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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhere does all their hate come from?
Why are Republicans and right-wingers so damn hateful?
Is it because they fear that they are losing something? Economic, social, and political privileges, perhaps? Is that what drives them?
Or is it more a respect for "traditional" authority and power, or is it right-wing, dogmatic, absolutist religious views, where everything is "black and white", good vs evil, us against them, "real Americans" vs the *insert villain of the week here*?>
Is it racism? Sexism? Classism? Homophobia? Xenophobia? Some combination thereof? Some sort of perverted nationalism, where "Proud to be an American" means hating the "Other"?
One thing is for sure; right-wingers have created a poisonous political atmosphere in the United States. This cannot be healthy in the long-term, for anybody. But it does give the Republicans effective power-driving down turnout (like they did in the 2010 midterms) to make the American electorate more white, male, straight, Christian, and rich than an electorate that is really representative of America. And with the Roberts Court effectively giving corporations more rights than people, in a political atmosphere already overwhelmingly skewed toward the privileged, we are in for some hard times ahead indeed.
Maybe it's all a cynical ploy to divide the country further so that the power elites will avoid being held accountable for their Robber Baron actions. Because even though most Americans hate the elites, if that hate can be directed downward, towards the main victims of oppression in our society, the oppressive elite can continue to run amok, unaccountable.
Hate may be poisonous, but they found a way to make it profitable.
2on2u
(1,843 posts)hate is nothing more than fear turned inside out, they'll get over it after they all make their first million.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,014 posts)that's my view, anyway - although there are elements of many of the things you list.
Speck Tater
(10,618 posts)As for their daily behavior, they are pumped full of fear and hatred every day by right-wing fear/hate radio and fear/hate TV. They are taught what to fear and who to hate, and given "reasons" why to hate. Rush and Fox and Glenn Beck and that whole crowd of fear/hate mongers pumps of the fear every day, and then "relieves" the fear with a fresh dose of hate.
And yes, they are doomed to extinction. But so is the rest of humanity, so what difference does that make?
RKP5637
(67,107 posts)humanity is headed straight for extinction. And this is supposedly an intelligent species, so it's apparent humans are working to bring on their extension ASAP.
To me, and not to sound outrageous, nothing short of some type of intergalactic intervention will save the human species. One quick look at human behavior is one giant WTF.
Zalatix
(8,994 posts)RegieRocker
(4,226 posts)La La Land.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)sexual revolution. Years ago when Gingrich said we must destroy liberalism not one took him seriously but his fellow right wingers. Of course they didn't have the balls to do it in the open. But liberalism isn't dead yet. You see the white older population is dying off. They will not have anyone to support the republican party. People that are younger are more tolerant and liberal in their thinking. Many of the don't hate government. So in the long run republicans are going to loose.
DesertFlower
(11,649 posts)i'm almost 71 and was part of those protests and the sexual revolution.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)he also supported the protestors rights.
madokie
(51,076 posts)I was one that seen what we were doing was wrong first hand and didn't for one second like what I seen so soon as I got home the hair came out and the attitude was on. If not for the Protesters here America wouldn't have left Vietnam until it was one glob of glass. Looking back it was getting more atrocious as time went on as it became more obvious that the people weren't going to just lay down and let us take over.
RKP5637
(67,107 posts)still here. Many of the young ones back then grew up to replace them. I sure do hope they become extinct.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)mind. The protestors weren't bad people. They helped stop the VN war (although I heard people were spit on but never seen it because I worked on a base at the time and I am sure I would have heard about it). If it did happen it never should have. I respected the troops. They were sent and had no choice. These people couldn't get deferments. Also the african american community were able to progressive along with womens rights. So not all was bad. Some grew up into their parents. That is sad.
RKP5637
(67,107 posts)Last edited Thu Jun 21, 2012, 08:59 AM - Edit history (1)
the others back then that did nothing and thought those of us protesting were just wastes. I know some of them still now, and they are RW teabaggers today. Yep, they grew up into their parents.
And I think there are a lot of younger people today that will grow up RW as anything.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)carried a sign for the war in VN. What a hypocrite.
madokie
(51,076 posts)it was the attitude that they are referring to not the actual act of spitting. I read that 1/4 of our homeless today are Vietnam Vets for an example. That should never have been allowed.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)upaloopa
(11,417 posts)have control of their lives but they think they do.
Fear that they will become the minority and will get the same treatment they now give minorities.
The conservative old white male is a minority but they don't understand that.
Fear that the authority system that they depend on will go away. "Who's in charge?"
Fear that they will have to think for themselves and understand that they have been wrong all along.
maryellen99
(3,788 posts)Do they really believe that by electing romney that everything will magically go back to the way it was?
Canuckistanian
(42,290 posts)Bingo
Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)to take what they have and kill their children. I'm serious! It's the fear of the other. That's what Rush Limbaugh has been all about. The "New Black Panther Party," ACORN, Shirly Sherrod, Van Jones, and now Eric "coming to take our guns" Holder...that's what they are afraid of. Every one of the people that the Republicans/Teabaggers have gone after are black, whether it be Maxine Waters, John Conyers, and Charlie Rangel in the Congress or Van Jones, even the First Lady. This is about race and their fear of becoming the minority in this country. And they scare their minions who then become obsessed with guns and "Stand Your Ground" laws.
lindysalsagal
(20,680 posts)Guilt makes people hate and fear and lie.
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)And don't think that people of color aren't seeing the way that they're treating both the President and the AG as Bull Connor would treat civil rights marchers on the road to Birmingham.
They're treating these black men in ways that a president and an attorney general have never been treated before.
RKP5637
(67,107 posts)and backward. I thought we were moving forward, sometimes I wonder. As some have said, one step forward, two backward and then maybe three forward, well something like that.
Laurian
(2,593 posts)There may have been some strong disagreements before he arrived in Washington, but he and his Contract For America crowd took the hatefulness to a whole new level and it has continued to escalate since then.
YoungDemCA
(5,714 posts)..but yes, they were a mere foreshadowing of the Gingrich types.
RKP5637
(67,107 posts)and reinforced each other and enough Americans were ignorant enough to play right into their hands.
JHB
(37,159 posts)They strapped rocket boosters onto what had come before them in order to advance their careers and agendas. And once they rose to the top, all constraints on them were off, and the imitators rose exponentially.
elleng
(130,895 posts)and it includes groups of fearful individuals, taught to be fearful, and taught to hate.
There are also many whose liveliehood is based on THEIR power, as in, McConnell, Boner, Cantor, Rover, etc, and also those who 'win' by manipulating rules and regulations in the favor of their businesses. This last is the killer of our economy, lack of regulation kills capitalism.
Stinky The Clown
(67,798 posts)They would do better to make peace with their red, yellow, brown, and black brothers and sisters. Their hatred will consume them.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)you beat me to this point.
More minority births than white births this year in this country.
They are losing ground on all fronts. Failed to win the culture wars, too.
OKNancy
(41,832 posts)Liberals and liberal thought always wins in the end... we are just arguing about how fast.
I think that is the root of their anger. We usually do win in the end.
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)lindysalsagal
(20,680 posts)Ive been dating a wonderful 53 year old man (Im 51) for a year and a half. Hes really opening up to me about his messed-up childhood. There was an institutionalized parent and some time in an orphanage. Anyway, when his mother died young, he suddenly (big shocker here) felt her bestow on him her catholic faith, and hes been going to church and believing every word of the stuff ever since.
I mean, he doesnt just see the good parts, he even thinks the bad parts were good: Slavery, stonings, gods wrath on people, judgement, punishment, the whole ugly side. He thinks the pedophilia isnt any worse than in any other population
.Basically, hes turned a blind eye to everything in the catholic church that requires any critical thinking. He actually told me that kids with autism or other debilitating conditions are part of the big plan. Theres a reason for everything. Sorry, but I dont think those parents did something to warrant the need to incapacitate their kid for life. Autism is an ooops. I dont know if its science or environmental, but its an oops, and it wasnt anyones plan. If there is an omnipotent all-loving god with the power to make every tiny decision, the prince of peace, no such god would choose to incapacitate a child with autism.
He clings to it all, including the rw hate media because they tell him hes right, and those libruls are heathens, and mom and dad and god like him best. His faith puts him ahead in line . Its his magic get out of misery card. No matter how miserable his life was, his parents are waiting for him in heaven, and this time, theyll really love him and hell be able to depend on them. Plus, its the greatest consolation prize, ever: Eternal happiness in heaven with god, etc, etc.
Hes sold his soul and his critical thinking skills to the devil I mean god. No amount of reality is going to mar his made-up world where he is healed and comes out ahead. He knows I dont buy into any of it, but he holds on, anyway. He just cant go on living with so much loss. He chooses the hate and anger and fear because it seems normal to him: Like his childhood. All that hostility assures him that he's still here, which is better than where he felt he was as a lost child.
YoungDemCA
(5,714 posts)Yes, a lot of people with these kinds of hateful views have had trauma (often early in life). But that doesn't explain it all, for many progressive-minded people have often had trauma in their lives.
It's how you cope with the trauma and the type of people and communities you are supported by (or not...) that make the difference, IMO.
lindysalsagal
(20,680 posts)And then there's Dick Cheney....
hatrack
(59,584 posts)Essentially, conservatives - in particular movement know-nothing tea-bag conservatives - are people with Daddy problems.
Daddy was a fuck-up, Daddy was a drunk, Daddy was abusive, Daddy wasn't there.
Whatever the foundational trauma, lots of these people spend their whole lives looking for the Synthetic Perfect Daddy who'll take them back to the way things were supposed to be (but never actually were, even during the "good" times).
Could be God, could be the president, could be (oh pleasepleaseplease) a Godly President like Little Boots.
Lots of infantile longing, wishful thinking, inability to close the book on the past, inability to come to terms with the present.
raccoon
(31,110 posts)imagine.
"Daddy was a fuck-up, Daddy was a drunk, Daddy was abusive, Daddy wasn't there."
lindysalsagal
(20,680 posts)take on the identity offered by Faux "News" and Hannity and Limppaw. The fact that it's an angry, resentful identity is their favorite part, and it blinds them to the harm their policies do to themselves and those they "love."
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)Because first you call him a "wonderful man" and then you say he has no critical thinking skills and that he is full of hate.
Which is kind of an odd way to describe a "wonderful man."
My question to the OP though would be "why are liberals so full of hate?"
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Despite the trappings of civilization, we are still deeply tribal at our core. At a deep level, we find change deeply frightening. We mock tribal societies for being terrified of change, but we behave the same way.
lindysalsagal
(20,680 posts)sky and water gods who play with us down here on earth like rag dolls...
oh, wait....
http://mediamatters.org/research/200509130004
clang1
(884 posts)Ignorance, stupidity, lack of education (cultural and academic), massive doses of misinformation and disinformation and so on
tabasco
(22,974 posts)Everyone knows there are too many humans and everyone is in competition.
The plutocracy's constant demand for "growth" is destroying our world.
GeorgeGist
(25,320 posts)Sociopathy for their leaders.
Hotler
(11,420 posts)RKP5637
(67,107 posts)Ghost of Huey Long
(322 posts)Why are we letting people with no manners, who were never properly disciplined...reign over our country like the school yard bully?
We have established that 1%ers are clinical sociopaths, at what point to we remove them from power and have them committed?
If we don't stand up to these hateful bullies they will continue.
I think what is happening is that we know how awful they are, we see who they are...but it is the silence of our friends that is deafening.
If all the people that know about what is going on, who care about this country and humanity itself...would support each other and stand up together, we could fight this terrible beast. But everyone is too afraid. Even on this board, even after all the stolen elections, people are afraid to even say they question our election process. No one wants to be a conspiracy theorist. No one wants to make that angry uncle mad. No one wants to step on any toes at work. And when you do try and are met with that inevitable brick wall, no one knows what to do about the denial.
But we must do something, and we have to do it together. Occupy was great, but it did not go to where the focus is needed...corrupt corporate media is controlling reality in this country, manufacturing consent for fascism. WE must confront the TV stations, demand they use our public airwaves to serve the public interest, or occupy the FCC and demand they lose their license. At the very least it would raise awareness that people are NOT happy with the corporate media and that they should not be considered a qualified news source.
The Doctor.
(17,266 posts)It all comes from an archaic response to 'different' which was great 100,000 years ago when being afraid of everything was useful.
Now, notsomuch.
But instead of realizing they're afraid of everything, including the appearance of being afraid, they transmute fear to anger... fight or flight don't ya know.
RKP5637
(67,107 posts)And just as what is inherited affects what is conditioned, what is conditioned also affects what is inherited.
RKP5637
(67,107 posts)YoungDemCA
(5,714 posts)Which the rational part of the brain then rationalizes the absolutist fear, anger, and reactionary attitudes as strength and confidence. But it's a false confidence.
The Doctor.
(17,266 posts)There is a reason we see more braggadoccio on the right.
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)Carter was a wimp who refused to give into the Iranian hostage takers demands. Reagan got the hostages released because the Iranians were that afraid of him. The fact that he also gave in to all their demands is just coincidence.
Acting tough has always been more important to them than actually being tough. I have never understood that.
WiffenPoof
(2,404 posts)Republicans all share one trait that is the hallmark of their existence....FEAR.
-P
Initech
(100,068 posts)lindysalsagal
(20,680 posts)Thanks, I needed that.
SmileyRose
(4,854 posts)That is all.
they'll come up with whatever reason is easiest but hater gonna hate.
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)Shagman
(135 posts)I heard about a book but can't find it now. Titled "Death Denial" or something like that, it explains conservative thought as a constellation of fears anchored by the biggest one of all, fear of dying. (Could be this: Monbiot post.) We now know that conservatism is inherited, or at least genetic, because they have large amygdalas.
Fear of death ties into religion, because they all promise some kind of afterlife. You connect another fear to that one, and your message is reinforced by unquestioned dogma. Those boil down to fear of the unknown: other people, other cultures, other ideas. The scaffolding keeps getting bigger and shakier. It doesn't fall because it all goes back to death.To admit one thing is wrong is to admit it's all wrong. This is why politics and religion should never mix.
You can't appeal directly to fear, of course. It comes across as hatred. They make decisions based on emotion, not reason, so they never develop the ability to reflect on their own motivations. They aren't honest with themselves, so they tolerate people who aren't honest with them, as long as the lies reinforce their worldview. Denial becomes a way of life.
I don't think it's possible to make progress by educating them individually. You have to disrupt the infrastructure that spreads the lies, because they make sure everyone is hearing the same lies.
Ghost of Huey Long
(322 posts)The corporate media who is raking in record amounts to lie this election season.
Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)on the successful Southern Strategy since LBJ, pitting poor whites against blacks. Even now, there are a good number of middle class whites who are convinced that the Democratic Party is taking something away from them and giving it to "the less deserving and lazy" blacks and Hispanics. That's why Democrats now have a difficult time winning a majority of the white vote.
jillan
(39,451 posts)they are closed minded and will not listen to anything that is different from what they believe.
It is much easier to belittle someone than to try and see things from a different point of view.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)whether it be black and brown folks who dare to demand equality, poor people who are being screwed by the system and demand justice, uppity wimmens who think their health care is a Big Deal (which it is), scary Mooslins, atheists, LGBT people who dare to demand equality and won't go back into the closet, liberals and anyone else who isn't a bible-banging, gun totin' straight white male.
Few things allow fear to morph into hate than the 24/7 propaganda financed by the 1% who know that they would be hanging from lightpoles if the masses ever got their act together. Divide and conquer is as old as humankind and today's reichwingers have perfected it.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)They want to fundamentally undermine Medicare (and Social Security and other social safety net programs) so that once people notice they're gone and they're starting to hurt, it won't be as easy to revive, particularly since they'll make sure that the money gets pumped into other venues- tax cuts for the wealthy that will be untouchable and defense spending so that they can suck us into more military conflicts that are difficult to extricate ourselves from. I mean, it took us 8 years to get in and out of Iraq and we've been in Afghanistan for almost 11 years now and will have been there for 13 years by the time we finally pull out of there. If the RW has their way, we will probably get involved with Iran for several years as well. The right-wing vision of this country is very dark indeed.
McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)insecurities. Those who truly love themselves, love other people. Those who hate other people do so because they have been taught to hate themselves. So, for instance, if you run a big religion that likes to authorize witch hunts and inquisitions, you sexually abuse children, tell them that they are to blame for their own misery, make them wretched self haters---and then turn them lose to hate the rest of the world.
VOX
(22,976 posts)Incessant fear and anger on multiple media outlets. Billionaires and their RW water-carriers deliberately and shrewdly stock the courts with their pal judges, they craft the language and frame the issues. Billionaires really don't care about abortion, or gun control, or "death panels," or gay marriage, etc. BUT their duplicitousness informs their strategy to keep the susceptible, poorly informed public focused rightward on these hot-button items... Meanwhile, the store is being looted six ways from Sunday.
At the same time, global populations are shifting and migrating. There is a reactionary backlash taking place in Europe as well. Whites sense this power-shift, and are throwing everything, especially blind hatred and intolerance, at what is perceived as some sort of righteous final battle. Unfortunately, the truly weird behaviors are just getting underway.
MrSlayer
(22,143 posts)Them. I'm tired of being angry all the time. I'm tired of hating so hard all the time because of the shit they're doing or not doing as the case may be. I'm tired of being out of work because of them. I'm tired of being tired.
Ghost of Huey Long
(322 posts)I think that tells us who they have been listening to and who they are purposefully or inadvertently working for.
clang1
(884 posts)RobinA
(9,888 posts)Not long ago I was at the same family gathering as a friend of the family. This friend is recently retired, quite comfortably, from an approximately $200,000 a year job in a private industry that is highly government subdidized. He had a good career that he liked. He does not have to worry about his future from a financial standpoint. He has enough money to do what he wants, but is not extravagant considering his income. He's always been extremely right-wing and getting more so. At said dinner, he went on and on about the government workers (that would be me) and their many vacations and super benefits and how we are ruining the country. I hold a Masters Degree and make $40,000+ a year. Yes, I have good health insurance. I just spent three years with one week vacation each.
I had to ask myself, Why would a guy in his position resent a person in my position so much? I certainly don't resent people who make a quarter of my salary. I didn't argue with him, because I thought it would be a waste of breath. But what gives? I'm still trying to figure it out.
polichick
(37,152 posts)...as they know it.
ailsagirl
(22,896 posts)is that this hate group (repug congress) has no problem whatsover in putting party first, no matter how many good, decent people they ruin in the process. They're steeped in hatred. Didn't they take an oath to uphold the law and make decisions with their constituents' best interests in mind? Ironic, isn't it? The good news is that their approval ratings can't get much lower. Have they forgotten the life rule that they simply cannot do what they're doing with impunity ("Pride goeth before a fall" ?? They're like suicide bombers in that they would gladly destroy their own political careers if it means destroying Obama. This mindset is WAY over the top, beyond anything we've ever seen and certainly beyond my comprehension.