They do have ideology and ironclad values. It’s very simple: the law should have a class which it protects but does not bind, and a class which it binds but does not protect. And they are always supposed to be in the first class. Because they are awesome. And they’re awesome, you see, because they’re in the first class.
Anything they do is in service of this belief.
Science says the in-group folks are awesome and perfect? Science is great! Science says in-groups and those out-group guys over there are basically the same? Science is useless and probably evil! That out-group person over there says in-group people are better than them? That person is 100% correct! That person says in-group people aren’t better and the out-group people deserve the same things in-groups have? That person is evil and needs to die!
They didn’t hate COVID and refuse to mask because they were just being obtuse. They hated that they were being lumped in with the (in their minds) ‘out-group’ and having all the same restrictions put on them. In their mind, the out-group is the only one that should be restricted. Ever. For any reason.
This is also why the War on Drugs here in the states got so much support. It created a well-defined in-group (white rich people who could still use drugs with impunity) and an out group (poor and people of color who could be accused of drug use and locked up even if they were innocent).
And this is why they’re banning abortion. You’ll note, if pushed, there’s often the vague statement of ‘oh, they can go out of state if they need to’. What they’re really saying is ‘we of the in-group will still be able to get abortions by going elsewhere/having cops look the other way/etc, but you of the out-group won’t’.
They don’t care what it is, as long as they have an item/privilege that the out-group doesn’t have. (I think this might also be why they idolize the rich; the rich naturally have a setup sort of like this thanks to money letting them have more things, and they want that so bad.)
While I agree, you still have to reckon with those individuals who claim to be conservative, vote accordingly and are then deprived of rights or services by obvious function of that vote and continue to be conservative, denying that it happened or pretending that it didn’t.
At that point it’s not an ideology or a value. It’s a brand. A cult. They just are. That’s what many of them are in the US these days. If there was a straight-forward motion to ensconce one of their so-called values into law, and a ‘conservative leader’ called for it to be downvoted, it would be. That’s because they don’t really have ideals.
I see it as more a combination of self-delusion, coupled with other people getting hurt more (or them being told other people are being hurt more; it seems they don’t even need proof).
They really don’t want to admit that they are in the out-group, because it would shatter their whole self-image.
They do have ideology and ironclad values. It’s very simple: the law should have a class which it protects but does not bind, and a class which it binds but does not protect. And they are always supposed to be in the first class. Because they are awesome. And they’re awesome, you see, because they’re in the first class.
Anything they do is in service of this belief.
Science says the in-group folks are awesome and perfect? Science is great! Science says in-groups and those out-group guys over there are basically the same? Science is useless and probably evil! That out-group person over there says in-group people are better than them? That person is 100% correct! That person says in-group people aren’t better and the out-group people deserve the same things in-groups have? That person is evil and needs to die!
They didn’t hate COVID and refuse to mask because they were just being obtuse. They hated that they were being lumped in with the (in their minds) ‘out-group’ and having all the same restrictions put on them. In their mind, the out-group is the only one that should be restricted. Ever. For any reason.
This is also why the War on Drugs here in the states got so much support. It created a well-defined in-group (white rich people who could still use drugs with impunity) and an out group (poor and people of color who could be accused of drug use and locked up even if they were innocent).
And this is why they’re banning abortion. You’ll note, if pushed, there’s often the vague statement of ‘oh, they can go out of state if they need to’. What they’re really saying is ‘we of the in-group will still be able to get abortions by going elsewhere/having cops look the other way/etc, but you of the out-group won’t’.
They don’t care what it is, as long as they have an item/privilege that the out-group doesn’t have. (I think this might also be why they idolize the rich; the rich naturally have a setup sort of like this thanks to money letting them have more things, and they want that so bad.)
While I agree, you still have to reckon with those individuals who claim to be conservative, vote accordingly and are then deprived of rights or services by obvious function of that vote and continue to be conservative, denying that it happened or pretending that it didn’t.
At that point it’s not an ideology or a value. It’s a brand. A cult. They just are. That’s what many of them are in the US these days. If there was a straight-forward motion to ensconce one of their so-called values into law, and a ‘conservative leader’ called for it to be downvoted, it would be. That’s because they don’t really have ideals.
I see it as more a combination of self-delusion, coupled with other people getting hurt more (or them being told other people are being hurt more; it seems they don’t even need proof).
They really don’t want to admit that they are in the out-group, because it would shatter their whole self-image.