They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
To be a conservative or a libertarian is to spend an awful lot of time wondering why one is so hated.
I'm sure you've mulled over this one countless times: "What, exactly, is so morally reprehensible about wanting less government, less waste, more liberty? How does it make me the bad guy when I argue that people should be responsible for their own actions, benefit from the fruits of their labor and choose how their money is spent? Why do left-wing people think I'm evil?"
What has always struck me as odd is that it doesn't work the other way. I don't think I've ever met anyone on the right who loathes liberal-lefties purely for the fact that they're liberal-lefties. What we despise about them - or laugh at - is the stupidity of their ideas. But while we may hate the sin we certainly don't hate the sinner. If ever we hear someone on the left coming up with a good idea, we don't dismiss it purely because he's a left-liberal. On the contrary, we're overjoyed because it means there may be some hope for the poor benighted creature yet.
Charles Moore has some acute insights on this subject in his Spectator column. He's talking about all those bien-pensant types who kept arguing over the years that Britain's future lay in becoming a vassal of the European Socialist Superstate (aka the EUSSR), despite all the wiser heads who insisted all along - correctly - that this would be a disaster.
"But it still does not explain why such intelligent people believed so strongly in 'ever-closer union' that they suspended all normal care about what might actually happen. I suspect that left-liberals of this sort are driven by a factor which, in the context of racism, they would excoriate - the fear of 'the other'. They so hate anything that could conceivably seem right-wing that they pay no attention to any argument from that quarter."
Discuss.
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Comments :
Aug '11
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
The Left hates us. We despise them.
It's a subtle distinction, but a critical one.
Dec '10
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
They hate us precisely because we think people should be responsible for their own actions. They have no intention of ever being held to account for their behavior. They bought what Rousseau was selling.
Dec '10
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
...or anything that may sound like an argument from that quarter.
That would remind me of my life with my fiancee; a sweetie, but a lefty. I like to store food for hurricanes or tough times; she likes to give stored food to can drives and such. If I say, "Honey, I really want to keep our stocks of stored food up; you can't keep giving it away!" she will feel I am making a political point about personal responsibility (which I kind of am).
If she complains that we don't take the kayaks on trips as often and I point out that gas is twice what it was 3 years ago, that is a politcal point, which I guess it is. I do most of the grocery shopping, so when she does go, she is careful not to notice that it costs twice as much as it used to for most items, because that might be a recognition that something is not right and not in keeping with her political expectations.
Fortunately she has many redeeming qualities! (And I have learned to keep a separate, hidden, stash of stored food)
Nov '10
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
I defer to the brilliance of Thomas Sowell (when do I not, really) in A Conflict of Visions. Dr. Sowell describes the constrained vision (i.e. conservative) that man's knowledge is limited therefore his ability to design outcomes is also limited. The unconstrained vision he describes as really the technocratic elite vision that man is perfectable, that outcomes can be engineered, and that some people are so much superior that they should be put in charge of everyone else (this is a very rudimentary substitute for Dr. Sowell's eloquence). He also describes that if you do not share the unconstrained vision, there are only two explanations: You are either too stupid or you do see it and are just evil. That last bit fuels the contempt with which conservatives and libertarians are usually treated by their putative liberal betters.
Of course, this is all resolved by subjecting ideas to reality, but as Dr. Sowell (again) has so pointedly said: "Socialism has a history of failure so blatant only an intellectual could deny it".
My apologies if my oversimplifications missed some key point or nuance. There is a 200 word limit after all.
Cheers.
Dec '10
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
There was a well known socialist intellectual (I know, repetitive) who made a telling comment sometime in the late 1970s (can't remember his name), to paraphrase, "I don't know why I'm a socialist, I love mankind, but, I really hate people".
Edited on Oct 18, 2011 at 12:18pmMay '11
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
The lefts' rhetoric is based on emotion and when their is disagreement it's because the oppositition bases their opinion on racism and/or hate. When you see the other side as evil it's easy to have an extreme dislike for them. The only evil they acknowledge are within the people they disagree with. Ironic since the left is steeped in moral relativism.
Dec '10
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
We think they're wrong. They think we're stupid.
May '10
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
I think it may be because conservatives are widespread, while liberals are concentrated in a few enclaves. These lend themselves to exclusivity. Two recent examples:
Conservatives have to deal with liberals on a daily basis. Liberals can close the drawbridge and plug their ears.
Aug '10
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
Do you have a link to the Charles Moore column?
Nov '10
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
Tom Paine: The Left hates us. We despise them.
It's a subtle distinction, but a critical one. · Oct 18 at 12:06pm
Please speak for yourself, Tom. It's foolish to 'despise' people just for being liberal.
May '10
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
Wanting to take over my life and tell me what to do, to steal my money, and command my life is Evil. "Never let a crisis go to waste" is an Evil statement, meant to use fear to get people to sell their freedom. That is Evil.
Either the people on the left know what they are doing and embrace it, or they willfully ignore it and are led by the ones that know what they are doing.
What should I call the person that follows Evil, and engages in acts of Evil?
Sep '10
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
I only hate the ones who think we're stupid.
Aug '11
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
Starve the Beast
Tom Paine: The Left hates us. We despise them.
It's a subtle distinction, but a critical one. · Oct 18 at 12:06pm
Please speak for yourself, Tom. It's foolish to 'despise' people just for being liberal. · Oct 18 at 12:31pm
Despise: To regard with contempt or scorn.
Hate: To dislike passionately or intensely; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility towards...
I should have said, "They hate us. We despise their views and methods."
Ok by you? Kumbayah.
Edited on Oct 18, 2011 at 12:45pmMay '11
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
They hate us because we are greedy evil people who want to see poor folks starve in the streets so that rich hedge fund managers can buy another jet, or we are mind-numbed robots who have been programmed by Fox News and the Koch brothers to repeat incoherent gibberish. Ask them. They'll tell you.
Jul '10
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
We all want things to be easier. Instead of having things given to us, however, conservatives want to keep more of what we earn. We want efforts to show return. They simply want. And they do not want to give in return.
In the end, the reason they hate us is because we have expectations of people. We expect people around us to show competence and ethic. It is expected that others conduct themselves with some care to their surroundings. When things are rough, we expect people to step up and respond. When these things do not happen, we judge that the person is lacking in some way and, boy, do they not like that.
Apr '11
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
I found a quote that sums it up precisely for me:
"Conservatives believe they have better ideas; liberals believe they are better people."
Nov '10
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
The schemes of the left for ordering society which we conservatives despise the most are those that by their very nature MUST involve ALL of us: universal health care being the primary example.
Therefore every individual in society must go along with such a plan willingly or shut up and go along unwillingly in order for it to "work." (And by a lefty-plan "working" we mean of course that it is a complete disaster. But it makes liberal-lefties feel better somehow. Until it completely collapses, then they blame us for not going along with it more willingly.)
Rinse and repeat!
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
You can have a try at www.spectator.co.uk. But I've a suspicion it won't be easy to find. I'll have a look myself in a moment.....
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
Hey, what do you know....
http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/all/7272558/the-spectators-notes.thtml
Jul '11
Re: They Hate Us So Much They've Forgotten How to Think
I live in Northern Nevada. We all laugh at liberals here. I will never live anywhere with a big liberal population. They are like bedbugs and must be avoided.