I don’t have much of a problem either way as I don’t think I’ll be engaging in political discussion on this website past this post but it seems like any sort of non-left wing opinions or posts are immediately trashed on here. That’s fine. There’s clearly a more liberal audience here and that’s okay. I just don’t want Lemmy to become a echo chamber for any side and it seems to be that way when it comes to politics already.

Mostly making this post just to drum up discussion as I’m new here.

Edit: Thanks for the rational replies. I was expecting to get lit up for even mentioning this topic lol.

  • Nooch@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I just don’t understand what politics conservatives do other then push for laws that oppress people they don’t feel comfortable sharing a space with? I think the real political discussions are just happening within the left. Conservative party kinda needs to just go away, and the left split into socialists, democrats, and maybe independents. American politics and media have driven it’s two party system so opposed to each other, there is no mutual agreement anymore, you either take the blue side or the red side to any and all issues, and I’m sorry the red side is just so cartoonishly evil they just stand in the way of progress, or push to go backwards in history.

  • ulkesh@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    If by “conservative/right wing opinions” you mean the current extremist fascist opinionated MAGA-‘my way or the highway’ brand of Republicanism, then I sure as hell hope it’s unwelcome on Lemmy instances.

    If you wish to bring back reason and logic into conservative/right-wing opinions (such as limited government, which means NOT legislating their brand of morality), then I’m all for those viewpoints (not that I would agree with them wholesale, but it’s a discussion I’d be willing to take part in).

    The real problem with this discourse is that current climate of conservatism is completely closed to reason and logic, completely embraces lies and conspiracy theories as factual, and basically wishes to see all liberals either dead or suffering in some way.

    So yeah, keep that shit off Lemmy instances.

  • Don't ask my name@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    If by conservative you mean “you and your friends don’t deserve human rights because I don’t like you” then hopefully you’re not welcome.

  • prole@beehaw.org
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    I wouldn’t conflate “liberal” with “progressive,” or, “leftist.”

    Very different things.

    • darkmugglet@lemm.ee
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      More underrated comment. This country has lost political literacy in what liberal, progressive, conservative, etc meaning. I saw a clip of Darth Cheney talking when he was in the first Bush Admin and he making solidly conservative points, talking about the consent of the governed and legitimacy. You would never see that type of conversation on any of the Sunday morning shows; you just see the culture wars. I was shocked to see this past Meet the Press had J.D. Vance making well reasoned arguments.

      IMO, the labels are short hands that cause people to immediately turn off their brains. Leftist in American Politics is a meaningless slur. And most conservatives don’t realize that the current flavor is actually Neoconservative.

    • mobyduck648@beehaw.org
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      Also it varies depending on the variety of English you’re speaking. While we do have a few people who follow the US a bit too closely generally when a British person is talking about ‘liberals’ or ‘liberalism’ they mean something quite different to what an American would be saying with the same terminology which leads to confusion on both sides. In the UK it sometimes means ‘the Liberal Democrat party’ but usually it just means ‘the opposite of authoritarian’, for example someone might say ‘Kier Starmer’s policy on drug reform is illiberal but the Green Party’s is liberal’ and it’s descriptive rather than ideological.

      To be honest conservatism is pretty different on either side of the Atlantic too, or at least it was until both countries succumbed to populism and demagoguery. One-nation conservatism in the UK for example isn’t an intrinsically broken and contradictory ideology in the same way ‘Johnsonism’ is even though being well to the left of it myself I disagree with many of its premises, and while British politics outside of a minority of nutters doesn’t really care what religion you are on the whole it’s a considerable faux pas to let it be seen as directing your policy in office whereas American conservatives play to a very religious base. Blair over here still gets shit to this day for saying God will be his judge on Iraq, presumably forgetting the British electorate are a little less patient to judge than the almighty.

    • Nanokindled@beehaw.org
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      Fantastic reply. Also consider the dramatic and sustained rightward slide of the Overton window over the last 40 years.

      Within right-wing media spaces that window has slid in so far to the right that mentioning vaccines, public housing, or a living wage is seen as outrageous or absurd or communist, and outright white supremacy is a major plank of prominent politicians’ platforms.

      So when someone says “there’s no room to talk about right-wing ideas,” they’re saying “why don’t you all accept an equivalence between radical Christian nationalism and moderate democratic conservatism as they two poles of political debate?”

      And the reality is that “right-wing ideas” in America are mostly fabricated or deeply bigoted. And outside of conservative media environments, they are accurately perceived that way and so are not talked about much.

  • InsurgentRat@beehaw.org
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    I think you’re seeing backlash against being involuntarily exposed to (and often pushed to see) unbridled and deranged hatred and fear on traditional socmedia.

    A conservative opinion like “I’m not sure communism is practical” is something that can be engaged with pretty cordially, “I think that education should focus on marketable skills” is an opinion I think is pretty misinformed but it’s not something that exhausts me.

    Unfortunately a lot of online conservatism is stuff like “I think there’s a conspiracy by $minority to mind control us with vaccines” or “Should we be trying to make queer people afraid?” which aren’t positions you can engage with.

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    1 year ago

    I hope you’re enjoying the discussion, and I hope you are understanding a lot of the excellent points made here, because I have not seen you engaging with anyone so far, at least not in the Hot replies. I was hoping to see that engagement. I don’t have much to add that has not already been added. It’s hard to unwrap the hate and bigotry from conservative ideology nowadays. Even so-called mainstream conservative ideas like “tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy will create more money and prosperity for everyone” rings pretty hollow after over 40 years of that sort of ideology having been very thoroughly put into practice with very little benefit one could name. It’s hard to engage when you can just sort of gesture to the current state of things and the lives of people who have grown up in the last 4 decades as being self-evident of the failure of that idea.

    Basically, I ask, what does conservatism have to offer, really? I am completely open-minded and would listen, but you would have to do better than just repeating the same tired things I have heard my whole life, having grown up in a conservative catholic household and over 43 years slowly but surely drifting to the socialist atheist person I am now. Better believe I’ve heard a lot and am well-read. And there are a lot of people out there just like me.

    • DJDarren@beehaw.org
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      It’s hard to unwrap the hate and bigotry from conservative ideology nowadays.

      This is the trouble I have with conservative thinking now. Even here in the UK, where our Conservatives aren’t as bad as the Republicans in the US (yet), I’m at a place where I can no longer offer the benefit of the doubt to rightwing policies, because now they only seem to exist to make life hard for marginalised people. I can’t point at a single member of our government who supports what they’re doing because it’s what they genuinely believe to be the right thing to do. They’re all interested in how it can enrich them, and they’ll worry about the morality later.

      I mean, say what you like about Margaret Thatcher (and believe me, I do), at least she seemed to actually believe in the policies she pushed through. She had an ideology, and was given room to try it out. And it worked. For her and her rich buddies.

      But these days it just seems to be hatred and fear for the sake of riling up the proles because it keeps them in power. The power is the goal, not the governance.

    • Leigh@beehaw.org
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      Gentle reminder to try to assume best intention of others and provide nuance where appropriate. If by ‘conservative/right wing’ this person means they’re all about what these things have morphed into lately in the US (transphobia, homophobia, and otherwise thinly-veiled hateful notions), then I completely agree. Fascists aren’t welcome here. Nazis aren’t welcome here. Beehaw is explicitly intolerant of the intolerant. But there can be honest perspectives that fall ‘to the right’ of the liberal perspective that can and should deserve consideration (they just seem to be rare these days, as political discourse has become so polarized).

    • Dankenstein@beehaw.org
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      No, there are communities and instances dedicated for them.

      Edit: speaking in a general sense, “conservative” is a broad term.

      • StrayCatFrump@beehaw.org
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        Dumb answer. I don’t care. We shouldn’t tolerate oppression, and we shouldn’t burden ourselves with the need to support them or equivocate. If they want their own communities, they can support that completely on their own (including research on whether they can run their own shit and how) without our help. It’s really fucking easy to just say “nah” and let them figure out whether to trust that answer or not. You’re choosing to shoot yourself (and me, and everyone else) in the foot. How about just don’t.

        • Lionir [he/him]@beehaw.org
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          I think what Dankenstein meant was that there are already today servers dedicated to right wingers (we block them but they exist), not that we should help them or something like that.

          Or at least - I think that’s a good faith interpretation.

          • StrayCatFrump@beehaw.org
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            That’s okay. We don’t have to help them set them up, or find them, or even know they exist. Why is everyone so obsessed with giving reactionaries the IT help they need to setup and grow communities of hate? Doesn’t make any sense at all, TBH.

            You go low, we…help you go low.

            • Lionir [he/him]@beehaw.org
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              Again - we’re not helping them. Why do you think we’re helping them? I don’t understand where you got that from - genuinely trying to understand…

              • StrayCatFrump@beehaw.org
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                Again, why would we help reactionaries discover communities they can become a part of where they are welcomed? Why would we tolerate their existence and their growth? That’s absolutely silly. I don’t “agree with you”, but here’s how you can find communities which do, so you can organize with them to crush me and the people I love. Dumb shit.

                • TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.orgM
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                  @straycatfrump - you are arguing against a point that Lionir is not making. Please assume good faith when engaging with users on Beehaw. Our one rule is: Be(e) Nice.

    • the_nightman@beehaw.org
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      I don’t personally align with either political party but the fact that you didn’t see the irony in this before posting it is really something spectacular.

      • Velociraptor@beehaw.org
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        Hi there. I’m trans. It wasn’t up to me. I didn’t choose to be. Life would be way easier if I wasn’t. I’m dealing with it as best I can so I can live my life. An entire political party is currently putting money and energy behind denying me healthcare. I’m an adult. I’m at a point where I can’t make hormones on my own but that doesn’t matter to them. The dysphoria I was experiencing prior to transitioning was straight up not compatible with continuing to live. You don’t even have to take my word for it - several doctors at different agencies agreed enough to write letters for me to start care. It is disingenuous to look at how conservatives are trying to, at best, make me very sick on a daily basis, or are, at worst, trying to put me in the ground and say “yeah, this is just as bad as the left’s typical talking points.”

        If I were a cis person who couldn’t synthesize my own hormones for whatever reason, there would be nothing stopping me from getting this exact. Same. Treatment. These things don’t happen by accident. They happen because the hate is there to open the door and a lot of self-proclaimed “good” folks are real happy to watch it go down.

        How do you reconcile with such an insanely disjointed false equivalency? Honest question.

      • dr_catman@beehaw.org
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        Please. Spare us. “I don’t support either political party but liberals are just as bad” is a very roundabout way of saying that you’re a Republican.

      • Omegamanthethird@beehaw.org
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        I don’t care if you like either political party. Buy if you’re indifferent to fascists, then opposing fascists could look fascistic.

      • Scary le Poo@beehaw.org
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        both sides r bad mkay?

        No, One side is fucking evil, and would happily exterminate the amorphous “other” if they could get away with it. How does if feel to know that you and the KKK vote for the same things and people btw?

        We don’t tolerate intolerance. If that sounds ludicrous to you, you should search for “the paradox of tolerance”.

        Coming from a former hardcore conservative who listened to that snake Rush Limbaugh and his ilk every single day for hours for the better part of a decade, then moved to Los Angeles and learned quickly that everything he had been told was a fucking lie… Put away the dog whistles. You aren’t fooling anyone.

  • Jordan Lund@lemmy.one
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    I guess it depends on which conservative or right wing opinions you’re talking about.

    The traditional conservative opinion of smaller government hasn’t existed now for 50 years. Reagan, Bush, and Trump all grew the size of government.

    The conservative talking point of “states rights!” flies in the face of states who want safe and legal abortions, or equal access to marriage rights, or the ability to acknowledge that LGBTQ+ kids actually exist.

    Similarly if you’re talking about the conservative push to make it harder for black and brown people to vote, and make no mistake about it, they are specifically targeting black and brown people.

    Let’s not even open the door to the fringe anti-vax or “election was stolen” movements.

    So with all that conservative messaging off the table, what are you left with, honestly?

    • darkmugglet@lemm.ee
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      Conversation with right, left, middle, whatever are only productive if based on a principalled ideology. I disagree with the NeoCons of Bush and Cheney, but at least there is an ideology to work with. MAGA, on the other hand is defined by no principals other than authoritarian aims of “winning” where “winning” is making the other side mad.

      The post truth world we live in makes this hard, though. Right now there is no shared truth, and with varied truthinesses out there, it makes the conversation hard. Using flat earthers as an example, the sheer rejection of math and science is astounding; having a principalled conversation is hard when the foundations are different.

      And with 24hr news, breaking news, and global news, and only so much news worthy content, there is an incentive to come with with differentiation and that creates eco chambers. News Max isn’t going to bring on a CNN contributor (and vice versa) to challenge their views.

      • average650@beehaw.org
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        This is a good point. There are conservative viewpoints I find compelling, but they have basically nothing in common with MAGA, de santis, or any other popular conservative these days.

        I find I can talk with individuals, when we both view the other as individuals, instead of a representative of republicans or whatever other moniker you give them. I mean, not everyone, but at least most people.

  • bucho@lemmy.one
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    If your “conservative / right wing opinion” is that austerity measures are a good thing, then the most generous interpretation of that is that you’re just a moron. As it turns out, though, today’s “conservative / right wing opinions” are way worse than that. Things like “trans people aren’t people”. Or “we should do a treason”. Or “bribing supreme court justices is totally fine”. If you hold any of those opinions, the most generous interpretation of that is that you’re evil. And probably also stupid. That is the MOST generous interpretation, mind.

    • Chipthemonk@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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      I think we need to have better conservative content. All of what your describing sounds like negative characterizations of conservatives made by far left individuals.

      Yes, there are some absolute morons in the world. Probably a lot of them. But not all conservatives are morons, despite what many left leaning people would like to believe due to the polarization brought about by social media echo chambers.

      • HumanPenguin@feddit.uk
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        due to the polarization brought about by social media echo chambers.

        Due to the actions of recent right wing political parties whe gaining any power.

        That’s a bit like saying

        "How dare you call us all arsehole. Because we keep voting for arseholes to lead our parties. "

        Unless you and others are prepared to form a right wing that opposes these ideas. Then that is the reputation the right deserves.

        • Chipthemonk@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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          For the record, I would not consider myself right wing. But I do oppose many leftist ideologies. Grievance studies (Critical race theory, queer theory, and other ideologies based in post modern belief systems), for instance, are eroding many useful and productive enlightenment ideas. Color blindness is a legitimate way to reduce racism. Instead, leftists believe they should elevate group identity at all costs, thereby expanding and heightening racism. Queer theory denies human physiology, elevating the idea that everything is socially constructed. This framework is a grave distortion of the reality.

          I agree that conservatives need to do a better job with their policies. Trump was a stain, and the few (okay maybe more than a few) loud idiots in the party make conservatism look bad. But if left wingers only get their information about right wingers from hyper left sources, we are going to have a lot of distorted views.

          On social media, people are served more and more radical content. Much of that content includes great distortions of the “other side,” which pushes people further into an untenable and undesirable belief system.

          We need more debate and we also need people to stop simply calling the other side morons.

          • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.org
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            To be absolutely clear to anyone who runs across this, this person has been banned from our instance, you don’t need to report it again. The only reason this reply is still up, is for others to see all the ways in which this person is wrong and the whole they dug themselves when they did reply to someone and were rightfully reported and ejected from our instance.

          • potpie@beehaw.org
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            Grievance studies (Critical race theory, queer theory, and other ideologies based in post modern belief systems), for instance, are eroding many useful and productive enlightenment ideas.

            Have you studied any of these yourself? Or are you relying on characterizations of them you heard in media?

            Color blindness is a legitimate way to reduce racism.

            In theory, sure. But in practice it often gets used as a rug to sweep racism under.

            Instead, leftists believe they should elevate group identity at all costs, thereby expanding and heightening racism.

            Keep on mind this is a society where certain groups have been marginalized and terrorized for decades or even centuries. “Elevating” them is only a reaction to that long-entrenched bigotry. But (what’s that quote?..) when you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. Attempting to bring historically marginalized groups into equal footing with mainstream groups probably will look like they’re being “elevated” to the people who enjoy the privilege of being accepted broadly by default.

            • Chipthemonk@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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              Yes, I have a Ph.D., you will encounter grievance studies and post modern ideologies when you pursue this path. I have indeed studied the philosophical foundations of these ideologies. I don’t agree with post modern ideologies, nor do I agree that you can state that something is purely constructed by a culture. An individual is defined both by their physiology and their societal structure. It’s physiology and culture. Post modernism denies objective truth. I believe in objective truth. I also believe in intentionality, which post modernism denies. We could go on. Stop using the “have you actually studied this” argument and actually engage in productive debate. An appeal to academic authority is really not useful here.

              It seems some forget, for instance, that the native population of America benefitted greatly from their encounters with colonial people from France and Britain. They sold and traded items. They learned knew technologies. Hell, many native tribes fought alongside the Americans during the American revolution. They also fought alongside France. The whole situation of the American colonies is really messy. Anyway, colonialism is not a black and white issue.

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                It seems some forget, for instance, that the native population of America benefitted greatly from their encounters with colonial people from France and Britain.

                ah, yes, the minimum of 30 million people killed just in the Americas really benefited. get out of here with this settler colonialist apologia, my dude. you are a textbook case of why nobody is interested in hearing out conservative “thought”, which appears to be impossibly tied to being pro-genocide.

              • bucho@lemmy.one
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                Either you’re the stupidest person who has ever received a PhD in the world, or you’re a fucking liar. There’s absolutely no god damned way that you can hold this many imbecilic, counter-to-reality views while having had to engage with primary sources for the multiple years it took to achieve a PhD. Stop lying, seriously. Nobody buys your bullshit anyway.

          • TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.orgM
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            Queer theory denies human physiology, elevating the idea that everything is socially constructed

            You’re already getting pushback on your other points, so I thought I would weigh in here. Biologically speaking, sex is multifaceted, variable, and somewhat malleable. Even anatomically or physiologically scientists say that gender and sex are not as simple or clean cut as you are making it out to be. Additionally, gender diverse people can be found across all cultures and throughout history - transgender people are not an invention of the post-modern era.

            I don’t think that acknowledging the reality that human experience is complex and multi-faceted is a left wing value. It is evident to anyone who honestly engages with scientific consensus and with the lived experiences of LGBTQ folks that those people exist. They’re not going anywhere, and I don’t think it’s especially “left wing” to say we ought to make space for them in society to just live their lives as they are.

          • fades@beehaw.org
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            Wow, what a shocking comment. Explains your original I suppose.

            You can’t just lay judgement on something because you don’t like it. You need to actually understand it, hopefully your read the other responses you got with an open mind, lest ye drift deeper into bigotry via ignorance (chosen ignorance, at that)

          • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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            Colour blindness is not a way of combatting racism.

            If you have a real world system, and you bias it heavily to be unequal, then you try and correct it by biasing it to be equal, the average output is still vastly unequal, and the absolute best case scenario you can hope for is that it will trend towards equality over time without ever reaching it.

            There’s a reason that people who actually study and think about the topic come out as antiracist and people who don’t think it about it except when it inconveniences them just wish everyone would stop talking about it and we could pretend like it didn’t exist.

            • Chipthemonk@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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              Yes, it is. There are a lot of academics that have fallen prey to post modern ideologies like anti racism. But there are also academics that haven’t, like myself and John McWhorter.

              • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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                ‘nuh uh I don’t believe that’ isn’t an argument.

                I’ve explained how balanced system + inequality + balanced system = inequality, and you’ve just said “nuh uh that’s not convenient for me”.

      • relevants@feddit.de
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        I have yet to see a modern conservative position that is more backed by real world evidence than whatever more progressive position it opposes.

        Climate change? Denying overwhelming scientific consensus. Gun control? “It doesn’t work”, even though it works in every other western country. Healthcare? “But the death panels will decide if you get to live”, they don’t exist, and are used as pretense to ignore all those people who die because they can’t afford treatment. Car infrastructure? It’s literally better for drivers if more people are using transit or cycling. Student loans? I don’t even know what the argument is here except “I had to pay them so everyone else should too”. The money certainly isn’t going towards the teachers.

        Some of these are US specific, but the sentiment is the same everywhere. The list goes on and on. If someone refuses to listen to any reason or evidence and instead bases their worldview on only their own, limited lived experience, why shouldn’t they be characterized as a moron? And if they understand that their view isn’t based in reality and they hold it anyways, why not call that actively malicious?

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          I’ve always loved the irony of the argument that if the government pays for healthcare, there will be “death panels” that decide who gets treatment and who doesn’t. Because those already exist under and directly because of a system of private healthcare funding where if you don’t have enough money, you’re refused treatment. Meanwhile under a system of public healthcare funding, people get treatment based on who’s most in need of the resources available, and that’s only if the system is already over capacity.

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            Lmao fucking seriously.

            Routinely my primary fucking care physician will approve a prescription just for my fucking insurance to say you know what, we will BLOCK that medication from being released to you at the pharm cuz we don’t wanna pay for it yet. Try again next week!!

            god fucking damnit like let me just pay for it out of pocket!! They won’t let me.

            Private insurance death panels are alive and well lol

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        The issue is the party overwealming supports these ideas, we are not debating what color school busses should be or how we should ensure we have clean water into the future, we are instead debating should X group be allowed to live. An option that involves taking rights from others based on misinformation isn’t an opinion.

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        1 year ago

        You are essentially using a “no true Scotsman” defense here, which is wild given the public stances of America’s Conservative Party, the GOP.

        You act like they are talking about outliers but the whole GOP is in lockstep with those awful stances and decisions. You say we need better conservative content? I say you need better conservative leadership because the majority of conservatives follow what they are fed of fox, oann, and whatever other sources of disinfo

        Come back to us when the official party line isn’t supporting the big lie, or attacking climate change or attacking science and vaccines and masking, or that trans people shouldn’t exist, or that students should not be given the forgiveness that those with money get (PPP vs student loan forgiveness), or that Russia and Putin are not our allies nor role models, I could go on and on and on.

        You want a better conservative image? You need better conservatives first. Talk about putting the cart before the horse

        You say what we mention is mischaracterizations made by the left. Please, point out which are untrue

      • R00bot@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        The conservatives you’re describing are becoming more uncommon by the day. So much of conservative politics now is driven by misinformation and fear, I legitimately can’t remember the last time I had a constructive conversation with a conservative. They live in a different world, which makes constructive discussion almost impossible.

      • LucyLastic@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Yes, this is true, many conservative people are smart - they worked out that in order to get money and power they can exploit conservative talking points easily because they don’t have to be truthful, thoughtful, or in any way care about other people

      • takeda@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        I would agree with you, but at least in the US majority of conservatives fully embraced those moronic ideas.

        The people that call themselves conservatives no longer are conservatives, their only goal is how to hurt “liberals”.

        At this point true conservatives that still care about the country started voting for democrats or not vote at all, but they are now labeled as RINOS.

        I know it is a loaded term, and many will quickly dismiss it, (but it is correct given the definition), but the party was taken over by fascists and real conservatives aren’t doing anything to take their party back.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          At this point true conservatives that still care about the country started voting for democrats

          Compared to most countries, Democrats are conservatives. And Republicans are extreme right wing.

          The US doesn’t have a left wing party. Nor even a truly centrist one.

    • pkulak@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Saying that austerity is always bad is pretty dumb too. Economic policy is hard. It’s not a simple as shoving one lever in one direction as far as possible forever.

      For example, “austerity” could mean ending corporate subsidies, taxing the wealthy, auditing the wealthy, reducing the military budget, canceling freeway expansions, etc. Too much public debt can absolutely be a bad thing and needs to be controlled.

      • bucho@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        I concede that you’ve got a point that austerity isn’t an all or nothing proposition. But your examples are laughable. No country that has implemented “austerity measures” has ever interpreted that as “ending corporate subsidies”, or “taxing the wealthy”, or in any way fucking with the wealthy or military’s purse. It just doesn’t happen. I agree, that would be an amazing thing. But it just doesn’t exist in human history. What ends up happening instead is that they cut the educational budget. Or they cut social programs, like housing subsidies or food subsidies. Because governments aren’t run by the lowest common denominator, who actually benefits from those programs. They’re run by the wealthy. So no government is going to fuck over its supporters by cutting their benefits.

  • circularfish@beehaw.orgM
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    1 year ago

    The problem with these discussions is that we seldomly use common definitions, which creates more heat than light. There was a strain of late 20th Century American conservatism that was rooted in fiscal restraint, loosely regulated free markets, and a privileged place for the nuclear family, civic duty, and the church as the glue holding (small) communities together. I’d vehemently disagree with most of these as policy anchors, but none of them are beyond civil discussion per se.

    But here’s the problem: this late 20th-Century old school conservative thinking has been thoroughly hollowed out and co-opted to the point it is now completely meaningless. (The last administration was neither fiscally restrained, family oriented, nor in any way tied to any recognizable New Testament ‘love thy neighbor’ teaching. Yet, modern ‘conservatives’ can’t get enough).

    Into these conceptual containers has been smuggled a toxic strain of (white) (Christian) (popular) nationalism … some may use the ‘F’ word … that is fundamentally anti-democratic, anti-science, intolerant, and is now emerging as violent - not just to vulnerable groups, which is a show stopper in itself - but to the whole damn country and democratic process. You don’t debate people like that. You crush them at the ballot box (or at Gettysburg or the beaches of Normandy if it comes to it).

    So (pardon the TED talk), I think if someone wants to show up and debate whether we should be running budget deficits in excess of 3% of GDP, or whether we are regulating nuclear power too tightly, or whether industry X should be privatized/nationalized, they are probably good (at least by me - I can’t speak for others). But there is an understandable level of suspicion around the whole ‘conservative’ discourse, and if someone tries to smuggle ethno-nationalism, economic Darwinism, or bigotry toward vulnerable groups into the discussion under the guise of ‘traditional family values’ and ‘fiscal restraint’ … they are going to have a tough time.

  • gabereal451@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Honestly, my big thing with right-wingers is that they come with no proof, and get mad when you start asking for facts and figures. Right now, I can see the effects of 40 years of trickle-down economic theory: it means that you need a degree to get just about any decent job in this country, and also unions should not exist because reasons. It really kind of biases me against right-wing talking points, to the point that I need to see proof. Treat it like a math problem and show your work or gtfo.

    • Rentlar@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      my big thing with right-wingers is that that they come with no proof, abd get mad when you start asking for facts and figures.

      This post itself is a classic example of that… OP came with a “waaah there’s no place for right-wing discussion when lemmygrad gets a free pass”, disregarding the fact Beehaw has defederated with lemmygrad already. Then when many wonderful users come in to open the dialogue, saying “hey, there’s a place for you, here’s what we can discuss on this instance and here’s what you should take elsewhere”, there’s no interest in continuing discussion from OP (maybe they will reply later in the coming days).

      Certain comments, like that from user @nicholas are full-on ragebait, leaving no room for discussion, and intending to antagonize each other by suggesting “everyone right of Bernie Sanders gets shit on here, just you watch the people that will reply to me”. The vibe I want in an online community is like a nice discussion at a coffee shop, the last thing I want is a direct escalation to a shouting match so I try to avoid goading people into that.