Comment on 12 Reasons Why People Still Support and Vote for Conservatives
idkwhatimdoing@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
A quick first note, there are only 10 listed (that I can see). I also think it’s missing a few important reasons:
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Identity politics. Similar to conditioning, but more personal; someone who is deplorable but thinks they’re great sees someone just like them or who’s an archetype that they like, and they get excited to support them
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Literally just to make others angry. So many conservatives start with a mild distaste for democratic characteristics and then get off on the “power” to make people like that upset. They enjoy the rise they can get out of people they dislike, and they don’t care if the way they do it is based on fact or reason. Further, some seem to dive into the maga personality just because it’s ability to polarize is the closest thing to power they have ever known. It gives them the ability to compete and connect with lunatics, and to childishly anger anyone who would otherwise annoy them.
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Deification. Similar to servility, but based on willingness and impressionability rather than fear. Some folks see that problems exist and then just believe demagogues who say they are the only and all-powerful ruler who really knows what’s going on and can solve things. Once they believe that, any claims from opponents that they are wrong just “demonstrates” that others don’t understand and only the demagogue can be trusted.
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Contrarianism and a desired victim narrative. The GOP has successfully pushed the idea that, even at almost 50% of the population and with enormous economic control, they are victims of Democratic control and conspiracy. By being contrarian to all things Democratic, they are fighting the ruling class, who are the source of all evil (other than brown people and foreigners, who are also Democratic tools). So it’s not important to be factual so long as they are contrary to Dems.
T0rrent01@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Sorry, I originally had 12 but decided to get rid of 2. The first one was “Status Quo”, which I merged into “Conditioning.” The second was “Religion”, but I ditched that because it would be very unfair to yoke them with religious people, or even just Christians, in general, and I couldn’t think of a way to reword it to specifically refer to only those kinds of Christians.
Thanks for helping me come up with further reasons, though!
Adalast@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I would take the religion aspect to the place of Christofacism or leave it in the government with an explanation of their Theocratic leanings. They sow the seeds of other non-white religions trying to push their beliefs into our laws (the whole Shrea laws propaganda debacle from like 10 years back). All the while, they try to force white Christian laws into the books that are blatantly the same thing they fight to stop from others.
I would also include their views on compromise being a weakness. This is a huge part of why liberals struggle to get anywhere with them. The instant you are willing to yield an inch to them, they see it as them having won and they lose respect for you as a human being, not just a political opponent. I have tried being as bullheaded and uncompromising as they are on my politics and stances and it seems to have the desired effect. If they don’t blow up, they usually break and actually stop arguing. I don’t tend to do it with my parents, but my parents also have realized that they cannot “convince” me of their politics and actively avoid it because they don’t want to fight. I have managed to hit them hard enough with a realistic view that it has had effects, not an argument, a single rebuttal to something so dumb like “minimum wage jobs are for high school students” being rebutted with “cool, so all fast food places should close for lunch when high school students are in school? And if they don’t, the high school students deserve to be paid less than their adult counterparts for the exact same work?” My father changed his views on how much money fast food workers deserve that day.