So began their mindless response. And they’ve managed to ruin their “professional” reputations in ways they don’t even know.

And they are still afraid.

I second comment 5 - the notion of sadism - which is one of the things that fuels this pathology and makes it hard to eradicate. Bullies must be confronted. It can be confounding to people who are open minded that conservatives don’t play by the same rules - it took me years to grasp this and to come up with effective countermeasures. When this happens en masse, that’s when the tide will finally turn on conservativism, when the culture as a whole refuses to be bullied any more.

In talking with conservatives, I don’t know how you get them to see and admit to the root of their worldview - fear - but this is where any discussion must go to be fruitful, otherwise you’re just dealing with surface issues that come and go like the clouds in the sky. This is especially hard because fear closes their minds to new data, and to introspection and to the questioning of their core assumptions. In many ways these people are so unconscious, thuggish, and deserving of the epithet “troglodyte”. They refuse to face their fears, and instead project them outward.

Of course, fear breeds sadism, and conservative psychology expresses itself in totalitarian politics. That is why we should keep calling it conservatism and turn that word into a bad word (jusy like “liberal” is a dirty word right now) - as it is a word describing a psychopathology.

One of my favorite lines of poetry [I do not know the full poem or the source] goes like this:
‘Child, I would cherish you, not for myself but for your own…
I would not smother you with anxious care, but be nearby when life becomes too quiveringly real, I would that life should hurt you, and you be unafraid of pain….’

I think little kids, if given even a tiny iota of truth [adults aren’t perfect, life involves pain, etc]to work with as they develop their psyches, can be magnificently resilient. Kids who suffer from authoritarian parents’ promotion of perfection [perfection often measured against ‘others’] grow up substituting image for truth. Sounds like the Bushies….image trumping truth.

But it also answers why splitting into the Independents or Libertarians (who I think are mostly conservatives really) or some other third party only exacerbates the ability of conservatives to win.

Great Job on this one.

:-D

First, there is one easy bit. Stop calling it conservatism, which it is not, and call it by its right name., which is totalitarianism.

Second, while it may to some extent be a pathology, it is also to some extent a choice.

Third–and this is where it gets very hard indeed–, you have entirely overlooked the role of sadism, which actually dwarfs all of the other factors. This must be faced, even though its implications are huge and extremely unpleasant.

I understand completely that you are not trying to make excuses, but that is the inevitable flip side of pathologizing. Do not fall into the trap. Excuses cannot and must not be made. If there is a way out, it will require much clearer sight and much greater ruthlessness than any of us can muster.

To Terry, It’s okay to minimize risk and save money and you can even stay out of the tin hat parade and still belong to the Democratic Party. Just vote please.