What is it about conservatives that make them so Gawd Damn Mean?

[JRLeft]

Everyday there some action or comment that is mean as hell from these people.

[Gravitycollapse]

1. Aggression is a response to fear.

They fear the human body, the mind, philosophy, history, humanity, culture, doubt. They fear all of these things and that results in a base, animalistic response that is often mean spirited. The point is to neutralize whatever it is they fear.

[loudsue]

19. I totally agree, gravity. All...every single one.. of the right wingers I know personally is scared

to death. They are mostly scared of their own minds, because, in their hearts, they know how angry and mean they are, and how they would want to kill the people who disagree with them, or who are different from them.

They are scared of people who disagree with them, because they feel so inferior to start with: they're afraid they're not good enough. That's why they shout so much. They all like that squawking on the media...shouting matches where you can't decipher what ANYONE is saying, and it all sounds like there is a FOX in the chicken coup.... because it gives loudness to their free-floating anger and fear. They are afraid of everything, and especially CHANGE, from whatever picture is currently in their mind that they are taking comfort in.

They really need help. I hope, now that the ACA makes mental health care a mandatory cover, maybe now some of these souls will get some much needed help.

[SomethingFishy]

48. Yep and that fear is raised exponentially by the right wing media..

I was thinking earlier about the piece that Fox ran a couple months ago about Obama privately financing a Muslim Museum. The piece was satire but Fox saw it and ran with it as a major breaking story. When they figured out that their journalistic integrity(You know, looking up stuff on Wiki) failed them again, their retraction came in the form of a a short tweet on the anchors twitter feed... Leaving their audience to believe that Obama is still a Kenyan Muslim out to bring down the country and convert us to Sharia Law.

[LadyHawkAZ]

2. "Misery loves company"

Can you think of any that seem to have really happy lives?

[Kurovski]

3. They can't own every thing, every person, every planet.

And that just drives them fucking nuts.

[YoungDemCA]

4. Two words: status anxiety

Conservatives are, IMO, cultural conformists above all else. American capitalistic/consumerist culture has plenty for status-conscious people to be anxious about. That pent-up anxiety manifests itself as anger and meanness, which is then externalized onto a target-be it women, minorities, gays, non-Christians, immigrants, or the poor. Lashing out is an effective way of keeping others in line and purging yourself of your own status anxiety.

[Gravitycollapse]

9. I was actually just reading a piece by Slavoj Zizek discussing this anxiety you speak of.

He mentioned the rise of the Nazi party as a symptom of or response to the German people's inability to seek meaningful revolution in WWI or post war. This anxiety in failure manifested itself in the hatred of Jews, gypsies and gay people.

The Soviet era brutality was also the result of a failure in The October Revolution to establish a true dictatorship of the proletariat and eventually idealized communism. Instead, it was simply a shift in who had power.

These historical acts of massive brutality almost always follow a hugely embarrassing defeat, or symbolic castration, of the perpetrators.

[YoungDemCA]

11. Indeed.

I need to seriously check out Zizek-I've had him recommended to me more than once, but never got around to reading him.

[Gravitycollapse]

16. Prepare yourself because Zizek is kind of psychotic.

[nikto]

23. Takes one...

To know human society.

[zeemike]

25. You may have something there.

There defeat was the civil rights movement, and the loss of Nixon and the Viet Nam War...that is when I noticed the meanness begin to come out.

[freshwest]

14. +1

[Duppers]

39. you nailed it. nt

[Orsino]

41. Tough economic times always bring out rabid racism and classism...

...but not from nowhere. Some folks just aren't able to love their neighbors, no matter how hard they thump their Bibles, and no matter how strong the economy is.

[winter is coming]

5. They are hoarders consumed by the fear that someone else is happier than they are.

No matter how much you give them, it will never be enough. The idea that they could have a reasonable amount and someone else could have a reasonable amount and everyone will be comfortable/content is alien to them. If you have something, it means they have less.

[YoungDemCA]

6. Well said. It's a zero-sum game to them.

"It" being life.

[Ikonoklast]

51. Lots of truth to that statement.

[Hoyt]

7. They are anal retentive and fullbof hatred. That's painful.

[freshwest]

15. There's a solution for that:

[reformist2]

8. They have become reactionary... that is, they don't merely resist liberals, they do the opposite.

A healthy society actually needs conservatives, to wisely and judiciously counter the excesses of overexcited, overly optimistic liberalism. What it doesn't need are reactionaries that unthinkingly attack any new idea out of hand.

[YoungDemCA]

10. Not just unthinkingly attack new ideas, but wishing to go back to a past utopia that never was....

...when White, Christian, Straight, Bread-winning Men were the unchallenged Dominant Culture.

Sure, there was a time (s) when said people ruled America unchallenged, but it was hardly an idyllic time in a lot of ways (to say it lightly).

[lumberjack_jeff]

12. Medulla Oblongata. n/t

[Hassin Bin Sober]

24. LOL

Dey got all dem teeth and no toothbrush

[Voice for Peace]

13. kick to read thread later

[Jamaal510]

17. A lack of exposure

to people who are different from them (e.g. poor people, gays, non-Christians, etc.)+messaging from RW media=the recipe for RW Haterade.

[CrispyQ]

46. This is a big part, too.

RWer's are very exclusive who they are accepting of.

People I know who have traveled extensively within the US, tend to be more liberal. The people I know who have traveled outside the states, even more so.

[Bonx]

18. Good thing no one here is ever mean.

:/

[HangOnKids]

35. Please tell us all about it

LOL

[blkmusclmachine]

20. CONservatives are 17 year-old kids trapped in adult bodies.

[Egalitarian Thug]

50. I think you're being very generous. n/t

[Bigmack]

56. Hey.... wait a minute....

I taught classrooms full of 17 year olds.

Damn few of them were CON servatives.

[nikto]

21. Their arguments and value-system are LOSERS

Nothing left except to get nasty and stay that way.

[Douglas Carpenter]

22. an "anyone can achieve anything" versus a "there but for fortune go you or I" view of the world

Feeling for sorry for people is making excuses for weakness and failure. At the heart of this is the notion that anyone can achieve anything if they would only try hard enough. Those who are on the losing end of the spectrum must not be trying very hard.

Margaret Thatcher's favorite poem:

One ship sails east and another west with the self-same winds that blow,

'Tis the set of the sail and not the gale which determines the way they go.

The winds of the sea are the ways of fate as we voyage along through life,

'Tis the act of the soul that determines the goal, and not the calm or the strife.

-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

[ErikJ]

26. "Tough love" is their excuse

They believe that the liberals are "enslaving" the poor minorities by keeping them on the government "plantation" with government dependency. THey believe they need to learn to pull themselves up by the bootstraps, get a job and go to church, etc. They will actually say the liberals hate the poor and want to control them for their votes. Then when you ask them why you dont think they should get free or affordable health care they say that health care is not a right or some other other excuse.

[chknltl]

27. Its due to a chemical imbalance

Last edited Thu Dec 19, 2013, 03:26 AM - Edit history (1)

Not enough THC in their system. Oh yeah, and wearin' shorts a size or two too small.

[catbyte]

28. I just can't help but think how much it must suck to be them.

[ReRe]

29. What makes them so mean?

.... the mean little devil residing in the heart of each and everyone of them.

[dem in texas]

30. They are hypocrites

They are all puffed up and bragging that they are Christians, and want everyone else to be like them, but they forget the teachings of Jesus. I posted recently on a subject where the court would not allow the state of Georgia to add a $5.00 surcharge to the Life line phones, a program for low income people. They hear Rush Limb. talking about lazy people getting "free phones", not realizing how important these phones are if you are disabled or sick as are so many of the disadvantaged people.

Just saw where a poor man who was dying of cancer was kicked out of a hospital in North Carolina because he wouldn't respond to questions. They sent him home in a taxi, but he was dead when the taxi reached his mother's house.
Unbelievable!

[JRLeft]

33. This unconscionable!

[BootinUp]

31. They don't like us. nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

32. They are in horror to think of themselves as "minorities".

[rustbeltvoice]

34. Yeah, good question.

I read through thirty responses on this thread. And maybe there is not one answer alone.

Several people have suggested in their own parlance, that they hate the "other", and several have included non-Christians as a constituent of the other. Sometimes this is true, but sometimes the Christian is a constituent of that other. Ayn Rand was never a Christian, and became a selfish atheist. Ayn Rand is considered a "Conservative" heroine. O, and by the way the worst writer in the English language. She is wretched in fifty pages, yet she puts a thousand in a book, and it still sells now.

Many of these hate filled conservatives profess to be Christians. Some are liars on that subject too, others are pharasaic, hypocritical Christians. But yes, that hypocrisy is a more salient characteristic; for it is not only in the religious sphere of morality, in which one shows hypocrisy. We have those who call for thrift, and spend lavishly on themselves. We have those who call for war, and made sure they never went. The listing of self contradiction in word compared to deed is quite long.

There is a meanness, it is very evident and palpable. I see where fear would explain some of it, i also see egotism, selfishness, mental aberration. I would suggest that the mean spirit is of an hateful nature; and to speak in theological terms, hate is like evil (or hate is an evil), and evil can be defined by the absence of love.

[JRLeft]

36. I wish there was a feature to rec your post.

[pacalo]

38. You win the thread with that answer.

Welcome to DU, rustbeltvoice.

[Scuba]

40. Excellent post, thanks.

[Chrom]

61. The Bible says God is love

They don't seem to have God.


And it is not just people they do not know that they treat with meanness and disdain.

'Conservative' Family will hate on their own family members over stupid shit that Rush Limbaugh and other fake 'christians' tell them.

[Cha]

37. They got a friggin

wasp up their collective a$$?

[Jamastiene]

42. They have no hearts.

No compassion. No love. They have nothing when it comes to feeling empathy for anyone but themselves. In all my years of dealing with conservatives, that is what I see most often. They are either usually, extremely hardhearted or you wonder if they have a heart at all.

[JoePhilly]

43. The self righteous are always mean.

They sit in judgement and they never like what they see.

After all, what good is your righteousness if it doesn't place you above others, give you folks to look down on.

They are the best Americans. More patriotic, more worthy, than others.

And if you disagree with them on any topic, you have attacked them personally.

So in their minds, they are just fighting back against the unholy ... the unworthy who would take from them what is rightfully theirs.

That's also why they can, in their mind, cheat and lie with impunity.

[JRLeft]

44. They are always angry.

These people are always frothing at the mouth and are always ecstatic when someone is filled with misery.

[CrispyQ]

45. I think they're pissed off & afraid.

They've played by all the rules & things are still going in the shiter for them. Well for all of us, actually, but they don't care about the rest of us, only themselves. Their authoritarian masters tell them that their ills are because of the liberals, the feminists, the gays, the minorities. As things get worse, so will they.

My mother started listening to Rush Limbaugh every day in the early 90s & the transformation was remarkable. In 18 months, I hardly recognized her. We weren't close, so I didn't see her often, so maybe it was more stark to me. My sister thought she got conservative. I thought she went over the edge. If Mom were alive today, I'm certain she would be a bagger & I'm not certain we would be speaking.

There will be some serious grave dancing the day that hateful fuck dies.

[HappyMe]

47. That isn't that hard to figure out.

This thread leaves me with a lot of questions --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024198297

[Blue Owl]

49. They believe God authorizes their behaviors

Due to taking religion and the scriptures a bit too literally.

Just a bit.

[grasswire]

52. they had no unconditional love as children

I truly believe that is the origin of authoritarian meanness.

They did not get (or did not feel) unconditional love in formative years.

This explains the lack of tolerance, lack of generosity, lack of compassion.

[Jamastiene]

54. You are very close to the truth.

That is what I believe too. I live in a red state and grew up here. Unconditional love for children here is almost nonexistent in a lot of red state areas and red state families. Child abuse is more the norm here.

[Mojo Electro]

53. Hmmmmm.

I guess it's the whole "Let's not educate our kids, feed hungry people, or take care of sick people" thing that tends to bring that to the forefront.

[Iggo]

55. Fear.

[maryellen99]

58. yes I totally agree

I know someone on FB who never posted anything political(she has on her profile that she hates politics) but when her husband was diagnosed with lung cancer last month she has started posting anti Obama/Obamacare stuff on her FB page plus she posted something in support of Phil Robertson this morning.

[n2doc]

57. Media propaganda

If you listen to Rush or any of the other hate mongers on radio and TV, they all preach the same thing: Hate and envy thy neighbor. Everyone (especially the poor, minorities, anyone different) is out to screw you, take your money, and do nasty things with it. The message is constant and pervasive.

I firmly believe that this, even more than Reagan, has been the cause of the destruction of the American Dream. We are taught to fight and mistrust each other, so that we won't pay attention to the looting and destruction being done by the rich.

[Bigmack]

59. They can't help it....

They are sociopaths...

Numerous sources say at least 12 million Americans are sociopaths.... and there must be more Americans close to that, since mental disorders are not all-or-nothing conditions.

Lack of empathy & remorse, lying, pathologic egocentricity... they have the traits.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201305/how-spot-sociopath

[pecwae]

60. Ever looked around

here when a South bashing or obesity thread is hot? Mean is not limited to conservatives, absolutely not.

[Ratty]

62. I think it's the reverse

People who are fundamentally mean embrace conservatism (and Libertarianism and Fundamentalism) to give them an excuse not to feel guilty or strive to be overcome their nature. They are drawn to it because it's the easier path.

[Corruption Inc]

63. It's their myriad of mental maladies they purposely choose to ignore

Unfortunately for the rest of us, we have to suffer through their resistance to learning and healthfully adapting. One thing American society could do is arrest the worst criminals of them all, aka Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, Ridge, Gonzales, Yoo and a few others.

But, we're told to just ignore all their crimes against humanity which perpetuates their socially abhorrent behaviors. It'd do the U.S. population a huge favor if just a few of these criminals were actually tried for their crimes.