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They Love the World … Except for All the People
Since personal liberty is so important to conservatives, we tend to be more tolerant of those with whom we disagree. We understand that we must tolerate the idiosyncrasies of others if we expect others to tolerate our own idiosyncrasies. When you presume that you will get along with everyone you meet, it changes how you look at them. Whenever I meet someone, I look for something about them that I like. And I nearly always find something – something that we can build a friendship on. Or at least a working relationship. And thus, I get along well with nearly everybody.
Leftists and socialists hope to build a Utopia here on earth and, as such, they are very intolerant of the flaws of others, which might get in the way of building a perfect world. Thus, many of my liberal friends meet people and look for something about them that they don’t like. And they nearly always find something – something that can place that person in a group of which my liberal friend does not approve. And since conservatism is evil, and leftism is good, then tolerance is not an admirable quality. Again, Utopians are not a tolerant group. Just ask a dead Russian from 1918. Or a dead Jew from 1944. Or a dead Cambodian from 1976. Those who seek to cure the flaws of society via revolution to build a Utopia – such people see no virtue in tolerance.
Leonardo DiCaprio filling up his Prius.
I think this is one reason that leftists are so miserable all the time. They don’t like anybody. And after some years of disliking everyone they meet, they begin to dislike themselves. I think that a lot of what is described as ‘virtue-signaling’ is not necessarily an effort to convince others that one is a decent human being. I think they’re trying to convince themselves that they’re better than everybody else. Because everybody else is awful.
I think this is one reason that conservatives have such difficulty understanding leftists. Conservatives look at what the Democratic Party has done to America since Trump left office. Catastrophic inflation. Exploding energy prices. A European war. Supply chain problems and shortages. All the suffering – none of this had to happen – why?
But it makes more sense if you really don’t like people.
It is true that humans are capable of tremendous evil. But we are also capable of tremendous good.
So, on a macro level, the idea is to build a society that encourages the good, while discouraging the bad.
On a micro level, the idea is to look for the good in every person. There may be a lot of bad in that person, but there is probably good in there too. So you should look for the good. Because if you don’t actively look for it, it can be easy to overlook. And if you overlook the good in people, then personal liberty and other conservative concepts make no sense whatsoever.
A society of evil people can be nothing but a prison camp. Which is why we put those who do evil into prisons. They need totalitarian control not just to protect society from them, but also to protect them from themselves and from one another.
But a society of good people – even fairly good people, or moderately good people, or even somewhat good people like me – in that society, liberty can flourish. And that liberty, combined with the goodness and virtue in each one of us – that liberty can create happiness, prosperity, and security. But only if we acknowledge the good in each of us, and seek to encourage its expression in various ways.
So many leftists just can’t see the good in people. They hate me because of my big car. Or the straw I put in my drink. Or the mask I don’t wear on my face.
I feel bad for my leftist friends. They’re always unhappy. And I can understand why. They’re surrounded by awful people. I’d like to help them, since I’m surrounded by good people. I’d like to point out to them that my good people are the same people as their awful people. But they won’t listen to me, because they don’t like me nearly as much as I like them.
As I said, conservatives struggle to understand leftists.
But leftists have no idea at all what motivates conservatives.
I explain to leftists that I’m a bleeding-heart conservative. I’m a conservative because I find leftism to be heartless.
Good leftism is heartless like the DMV. The workers behind the counter will get to you when they can, but they really don’t care about the people standing in line. Which is heartless.
Bad leftism is like Russia under Stalin. If the government suspects that you don’t support it, the government will kill you. Which is heartless.
Obviously different degrees, but with both good leftism and bad leftism, leftism is heartless.
I’m not heartless. So I’m conservative.
When everything is based on the good of the collective, it matters less if you break a few eggs along the way. Which is fine. Unless you happen to be an egg. Which you are. So there you go.
While my daughter was attending a very elite college, a friend stopped her in the hall and whispered, “Are you conservative?” My daughter was understandably horrified, and asked why her friend would think such a thing about her. Her friend explained that since she was always nice to everybody, he couldn’t help but wonder. He meant no offense, and would keep her secret to himself. She still didn’t admit it, but he knew.
I think in general, leftists know. They know that there is a difference between a Tea Party rally that leaves a park cleaner than when they arrived, and a Black Lives Matter riot that destroys part of a city overnight.
So if leftists know that conservatives are happy and nice, then why aren’t they conservatives too?
Because they don’t like people.
I guess.
If anyone has a better theory, I’m all ears…
NOTE: The title of this post is a quote from the Men at Work song, “Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Jive”.
Published in General
Same as not tolerating religious faith and conservatism looks like?
Which isn’t well tolerated, btw.
Not taking them a casserole when they moved in?
I’m sorry, @cm, I’m not sure I understand this comment. Could you please clarify what you mean?
Not writing books that glorify them? Not having tv shows that portray them as heroes? Talking about them in censorious ways (I’m not a religious person or anything, but… I think Trump was a terrible person, but…)? Being comfortable mocking the lifestyle in public?
Look at entertainment and culture and see if you can see the difference In How society talks about Christians and conservatives vs homosexuals.
It’s how they immediately disavow allegiance to vs support for when about to agree or disagree. No one feels the need to point out “I’m not in favor of homosexuality, but I agree with this point.” However, you can find so many examples of THIS: “I’m not religious, but I agree with this.”
This comes from an absorbed ethic that religion is bad and homosexuality is good.
Look at our entertainment – good guys look and act a specific way, how often are religious people the bad guys when portrayed in entertainment? If homosexuality was poorly portrayed, what reaction would we get? But everyone tolerates anti-religious bigotry.
That’s very thinly veiled intolerance. It’s not really unexpected, but it really is irritating when people act like it’s not happening.
[To clarify: the first quoted section is from @kedavis]
Okay, sure, that all makes sense in a broader societal context. But my question has to do more with micro-level, just get through the day with your fellow human beings kind of behavior/interactions. Sticking with the hypothetical gay couple three doors down, KE, would you really not bring them a casserole? Stina, would you really mock them while they were out weeding the garden? I’m not trying to be tendentious. I genuinely don’t understand how this shunning or whatever Jerry is advocating works on the ground in practice.
Absolutely. With you on pretty much all of this. My main question has to do with smaller-scale human interaction (see comment #66).
Did people do that when it was outlawed? No. Maybe the rudest of people would, but that’s no different from today. The Karen’s of the day would refuse to associate and would coat condescension with a thin patina of politeness like they do to anyone outside their social circle. People in abundance of Christian grace would be kind with the firm acknowledgement in place between them and the Christian that their lifestyle is a sin… none of this pretense of “Jesus didn’t say it was a sin so it’s not a sin” bs.
You aren’t really asking for individual interaction. Culture is decided by attitudes, not be individual kindness and rudeness. The guy in the biker bar may treat women like dirt and doesn’t like kids, but he could still be anti-abortion. Cranks who dislike people and isolate themselves from them don’t believe murdering them is acceptable.
On our block, the “special neighbors” are not 3 doors down but across the street. [Fun fact: they bought the house from our daughter and son-in-law.] The little community on our block had been live-and-let-live for nearly 20 years.
We tried our version of the welcome cassarole. Clearly the gesture was unwelcomed. Within the first week our new special friends began making all kinds of demands about how people should manage their yards, put out the trash, park their cars, etc. One member of the couple yells at me from across the street if she doesn’t like what someone else (not us) is doing.
Last winter she got her 4wd high-centered on an ice coated snow bank. We asked if she wanted help. The response could have taken all the paint off an old Navy destroyer. 15 minutes wheel-spinning later and concerned that she would damage her drivetrain, we rounded up a posse of the local young men and got her out.
Not a word of thanks, but a grunt. She still yells at me, though not quite as often.
Might have been more fun to go with young women, who couldn’t do it, then all shrug and leave them to their fate. :-)
There is a huge difference between toleration and celebration.
I see a sequence
-Persecution
-Toleration
-Acceptance
-Approval
-Celebration
-Submission (under threat of persecution)
I reject persecution and can tolerate toleration. Beyond that I resist.
The young women watched. [It was around 10 degree F.]
But then the neighbors don’t learn as much about the value of men, as they would from women trying and failing.
This sounds more like an example of people being jerks than of people being lesbians.
Agree with your distinctions. Jerry is not even in favor of toleration. I asked what his version of intolerance looks like in practice. (He responded in a different thread on a similar topic.)
Most of what has been suggested in the way of tolerance toward gays is by omission. I, for one, will not ever say that two men are husbands to each other, or two women are each other’s wives. This is simply not what marriage is, in the sense of its telos. That doesn’t mean I can’t be a good neighbor to these people. We’re simply going to disagree (vehemently) about their marital status.
Added the Archbishop’s statement to my collection of quotes.
There’s a lot of shared space on that Venn Diagram…
Brilliant! You hit out of the park!
<<This more than makes up for the 2000 miles strikeout! ;-)
…glad to back to even par…