Why Do Conservatives Love Cowboy Culture?

[Initech]

I've often wondered this. Conservatives have this unhealthy list for being a cowboy like nothing else. They seem to think that if a white male conservative wears a cowboy hat and blares country music, that it's somehow the greatest thing since sliced bread. I mean shit, their favorite professional football team is called The Cowboys!

Is that why they have such an unwavering desire to take us back to those times? Got to tell you, from everything I've ever seen and read, those times weren't that great.

[Xipe Totec]

1. Brokeback Mountain Fantasies? nt

[UTUSN]

2. Lawlessness, "rugged individualism," stealing then cloaking with respectability...

[Achilleaze]

48. Reality Check: the life of a real Latter Day Cowboy

is minimum-wage slavery in service at a stinking, reeking corporate CAFO (confined animal feeding operation), moving cows and shit around.

republicans (and their russian BFFs) have their twisted, weenie fantasy of being FAKE cowboys, so they can pair their fantasies with the FAKE news they use in their ongoing War on Decency & Democracy.

[CrispyQ]

64. Those poor animals. How inhumane.

I used to drive by a small time CAFO & in the summer it would gag you.

[calimary]

78. Hurts even to think about it.

[womanofthehills]

90. A good reason to only eat grass fed beef

and not contribute to this horror

[CrispyQ]

65. This.

A time & place where (mostly) white men could behave how they wanted & not be held accountable for it. Tragically, a lot of men think that this is what masculinity is all about. I'm always amazed at men who can't exercise any self-control, & yet they think they are superior to others. You could almost laugh, if their world view wasn't so harmful to the rest of us.

[Corvo Bianco]

77. +1!

[Nac Mac Feegle]

94. Actually, they were only about 50% white

A LOT of former slaves went West to get away from the South.

Their ideas of The Old West are from movies.

You know the accuracy of movies, don't you?

[Blue_true]

3. Gives them the mental allusion of toughness.

They have no idea how poverty stricken and desperate most cowboys were.

[Ilsa]

7. And how cruel and criminal many were. nt

[Blue_true]

9. That too. nt

[The Wielding Truth]

33. Yes, they need an identity. They need to have an image, a model. Shame that being themselves

is not enough.

[Jim Beard]

35. They also have no idea that the largest percentage of cowboys were Mexican.

[Dem2]

92. Pretty much

They just pretend they are the cowboy movie version

[Coventina]

4. Same romantic fetish as with the ancient Greeks

Individual, heroic warriors, out to defend logic and reason against the lawless barbarians be they American Indians or Persians.

[LakeArenal]

5. When men were men and women were women.

[Ken Burch]

20. Or, in parts of the West, "when men were men and the sheep were nervous".

[TexasProgresive]

6. Most real cowboys were African Americans and Mexicans.

TV and movie Westerns are romanized bullshit.

[Ken Burch]

29. African Americans, Mexicans and Native Americans.

That's right...a lot the cowboys were Indians.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

63. And gay

https://truewestmagazine.com/homos-on-the-range/

[Ken Burch]

71. In other words, BLAZING SADDLES was much more historically accurate than anyone realized.

n/t.

[JDC]

8. Guns. Pure and simple

[Aristus]

10. It's the guns and the illusion of toughness and rugged individualism.

The truth is, cowboys were employees of cattle barons, working very long, hard, dirty hours for very little money.


As far as I know, cowboys (who still exist to this day) have never formed a union to advocate for shorter hours, safer working conditions, and better pay.

The anti-union right must love that...

[Grassy Knoll]

11. No Real Regulation On Anything...

..Shootin
..Pollutiin
..Prostitutin
..Lyin
..Fact Checkin
..Starvin
..Out House'n

[yuiyoshida]

50. Here it is...

[NCDem777]

12. Because schools teach about cowboys/pioneers

in almost reverent tones

They teach about all the success stories but nary a word about the... Unsavory realities of those times.

[Blue_true]

38. Appropriate observation given that Thanksgiving is upon us.

Acts of great decency by an American Indian tribe was awarded with savagery once the vast wealth in the new land was seen and the desire to exploit overcame gratitude. We were not taught that in our history books because being taught that may cause us to wake each day looking into the cold reality of what human beings fundamentally are. So we add to the deception by ignoring the gross inhumanity of the Trail of Tears, Seminoles in Florida being traded shit land for good land then being slaughtered when they demanded a fairer deal, or human beings being enslaved for pure personal gain with their basic humanity being questioned to justify their enslavement. Thinking about all that stuff at the Thanksgiving dinner table will result in turkey, mashed potatoes, creamed peas and pumpkin pie being puked all over the nice placesettings. It is just easier for many to live in some fabricated world where many yesterdays were so much better than today.

[maxrandb]

13. I think it's the crotchless chaps

[fleur-de-lisa]

84. LOL! You win!

[JHB]

14. Because they like familiar imagery over reality, and "familiar imagery" amounts to...

1950s and 60s cowboy movies.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

17. And here is the reality:

[Grassy Knoll]

25. My Eyes... Camel Wayne!!!!

[Skittles]

31. ...

[Hassin Bin Sober]

32. Killing me. Lol.

[Skittles]

79. I stole it from another DUer

it made me crack up big time

[hatrack]

26. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! AAAAAAHHH!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

.

[Skittles]

28. that is some major moose knuckle right there

[yuiyoshida]

51. roflamao!

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

62. Miss Wayne

Originally from David Gerrold: https://www.facebook.com/david.gerrold/posts/10212927745120729

Reposted from another thread:

The worst loudmouth can spoil a movie forever.

Back in the kerosene era of movies, I had been hearing so much about Midnight Cowboy, I finally decided one night to go see it. This was when theaters changed to new releases on Wednesdays.

Checking the newspaper, Midnight Cowboy was playing at only one theater in Los Angeles, a third-run theater on Hollywood Blvd. The Vogue, I think.

I got into the last screening of the film. The theater was mostly empty. About two or three rows behind me were three (obviously) gay guys. (No problem with that, but it informs what happened next.)

Halfway through the picture, Dustin Hoffman looks at John Voight in his cowboy drag and says in a very nasal tone, "That cowboy stuff is for faggots."

John Voight, in one of his landmark performances, stammers out, "J-John Wayne. You gonna tell me that J-John Wayne is a faggot."

And from two rows behind comes this very loud, very nelly voice. "Oh, my dear. Everybody knows about Miss Wayne."

Everybody in the theater heard it. Everybody — there weren't many, but everybody — laughed.

I lost my concentration too.

And I've never been able to watch Midnight Cowboy since.

[Sneederbunk]

15. Zinke likey to ridey horsey.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

16. Simple: alludes to the suppression of Native Americans.

[angrychair]

18. Romance novel historical revisionism bullshit

Most cowboys were either Mexican or Black or in some cases even Chinese immigrants.

Chaps, cowboy hats and so many other things were from these very people, not some romanized Cigarette ad spokesmen.

[Grassy Knoll]

19. Cowboys Are Losing 29 to 9 Against The Eagles

Opps Prescott Fumble... TD Eagles 37 To 9

[Initech]

21. Ha! Love it!!

[blogslut]

22. They don't.

They love ranchers.

[quickesst]

23. there is at least one thing...

.... y'all got over all those cowboys. They don't have anything on you when it comes to broad blankets. Just ask cowboy country western singer and liberal supporter of Democrats, Tim McGraw.

[hatrack]

27. The exception that proves the rule . . .

.

[quickesst]

34. Sure...

.... If you don't count most of the 40 million fans who have bought his albums, well, unless you believe he's a closet liberal and "they" just didn't know it.

[Snackshack]

24. Unfortunately

The “Cowboy” has been mythologized to be a tough, rugged, chivalrous, fair individual. There were some (Bass Reeves, Seth Bullock for example, both US Marshals) but many were nothing near that. I think most people have more of an affinity to the era as opposed to the character. There were very little regulations on anything, guns were everywhere and justice (when it happened) was dealt swiftly. Conservatives are advocates of all 3 of those ideals. I doubt many conservatives would last long if they suddenly found themselves in that type of environment.

[ProudLib72]

30. Do they even know what cowboys did (do) for work?

Conservatives have shoveling the bullshit down to a science. Riding horses, on the other hand...

[RainCaster]

36. It's all about the guns

What else could it be?

[Buns_of_Fire]

40. The reality wouldn't please them at all...

...this is all based on a widely shared misunderstanding of the Wild West. Frontier towns -- places like Tombstone, Deadwood, and Dodge -- actually had the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation.

In fact, many of those same cities have far less burdensome gun control today then they did back in the 1800s.

Guns were obviously widespread on the frontier. Out in the untamed wilderness, you needed a gun to be safe from bandits, natives, and wildlife. In the cities and towns of the West, however, the law often prohibited people from toting their guns around. A visitor arriving in Wichita, Kansas in 1873, the heart of the Wild West era, would have seen signs declaring, "Leave Your Revolvers At Police Headquarters, and Get a Check."

A check? That's right. When you entered a frontier town, you were legally required to leave your guns at the stables on the outskirts of town or drop them off with the sheriff, who would give you a token in exchange. You checked your guns then like you'd check your overcoat today at a Boston restaurant in winter. Visitors were welcome, but their guns were not.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/7/23/1112703/-De-mythologizing-the-Wild-West-gun-laws-were-actually-stricter-then-than-now

[hexola]

44. Yep...Gunzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Rootin' Tootin' and Totin'

Bring back the duel!

[quickesst]

37. Yeah....

Just who do those "white male conservatives" think they are?

https://www.pinterest.com/blackcowboys/black-cowboys-cowgirls-of-today/

Cory Soloman/ World Class Roper


You forgot to mention those white female conservatives btoo.


And what's up with this dang country music?
https://m.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

72. Where would DU be without posts stereotyping people?

'Cowgirls of Color' break barriers to compete in typically white, male rodeo

[quickesst]

82. Easy subject to stereotype ....

... with a like-minded, ready-made audience.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

83. I'm lucky they can't see the Nocona boots I'm wearing. Then I would be in trouble.

I wear them because I like them. No one can legitimately read anything into it more than that.

Thanks for the post.

[quickesst]

85. Nocona

[mahatmakanejeeves]

86. These are Nocona Noconas, too, as in "made in Nocona."

They have the white label on the pull strap. I wear these more than any other pair. I keep them in my cubicle. I put them or another pair on when I get to work.

Boy, I keep digging myself into a hole in this thread.

See ya.

[quickesst]

87. More like....

.... Shooting holes in this thread. Pun intended.
Later gator

[safeinOhio]

39. Cowboy, you better change your ways....

[MiltonBrown]

61. Agree

Well said.

[get the red out]

42. Kind of funny

The Wild West wasn't exactly a culture of "family values". Sell the cattle, get drunk and go to the whore house, rinse repeat.

[pansypoo53219]

43. all those bootstraps.

[goldwax317]

45. Cowboy hats are like hemorroids.

Every asshole gets one eventually.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

75. I wore a cowboy hat to work this morning. I'm going to wear it home tonight.

Last edited Tue Nov 21, 2017, 10:32 AM - Edit history (3)

I'll wear it to work tomorrow.

I'll wear it to work Wednesday.

I won't wear it to work Thursday, as I have the day off. When I leave the house, however, I'll have it on.

Friday, I'll be back to the same old grind, complete with cowboy hat.

Maybe cowboy hats are like Jackson Pollack. Some people get it, and some people don't.

I had this job about twenty-four years ago out west. It was the first time I had actually seen people wearing cowboy hats. Not just on TV or in the movies, but right there in person. They looked terrific. I decided to get one.

It took me twenty-three years, but I finally found a hat I liked. I now own several.

As for that job? The higher-ups were evangelicals. I didn't pass muster with them, and I was fired. As I was headed out the door for the last time, I was handed a bible tract. It was Jack Chick's "The Sissy." I am gay, so I should have seen that coming. I like Jack Chick, by the way. I think he's a great cartoonist.

This weekend, I sent a contribution to the Doug Jones campaign. I'm not going to let Roy Moore tell me how to live. I am especially not going to let Roy Moore keep me from wearing a cowboy hat. He doesn't own the concept of wearing cowboy hats. I get to wear them if I want.

I wear a cowboy hat, because I like wearing cowboy hats. Wearing one doesn't make me something I'm not. All it means is that I'm wearing a cowboy hat. You are free to make assumptions. You are also free to be wrong in your assumptions.

I'm not being snarky; I'm just being truthful.

In honesty, some people look better in cowboy hats than others. Chandler Bownds, for example. What's not to like?



Okay, I'm not at that point.

Every day I wear a cowboy hat, someone sees it and smiles. Maybe he or she is laughing at me, or maybe he or she thinks it's cool. On the Metrorail, anything that puts people in a better mood and gets them to smile is a good thing.

Welcome to DU.

[B2G]

95. Love it.

[Soxfan58]

46. The richest guy

Always controlled the town. With his two asshole sons

[doc03]

52. Excepten the Cartwrites there were three squeaky clean, honorable

and honest sons. Somehow every time anyone visited the Pondarosa or one of the Cartwrites got a girlfriend they ended up dead.

[Initech]

58. Ah, sounds like now!

[no_hypocrisy]

47. No Bill of Rights to get in the way of "justice".

You catch'em and then hang'em. Or just shoot them on the streets.

[KG]

49. gunz.

[vlyons]

53. Have you ever flown across the US and seen how much rural land there is?

I live in a v ery rural part of east Texas. My neighbors are cattlemen. They ride horses to round up cattle. They have Trump and Ted Cruz signs up on their property.

[HAB911]

54. Simplemindedness

[samnsara]

55. they like them big ol pick up trucks..

[Kleveland]

56. Slapping leather...

And that saddle between their legs no doubt.

Wasn't one of the Village People a cowboy?

Hey, I am for freedom of choice without persecution... just saying.

[TexasBushwhacker]

68. Village People had a cowboy and a Native American n/t

[beachbum bob]

57. feeds on their false narrative of american history and when people "knew their place"

[JCMach1]

59. All hat, no cattle

[MiltonBrown]

60. Cowboy stuff is cool.

Nudie suits with 2 million sequins, Elvis in his red and white cowboy get-up, Gene Autry 'Back in the Saddle Again', Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.

Some people like all that stuff and I'm one of them. Will Rogers was a cowboy. Conservatives don't have a monopoly on liking Westerns stuff.

[DonCoquixote]

66. to paraphrase a greta Texan, Molly Ivins

"most of these guys are "all hat and no cattle" meaning they want to wear a big hat that makes them look the part, but anyone who worked as a cowboy would know these guys would useless or worse on the range. It also helps that so many of them have no idea how poor they would be if their daddy did not support them (like the current POS in chief)

[Dirty Socialist]

67. I met a real cowboy

In Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He said real Cowboys vote Democratic. Ranchers vote Republican.

[hunter]

69. My family is Wild West and matriarchal.

My last immigrant ancestor was a mail-order bride to Salt Lake City. She didn't like sharing a husband so she ran off with a monogamous guy and they established a ranching homestead that's still a long ways from the nearest WalMart. My mom's cousin still owns the ranch.

Other ancestors of mine were the sort who jumped off the boats in San Francisco and hit the ground running. They weren't especially seeking any golden opportunity here, they were escaping worse shit.

None of my ancestors spent any time in East Coast or Civil War U.S.A.. Many were cowboy religious pacifists and dissidents.

The cowboy traditions in our family continue. By the time they are ten years old the girls in my family will be bossing horses about. It always strikes me incongruous that a giant animal can be told where to go by a little kid. By the time they are sixteen they'll be taking on horses that make grown men nervous. I've got three nieces whose childhood bedrooms were filled with ribbons and trophies for horsemanship. All the girls in my family are fierce athletes. In my generation they started graduating from college too.

The woman in our family tend to be the hunting-fishing knives-and-shooting sorts, and their men dreamers. My dad learned hunting and fishing from his grandma. Fools and their guns are soon parted. Most men are considered fools.

One of my great grandmas, a rancher, was still complaining about rural electrification when I was a kid. My great grandfather had been an enthusiastic supporter of rural electrification, mostly because it made his radio habit a whole lot easier. He later had some supplemental income as a lineman, both telephone and power, especially in the winter snow and ice. But I remember my great grandma arguing with my mom's cousin when he decided to buy a Sears well pump for the big house so his wife could have running water in the kitchen. My great grandma thought such extravagance would ruin the family. My great grandma lived in the small, older house with no indoor plumbing. She was deeply suspicious of the two forty watt electric light bulbs and the damned radio she had never forgiven her husband for. As kids we were not allowed to touch the light switches or the radio.

My wife's Wild West traditions are even deeper, since she has Native American ancestors, Southwest U.S.A. and Northern Mexico. Her family also has strongly matriarchal traditions.

My wife's grandma's family had been forced into Mexico by the U.S. Army. My wife's grandma later brought her Mexican husband back into the U.S.A. and they were farm workers. My wife's dad was born in a tent camp near a small farm my parents once owned.

That rural place is long gone. It's all been turned into million dollar mini-ranches where affluent white guys driving expensive cars can pretend to be cowboys. They're not all that different than the pickup truck driving WalMart gun shooting talk radio cowboy hicks of the modern Wild West. That New York city slicker Donald Trump sure pulled one over on them.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

81. Thanks for the post.

If we keep throwing away people for not driving hybrids or listening to NPR, we're going to keep losing elections.

[GulfCoast66]

93. Bingo!

I guess the person started this stereotyping thread the would automatically scorn me as a republican. Once I got out of my pick up playing country music wearing my boots and hat if the weather called for it.

Heaven help them if they saw me returning from hunting wearing camo and hunters orange! They would flee in fear!

And I love NPR

[smirkymonkey]

70. My republican relatives listen to country music and they are so not "country" type people.

I almost think it's a requirement to be a republican. I personally can't stand it. I have to ask them to play something else when I visit them because it drives me insane.

[brooklynite]

73. It's the epitome of complete individual freedom...

...there was virtually no Government other than the town sheriff, and even then it was seen as okay to take the law into your hands with your own gun.

[anneboleyn]

74. Also, outlaws like Jesse James were ex-confederate soldiers. That is DEFINITELY part of what they

are idealizing. I adore horses and was around them for years. 99% of the idiots who love "cowboys" have never been within twenty miles of a horse (and would be terrified of the beautiful creatures up close). They are idealizing the fantasy of guns and anti-gov attitude of the outlaw culture embodied by the Jesse James criminal fringe. James was an extremely bitter, anti-gov former confederate soldier. Funny how some things never change...

[Corvo Bianco]

76. In the case of my pa, his pa was an asshole cowboy. The only person in a household of 8 who got

respect was that asshole cowboy. His mom had better always please that asshole cowboy. Then one day, the boys grow up big enough to be the asshole cowboys of the house. And then they get "respect" (right to abuse people) too.

Merica.

[Drahthaardogs]

80. I grew up ranching

These fuckers are a joke like our former"windshield cowboy" president who had exactly zero head of cattle.


They are morons. What else is there?

[miyazaki]

88. Cowboys do it better.

Ask any cow.

[GulfCoast66]

89. Well god dammit. So to be a proper liberal now...

I have to sell my boots, hat, deer rifle and delete the hundreds of country songs on my iPhone? What next, sell my pick up truck and start wearing $100 jeans rather than my $25 wranglers which actually fit me and the wife rather likes?

Next you will have me throw out all the wild hog meat and venison in my freezer and become a vegan.

On an unrelated subject; anyone have a guess on why we now lose all of rural America, even the parts that do not have racist pasts?

[womanofthehills]

91. I live in rural NM ranching country and all the retirees

moving here from both coasts love the cowboy attire. You gotta love all the people here with NY accents in their cowboy boots, hats and belts. I even got me some cowgirl boots, mainly because I do not want to get bitten again by a rattler.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

96. Can rodeo be safer and still be rodeo?

OPINION

Can rodeo be safer – and still be rodeo?

PETER SHAWN TAYLOR
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
NOVEMBER 18, 2017

....
Thirty years ago, I dabbled in bareback bronc riding while working on a ranch near Cody, Wyo. It was an exciting and exotic pursuit for a young university graduate from Ontario. Bull riding, however, made far less sense to this economics major. When a horse bucks you off, it's happy enough to trot away for a good feed. When bulls throw their riders, however, they're not so quick to head for the exit. A bull will often circle around to make sure that bothersome pest never gets on its back again. Such malicious intent, and the vast difference in size, explain the outsized risks faced by bull riders.

All this was bunkhouse lore long before medical science proved it so. Nonetheless, among the other wranglers on the ranch all those years ago, bull riding was widely preferred over broncs. Trying to stay on a 1,600-pound beast intent on doing you physical harm was simply the toughest thing anyone could think of doing. Rodeo, and bull riding in particular, is popular and culturally significant in many parts of Canada largely because it represents the ultimate test of gall and guts. The skill on display is a willingness to face the threat of injury or death without complaint. Few human activities are so focused on the danger inherent to the act, and with such dramatically poor odds.

The neurological trauma and related impacts experienced by rodeo stars such as Mr. Pozzobon have clear parallels in other male-dominated warrior pursuits. Yet professional sports boast an obvious camaraderie of support, as well as a central organizing structure that can impose change when necessary. In 1905, for example, 18 U.S. football players died on the playing field due to the brutal nature of the sport at the time. Vast public outrage led to dramatic rule changes, including the invention of the forward pass, which quieted critics ? for a century, at least. The same sense of shared responsibility holds true in military service as well. The Navy Seal's motto of "two is one and one is none" speaks to the collective nature of individual safety in an intrinsically deadly occupation.

Such collectivism doesn't hold for cowboys. Independence and solitude have always been central to cowboy mythology, and that remains the case today in rodeo. There are no teams of rough stock rodeo riders and no one to tell them what to do. They remain private contractors who pick their own schedules and make their own decisions on whether they're fit to ride. ... The taciturn figure beloved of western movies who lives by a code of his own choosing, clears the town of villains and rides off alone into sunset thus has its real-life analogue in the battered but determined bull rider rosining up for another go-round. Deliberately putting oneself in harm's way is part of this time-honoured tradition. So is a cool sense of detachment. Safer rodeo, if such a thing is possible, will require a dramatic break in the cowboy customs of individuality, freedom and looking danger straight in the bull's eye. Otherwise, it could be heading for its final sunset.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

97. Dorothy Dandridge performs Cow-Cow Boogie

Cow-Cow Boogie

"Cow Cow Boogie (Cuma-Ti-Yi-Yi-Ay)" is a "country-boogie"-style blues song utilizing the folklore of the singing cowboy in the American West. In the lyrics, the cowboy is from the city and tells his "dogies" (motherless calves) to "get hip." The music was written by Don Raye, and lyrics were written by Benny Carter and Gene De Paul. The song was written for the 1942 Abbott & Costello film Ride 'Em Cowboy, which included Ella Fitzgerald as a cast member. The first recording was by Freddie Slack & his Orchestra, featuring vocalist Ella Mae Morse in 1942. The record was the second release by Capitol Records and their first million-seller/ number one on the charts record. Morse learned the song from hearing Fitzgerald on a soundtrack she had acquired, even though the song had been cut from the movie. Morse also recalled recording the song in a single take, which she had thought was only a rehearsal. The 1944 collaboration between The Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald resulted in a number-one hit on the Harlem Hit Parade and a number-10 hit on the pop chart.