In A Word: Conservative - A very brief look at the aims and how followers achieve their goals.
Gerald Eisman
June 01, 2006
In A Word: Conservative
Conservative: 1. Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change
Tending to oppose change, now there's a view we really need in America today. First we can move backward in time one hundred years and revive the attitudes and mores of the early nineteen hundreds. Think of how good that will feel.
Women will once again be denied the right to vote, and why not? Don't they think with their emotions and not their brain? Don't they rail against all manner of things like war, the death penalty, and all those other important decisions that should be left to the men? Think of the pleasures conservative men will enjoy when their wives are relegated to the kitchen for cooking, the living room for entertaining, and the bedroom for propagation since that is their biblical purpose.
The courts will be free to quash dissent and silence those who would chide it for decisions made. Look at the most recent decision of the Supreme Court. Suddenly it is illegal for a person to "blow the whistle" about shady practices in the workplace if the whistle-blower is employed by the entity doing wrong. If that isn't effectively gagging the only people who have the knowledge to expose wrongdoing, It doesn't rain in the tropics.
Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world. Consider how the conservative right seeks total dominance over the minds and hearts of its followers. From the highest-ranking leader down, conservatives can tolerate no opposition. It's their way or you are a traitor, a fool, or a destructive force to be eliminated.
There have always been conservatives. They can be identified as the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, the self-aggrandizing thugs of ancient Rome, the glorified warlords of medieval and absolutist Europe, and in nearly every urbanized society. Throughout human history, rather unsavory people have tried to constitute themselves as an aristocracy. These people and their allies call themselves the conservatives.
See how they behave today and it is obvious they consider themselves not only above the people but also above the law. To attain their objectives they will distort the truth, fabricate facts, shout down and obliterate the voices of disagreement, besmirch reputations with smear campaigns, and do anything to gain their own ends. They are, as they have always been, a society of the over-privileged.
Conservative rhetoric suggested politicians who offered health care reforms were claiming to be better people than the rest of us, a direct assault on the Clintons. This was a distortion. Offering reforms is a basic part of democracy, something that every citizen can do. Even viler is the notion that those who criticize the president are claiming to be better people than he is. This is authoritarianism. It's also asinine.
Many conservative speakers are literally demonizing the very notion of democratic opposition. Rush Limbaugh argued at length that Tom Daschle resembled Satan simply because he opposed George Bush's policies. Ever since then, Limbaugh has regularly identified Daschle as "el Diablo". This is the emotional heart of conservatism: the notion that the conservative way is ordained by God and that anyone and anything that opposes the conservative order is inherently evil.
Conservatism has used a wide variety of methods to attack and destroy reason throughout history, the most recent innovation being the adoption of public relations.
The main idea of public relations is the distinction between "messages" and "facts". Messages are the things you want people to believe. A message should be vague enough that it is difficult to refute by rational means. It is useful to think of each message as a kind of pipeline: a steady stream of facts is selected (or twisted, or fabricated) to fit the message. Opposing views are ignored. The goal is what the professionals call "message repetition". This provides activists with something to do: come up with new facts to fit the conservative authorities' chosen messages.
America is in the grips of some rather unscrupulous politicians who are actually eroding the very foundations of the nation. Allowed to continue on their present course, these men will hasten the decline of our nation to the rank of second rate. Rather than lead the world, we will become followers, a position best left to emerging nations – not the United States.
Conservative: 1. Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change
Tending to oppose change, now there's a view we really need in America today. First we can move backward in time one hundred years and revive the attitudes and mores of the early nineteen hundreds. Think of how good that will feel.
Women will once again be denied the right to vote, and why not? Don't they think with their emotions and not their brain? Don't they rail against all manner of things like war, the death penalty, and all those other important decisions that should be left to the men? Think of the pleasures conservative men will enjoy when their wives are relegated to the kitchen for cooking, the living room for entertaining, and the bedroom for propagation since that is their biblical purpose.
The courts will be free to quash dissent and silence those who would chide it for decisions made. Look at the most recent decision of the Supreme Court. Suddenly it is illegal for a person to "blow the whistle" about shady practices in the workplace if the whistle-blower is employed by the entity doing wrong. If that isn't effectively gagging the only people who have the knowledge to expose wrongdoing, It doesn't rain in the tropics.
Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world. Consider how the conservative right seeks total dominance over the minds and hearts of its followers. From the highest-ranking leader down, conservatives can tolerate no opposition. It's their way or you are a traitor, a fool, or a destructive force to be eliminated.
There have always been conservatives. They can be identified as the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, the self-aggrandizing thugs of ancient Rome, the glorified warlords of medieval and absolutist Europe, and in nearly every urbanized society. Throughout human history, rather unsavory people have tried to constitute themselves as an aristocracy. These people and their allies call themselves the conservatives.
See how they behave today and it is obvious they consider themselves not only above the people but also above the law. To attain their objectives they will distort the truth, fabricate facts, shout down and obliterate the voices of disagreement, besmirch reputations with smear campaigns, and do anything to gain their own ends. They are, as they have always been, a society of the over-privileged.
Conservative rhetoric suggested politicians who offered health care reforms were claiming to be better people than the rest of us, a direct assault on the Clintons. This was a distortion. Offering reforms is a basic part of democracy, something that every citizen can do. Even viler is the notion that those who criticize the president are claiming to be better people than he is. This is authoritarianism. It's also asinine.
Many conservative speakers are literally demonizing the very notion of democratic opposition. Rush Limbaugh argued at length that Tom Daschle resembled Satan simply because he opposed George Bush's policies. Ever since then, Limbaugh has regularly identified Daschle as "el Diablo". This is the emotional heart of conservatism: the notion that the conservative way is ordained by God and that anyone and anything that opposes the conservative order is inherently evil.
Conservatism has used a wide variety of methods to attack and destroy reason throughout history, the most recent innovation being the adoption of public relations.
The main idea of public relations is the distinction between "messages" and "facts". Messages are the things you want people to believe. A message should be vague enough that it is difficult to refute by rational means. It is useful to think of each message as a kind of pipeline: a steady stream of facts is selected (or twisted, or fabricated) to fit the message. Opposing views are ignored. The goal is what the professionals call "message repetition". This provides activists with something to do: come up with new facts to fit the conservative authorities' chosen messages.
America is in the grips of some rather unscrupulous politicians who are actually eroding the very foundations of the nation. Allowed to continue on their present course, these men will hasten the decline of our nation to the rank of second rate. Rather than lead the world, we will become followers, a position best left to emerging nations – not the United States.
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