Tuesday, December 7, 2021

How Conservatives And Liberals Resemble Each Other

Conservatives and liberals generally love to reach for each other's throats for things they themselves are guilty of.  For all of their explicit differences which often bring them to inverse errors, the ironic truth is that there are cases where the two sets of rabid, idiotic adherents resemble each other far more than they might be comfortable to admit even to themselves.  Hypocrisy and a desire to micromanage people's lives in unnecessary or unjust ways are just two ways they begin to look very alike.  The two factions certainly have different ways of reaching these same ideological conclusions or political behaviors, but they do sometimes act very similarly.  Point this out to either party, though, and they will almost certainly explode in disgust or anger!

For example, both groups end up demonizing male sexuality even though some of their correct starting ideas would point them in a different direction.  Liberals might rightly talk about having a positive attitude towards sexuality in general, only to blindly praise female sexuality in particular and imply (or just state) that male sexuality is dangerous, degrading, burdensome, or some other negative thing.  Conservatives might rightly state that there is nothing about being a man that makes one a rapist, only to turn around and regard almost every man they do not personally know with suspicion and ridicule or shun men for not being sexually aggressive.

Both groups also love to denounce power itself as an inherent evil or danger--when it is possessed by someone they do not like.  They might rage against the notion of power quite loudly in such situations, but when they have the power to do as they please, they seem to forget the philosophically false idea that power is evil or corrupting, something they otherwise championed up until that point.  In other words, they think power is evil unless they hold it even though they might use that power in identical ways.  Both ideologies are riddled with erroneous tenets that inevitably drive a sincere conservative or liberal to excuse themselves for doing some of the very same things they would be enraged to find the "other side" (as if conservatism and liberalism are the only two political philosophies) doing.

In yet another example, both groups selectively appeal to Christian theology--very selectively at that--to persuade people to agree with their goals instead of understanding ideas as they are.  Each side would likely claim to care about truth and religion and each side would not even care enough about philosophical accuracy to not misrepresent or cherry pick Christian ideas for political gain.  Christianity, like almost everything else for them, is a means to a political end, rather than politics being a means to enact a much more foundational and important set of philosophical truths.  Whether or not Christianity is true is not the point here; the point is that conservatives and liberals are too lazy and stupid to do anything more than make assumptions to benefit themselves--and since both ideologies rest on false assumptions (that tradition and change are ideal by default respectively), both ideologies are asinine.

Make no mistake, conservatives and liberals are different.  To be a conservative, one must cling to the status quo or various traditions for the sake of conserving tradition, favoring slow change or no change at all even when change is morally or practically necessary.  To be a liberal, one must want to amend the status quo for the sake of progress when there is no such thing as limitless political progress or want to enforce arbitrary anti-individualistic policies (not that conservatives are true individualists thanks to their more overt gender and racial stereotypes).  It is just that they look very similar from a distance.  Their flaws can manifest so that they share in some of the same errors and hypocrisies even though they both might vehemently protest that they are nothing alike at all.

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