Uspol rant - - -
To Republicans, being defined as a good person involves ability and willingness to punish. That’s their love of bloated defense budgets and police, the afterlife fantasies, the home defense fantasies, the colonialism and capitalism narratives, the idea that education is better when it’s authoritarian and dogmatic. That’s the worship of Trump as a strong man who speaks his mind and orders punishment, despite his complete lack of an actual backbone.
Uspol rant - - -
Were it possible somehow to push conservation purely by beating heads they’d be all for it. That’s their hate for social programs or safe spaces, the idea someone might get something without earning it preferably by beating heads. Unfortunately the punitive focus dovetails into the worry of the merely right-leaning, that somehow they’ll be stuck with a fiscal or emotional bill.
And, if you’re in any marginalized group, there’s no question what you are to be punished FOR.