Ken
Deja Moo: The feeling that you’ve heard this bullshit before
This kind of thinking is endemic to the Conservative pathology. You have to look at what is really meant when they say something. When Conservatives talk about small government, they really mean that they want to limit democratic control on the power of oligarchy and big money. It’s the jackboot and a police state for the rest of us. When they talk about personal responsibility, they really mean it just in regards to other people. Conservatives systematically demean the hard work of others and fully believe, even if they inherited their wealth and status, that it is due to their own initiative. Therefore, if someone doesn’t pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, it’s their own fault. If a Conservative is caught being immoral or corrupt, they have a built in out and can claim that we are all sinners and can be redeemed by claiming to come to Christ. No part of Conservative rhetoric is meant to apply to themselves, only others. To be Conservative is to lack empathy and the ability for self criticism and analysis. Nothing is ever their fault, they can never be wrong. Whether it be empirical science or facts on the ground, if if it does not accord with the Conservative worldview, that data must be held suspect. It must be the fault of secular humanist conspiracies made up by anti-business, anti-Christian scientists and Liberal elite professors and journalists. Global Warming, evolution, body counts from Iraq it doesn’t matter, evidence be damned. Conservatives are true believers for whom contrary evidence must be met with unshakable resolve. For them, this is a matter of character and consistency. Self doubt is for the weak in character and those who change their opinions based on evidence are lacking in resolve. It is for these reasons that I am fully convinced that Conservatism is merely ideological window dressing for a worldview borne of pathology. It attracts those who suffer from and fear their own internal contradictions giving them a psychological and philosophical framework to avoid paralyzing self-reflection and doubt.
— Snowball on November 28, 2006