Pandora
visiting conservative-land, politics
Walk into a store and see a ton of really cool metal art. Then I look down and see one of the bits of art is a character holding a sign that says "Hey Liberals" with the character flipping people off.
I find it sad that so many people treat conservative/liberal; democrat/republican; etc. the same way as sports teams, as if loyalty to your group is all that's important and relevant.
visiting conservative-land, politics
Worse are the folks that treat your political leaning like religion. That varying from the ascribed appropriate views is evil and deserving of punishment.
Can we do better? I feel like these attitudes limit our human ability to converse and discuss this stuff. IDK.
visiting conservative-land, politics
When I think about politics and such, my attitude is that I want a political group that advocates a healthy respect for the truth and welcomes good methodologies for discovering such. I feel like so many things would be solved with *just that.*
Like homelessness problems. Buying people homes is the most cost effective solution. We know this. But people argue against it based on their biases and impressions instead of facts and whatnot.
visiting conservative-land, politics, climate change
I feel like we're in a state of affairs today where discussions of what's true doesn't matter. Though to be fair... has it ever mattered?
If we can't agree on the shape of reality, how do we have anything approaching reasonable conversations about it? Some of these people here think climate change can't happen because God wouldn't let it. How do you talk to that? How do you have a conversation?
visiting conservative-land, politics
I got to watch this in action with my father. He firmly believes that capital punishment reduces crime. I decided to test that against crime data that's freely available from government provided statistics. The data shows capital punishment correlates with higher murder and violent crime.
Over the next 30 minutes, I watched as he continually came up with excuse after excuse for how his view was correct despite the data suggesting otherwise.
visiting conservative-land, politics
It was... mildly horrifying to watch. He *knew* the answer ahead of time. And he *knew* reality would match that. The fact that the data showed a contrary correlation was largely irrelevant and must be some kind of mistake.
This is the mentality that drives so much of our politics in the US, I feel. Perhaps in the world. Beliefs without reason. Ideas without merit.
re: visiting conservative-land, politics
@pandora_parrot
I like to ask my friends to really Get Inside the heads of these conservatives who Bought In, Years ago.
I like to ask Them to imagine growing up in a World where the Truth was Curated, people were Expected to Conform, and ever since then, Non-conformity has been the best way to distinguish yourself.
But they were punished every step of the way for Non-conformism. Now, of course, we're breaking free from that era, but many people want to go back to a News Caster telling them The Truth, and their world can be Simple again. Which is never gonna happen.
So, they shut down. The world is awash in new information, and they're Illiterate. There's Real Truth to be found, but it's big and messy and requires a major re-evaluation of values and lifestyle and beliefs.
This is what Obsolete Humans look like.
re: visiting conservative-land, politics
@Motodrachen I mean. That was my experience growing up. My years as a teen and young adult involved me being very conservative right along with everyone else. Because of exactly what you say here. Non-conformity got me punished.
Though, of course, it's not just conservatives that do this, though I do think the stats suggest they do it way more.
It's sad. I wish the world wasn't like this.