October 08, 2004

• Of course conservatives are motivated by fear. Traditionalist conservatives fear change and progress. Monetary conservatives fear not being able to satisfy and maximise their innate avarice. Racist, sexist and cultural conservatives fear diversity (and terrorism gives them a lovely excuse to become more overt in their racism and cultural insularity, of course). Gun nut conservatives fear that scary black rapist/burglar/mugger, and their creepy neighbour, and the drug dealers on the street and maybe - hey, stop laughing, this is serious - even the government. Religious conservatives fear OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M JUST GOING TO DIE AND THAT'S IT THERE MUST BE A GOD AND AN AFTERLIFE! They also fear that this afterlife may be available to the wrong sort of person. That's where hell comes in, of course. Conservatives are basically unempathetic, self-centred, fearful inadequates who resort to compensatory aggressive behaviour in order to mask their personality-defining weaknesses.
• OMG CONSERVATIVES R TEH SUCK IM GLAD IM NOT 1 OF THEM!¡!¡!!!1¡
• Holy hell, that video makes Rudi Guliani out to be a fearmonger.
• This oughta be good. *busily masks personality-defining weakness*
• Somebody woke up cranky.
• Using the word "conservative" to refer to the US Republican party is insulting to libertarians everywhere. Can we come up with a new word?
• "Fucktards"? ;) Hey, if we can't laugh at ourselves, or at the opposing party...who can we laugh at, eh?
• We can laugh at the divine comedy of a mere human calling another 'unempathetic', 'self-centred' and fearfully inadequate. I'm convinced Decani's post is satire.
• Any more of that, Pettle, and I shall be forced to resort to compensatory aggressive behavior!
• Fear these booklets
• Pistols at dawn! You shall be hearing from my second, Sir Fes. Good day to you, sir! ;)
• Alrighty then! *runs away*
• I fear compuslory registration sites.
• I've found in my research that these political worldviews can be understood as opposing models of an ideal family -- a strict father family and a nurturant parent family. These family models come with moral systems, which in turn provide the deep framing of all political issues. The Strict Father Family In this view, the world is a dangerous and difficult place, there is tangible evil in the world and children have to be made good. To stand up to evil, one must be morally strong -- disciplined. The father's job is to protect and support the family. His moral duty is to teach his children right from wrong. Physical discipline in childhood will develop the internal discipline adults need to be moral people and to succeed. The child's duty is to obey. Punishment is required to balance the moral books. If you do wrong, there must be a consequence. The strict father, as moral authority, is responsible for controlling the women of the family, especially in matters of sexuality and reproduction. George Lakoff RuLX0rz!!
• Well, we (I'm using the royal "we", of course) can certainly laugh at the mundane comedy of a mere human being thinking there's anything absurd about one person observing that another lacks empathy, is self-centred or inadequate. Do you have a bit of a problem in the judgement department, fuyugare? If so, my commiserations.
• My judgement department just sent me a memo. They judge that you are in need of a mirror. Specifically, a mirror that doesn't frame your reflection in smiles and roses.
• I think they are teh ghayz0rz. That's why they hate women. All of them. Every single one. Who disagrees with me. I wish they could be more tolerant of diversity.
• I believe that conservatives are driven by fear. I also believe that about liberals and all other parts of the political spectrum. I myself am voting for Kerry, and I'm doing it out of fear. I don't think politics should be like this, but right now it is. It's shitty. I wish I could vote for a third party like I want to, like I did last time. I was so upset when my best friend voted for Gore, out of fear of the greater evil Bush. "Voting for the lesser of to evils stilll ensures evil," I'd tell him. But now I'm stuck with the same fearful attitude, and I really wish there was a way around it. I'm afraid of the Patriot Act. I'm afraid of the DMCA, the RIAA, the MPAA. I'm afraid of Dick Cheney and his secret bunker. I'm afraid of what is happening to my country. I'm afraid off this mindset that's been put into me, and I'm afraid I won't be able to get rid of it after it's over. I'm afraid it won't ever be over, and that the damage will be permanent, regardless. So yeah, conservatives operate out of fear. Just like the rest of us. It's the 'in' thing right now, I guess. Maybe it'll be different in a half decade.
• Three thousand US citizens die in US over the last three years from terrorism. How many from AIDS? Cancer? Heart Disease? Automobile accidents? Murder? Medical Malpractice? There is not the remotest of threats that anyone is going to invade and conquer the US. Terrorism is certainly serious and warrants attention. I just find it fascinating that it gets so much more time, attention, and money devoted to it than anything else. And for another aside, if Gore had been elected and September 11th had occurred, I feel certain that the Republicans would be running right now on the failure of the Gore administration to prevent the attack. They would be promising that terrorism would not and will not happen on their watch. Can anyone really doubt that would be their approach?
• Obviously they're playing off the obdurate stupidity and primitive gullibility of human beings, which ceased to astound me long ago.
• I've heard several people wonder if 9/11 would have happened if Gore actually got the presidency. That being said, I am totally voting for Kerry out of fear!!!
• I'm afraid of toothpaste. In any other universe I would be flipping British, and I wouldn't have to participate in this fargin' election. But I'm not British, so I guess I'll vote Bush. But totally not out of fear. *puts hands in pockets to mask the shaking*
• I just find it fascinating that it gets so much more time, attention, and money devoted to it than anything else. Yeah, I think that's the subtext of the video. Little in the way of policy or vision - just a lot of pointing and shouting. Zell freakin' Miller. Christ. *shakes head*
• Actually, my conservative friends tend to be among the least fearful people I know. They favor smaller government because they believe that things will generally work out OK if left alone. For that reason (among many others), none of my conservative friends are even remotely enthusiastic about a government-expanding, civil-liberties-eroding fearmongerer like George W. Bush. One of them has switched his party registration to Independent--he couldn't bring himself to register as a Democrat, but he's going to vote for Kerry. Others seem likely to hold their nose and vote for W. as the lesser of two evils. I'm trying to persuade them that he's by far the greater evil. I don't know if I'll succeed--but I'm certainly more likely to succeed with an approach that understands and respects their core philosophy, rather than one like the demonizing approach that Decani so deftly satirized. The other approach, of course, is [WARNING: SELF LINK] humor.
• I'm not convinced Decani was satirizing.
• *crawls under bed* in case the sky falls
• f8x - if you put the cap on the toothpaste back on quickly enough, it won't have enough time to get you. Be strong - we're all behind you. You've got to put that paste in its place.
• "Conservatives are basically unempathetic, self-centred, fearful inadequates who resort to compensatory aggressive behaviour in order to mask their personality-defining weaknesses." "Do you have a bit of a problem in the judgement department..?" You know what, I think we're gonna get a hell of a lot of free entertainment out of this guy.
• Hooray! f8x is back! And not taking the flamebait! +1!
• (If that was about the toothpaste thing, I wasn't going for flamebait, but gentle teasing - sorry if it was taken otherwise, I will remember to be clearer. And, yes, it is good to see you f8x.).
• "You know what, I think we're gonna get a hell of a lot of free entertainment out of this guy." Well, one seeks to amuse, N. I feel it's my calling.
• funny (if startling) vid, petebest. and uhh... i don't that's what nickdanger was referring to, jb. ;)
• Yeah, don't worry jb. Although toothpaste cap placement is a hot button topic in many segments of society, for some reason we MoFiers generally let it pass with nary a fracas.