves). Liberal and progressive values were prized by the rebels who fought to liberate themselves from rule by a monarch and an oppressive regime. A free press, free speech, and freedom of assembly to peacefully register dissent were express demands and promises.

Not long after the founding we also fought a civil war against the seditionists who were profiting from slavery and the subjugation of poor people. They lost. Then, they tried to deny the loss and obstinately attempted to pretend that the war wasn’t even about slavery and continued to discriminate, persecute, and suppress dissent. So, why are the criminal and corrupt MAGA crackpots in government and the libertarian government haters having such a heyday now, at this late stage in our development? What has gone wrong?

            There have always been fringe characters with uniquely bad ideas and religious extremists who wanted to convert everyone or to force their fictional beliefs on those who would not convert voluntarily. This most recent trend toward insanity started long before Trump became such a major threat. However, the factor which has been most influential in increasing the numbers of right-wing freaks and fascist-leaning, reality-denying fools has been big money concentrated on big media and on every possible means of spreading fear and anti-intellectual and superstitious propaganda imaginable.

The ultra-rich took it upon themselves to flood the entire country with the xenophobic, misogynistic, and medieval superstitions and apprehensions from their narrow and conceited polluted minds. They intentionally created spaces and special opportunities in the byways and on the airways for the most vile charlatans, frauds, faith healers, and fear mongers ever assembled. Think Jim and Tammy Baker, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Father Coughlin, and Rupert Murdoch. Reason and rationality were too much of a threat to their fiefdoms. Paying taxes was beneath their dignity. Indoctrination on a mass scale was the answer.

Just as the country was waking up to the evil deeds and monstrosities of the remnants of slavery and of Jim Crow laws, the power brokers and moneyed interests were regrouping to stop progress in its tracks. They were desperate to keep hate alive and retain their hold on the national economy, social organization, and education. They were gradually noticing that white numbers were diminishing and women were gaining slowly but steadily in independence. Big business was alerted by the “Powell Memo” telling them that they had to assert their influence and power quickly or the working people, the middle class, young people, women, and those who had actually grown in knowledge and awareness would soon win out and overtake their predominance. They decided they were in a war for the soul of America, and love, peace, and equality were the enemies.

The Fox Nuisance channel became the most effective tool ever in anesthetizing the people and turning the nation back toward the troubled past. Entertainment had already become the substitute for news, current affairs, and accurate reporting and information. Fox had a ready audience because the schools had always insulated the people from intellectual curiosities and created a mindset of complete and unquestioned obedience to authority. We should not be at all surprised that MAGA, reactionary attitudes, and anti-government libertarianism have undermined democracy.

The Amazing Chemistry of Ego Affirmation

            Talented storytellers with a degree of knowledge about the real world and human instincts and behavior and a creative imagination are able to draw us all into a vivid story or scene and make it seem convincingly real, even if there is no valid evidence that it is real and true, and even if it is so fantastic and impossible that it could never take place with human beings in the actual physical universe as we currently know it. Science fiction writers such as Bradbury, J.K. Rowling, and Antoine Saint De-Exupery can cause readers to suspend disbelief temporarily so that they completely forget for a time that characters are fictional and that the events that those characters describe and experience are outside the realm of possibility in the absence of some phenomenal scientific breakthrough or supernatural revelation.

            If, for example, one reads or hears a story about a mysterious organization formed centuries ago with detailed descriptions and seemingly realistic characters and events, and should everything appear to fit into what one has heard or read about or seen in films and learned about relative to that period in history in school, one may suppose the organization was real. It may all be a total fiction, or it may in fact be a much elaborated and magnified account of a real organization. But to the reader or observer of the story, it feels quite believable and valid. This is a well-known phenomenon that has captivated people for centuries and has led to innumerable myths and even in some cases to the establishment of religions.

            Did the “Knights of the Roundtable” actually exist? Was the “Illuminati” a real life organization which had members and a specific purpose many generations ago, and is there any basis for believing that it still exists in some form with an identifiable membership today (if one only had the capability of discovering their location and activities!)?

As long as there are people with some desire to tell a story, even if there are no credible facts that intrepid investigators are able to reveal by penetrating a supposedly secret society or a tightknit group, a myth can be perpetuated endlessly. And if one hears the same erroneous information about George Soros or about Jewish bankers over and over from dozens of sources with grandiose claims and paranoid delusions, some are likely to suspend disbelief and get so caught up in the fraud and the fantasy that they feel special and responsible to pass on the ludicrous information and racist or derogatory details even though it is all fabricated, exaggerated, or maliciously contrived to serve a nefarious political purpose or to distract from a real malefactor.

            Science has shown that there is a certain amount of excitement and satisfaction for the individuals who engage in dramatic, scandalous, or wild and woolly stories, irrespective of the story’s verification or validation or lack thereof, and whether the account raises our spirits or lowers our mood. We all experience an emotional reaction to stories which somehow cause us to feel threatened, angry, offended, or alternatively, protected, pleasant, special, or part of something bigger than ourselves.

When, for example we are told something very derogatory or something very positive and complementary about some wealthy or famous person such as President Biden or Jack Smith, if we have any tendency to believe what we hear, we are affected by various chemicals in our brain and bloodstream which are reinforced each time in the same way, either positively or negatively. Likewise, for someone like Elon Musk or Donald Trump. We will have a sensation that will feel rewarding or as a provocative motivation to criticize or condemn that individual, depending on the nature of the particular “news” presented and depending on how the information (whether true or false) will impact us.

Indeed, we can easily become hooked on the sensations and emotional ups and downs. This is why we typically tend to seek out “news” and information which confirms what we believe or which supports attitudes and opinions which align with our overall worldview, which we all have, whether it is recognized as a worldview or not. “Confirmation bias” is a well-documented phenomenon and explains in part why the country is split primarily into two opposing, and often now, hostile camps.

Mr. Trump knew that the moral outrage that many of his followers would feel when he started predicting several months prior to the 2020 election that Democrats were going to try to “steal” the election. He knew the indignation would build on itself and elicit stronger and stronger feelings every time he repeated the lie. When he did lose the election as he expected, and despite sixty lawsuits failing to provide a scintilla of credible evidence of fraud or cheating by Democrats, his followers were so juiced and stimulated by their reinforced outrage that hundreds of them stormed the Capitol Complex and committed felony acts of violence on Jan. 6^th 2021, expressly on his command, which got them sent to prison and damaged many lives.

Meanwhile, the moral outrage felt when we hear that a large number of uber-wealthy individuals and corporations pay taxes at a lower rate than working people pay also spurs greater emotional reactions every time we hear that statistic. The difference is that, in that controversy people on either side of the political divide are likely to have a strong reaction because of the rank unfairness and there are public records which document that the claim is substantiated and there is cause for true anger.

Is Civil War Inevitable or Will Trump Implement Project 2025 and a Dictatorship?

            It is impossible to predict what will happen in the next four years, or the next four weeks. What we do know for certain is that the diehard, anti-democracy, conscience-less extremists on the right believe that they have “God” on their side, that they are superior and better-informed about “reality” and the political landscape, and that they are ‘high on their own supply’ to use a colloquial phrase.

Highly regarded, brilliant, and professional scholars have repeatedly warned that these domineering and hate-filled people are dangerous, and nihilistic. Accomplished people from all walks of life and those who are legitimate experts on political science, social science, religion, government, economics, etc., have condemned them as know-nothings and careless fools. They plan to “burn it all down”. Still they have no intention of re-evaluating their obstinacy. They simply have NO RESPECT for anyone, including their own parents in many cases. They simply do not care about decency, dignity, or democracy.

            Unfortunately, the only way to teach these arrogant and uncaring insolents respect is to defeat them in this war, either with ideas and superior strategy, or in a long-term physical series of real battles costing many lives. They are not going to listen to us. They were not just naively inundated with nonsense and lies. They wanted to believe the disgusting sick pathetic BS and the self-serving propaganda and they wanted to demean and assault their neighbors.

The right-wing bottom dwellers prattle on endlessly about abortion. But their real problems are human nature, human sexuality, and regarding women as the amazing equal human beings that they are. They are obsessed with the border and immigration. But the only issue in reality for them is naked, nasty racism and white superiority. They continually fret about original sin, “socialism”, and the degradation of society. What is really behind it all is their refusal to grant freedom to anyone other than themselves and their special in-group. They have already done far more damage to this county than Sen. Joe McCarthy did in the 1940’s and 1950’s.

These people marching behind their MAGA king were primed for twelve years to passively follow the leader and forego thinking and recognizing what they knew to be true. They already know who the fascists are and where the pedophiles are hiding. They know that stolen elections are a facile lie and a ruse. Denial and hypocrisy were in their soup and their milk. In twelve years they got accustomed to a charade and leaders with clay feet. Buckle up and batten down the hatches. We have a long struggle ahead.