On Medium: Telling the Brutal Truth about Conservatism
Here's an article that dispels the face-saving illusion of a political spectrum, by revealing that conservatism is antimodern, antihumanistic, and based on social Darwinism.
I'm not sure which type of conservative is more ridiculous: the Christian who lionizes wealth and status or the social darwinist who wouldn't survive more than a few days if the government collapsed and the law of the jungle were reinstated.
That's an interesting idea you have there of using cynicism to predict future behavior rather than as a post hoc explanation for past behavior. The latter course is more common, but all too often results in paranoia; but the former is falsifiable and thus an almost scientific attitude. I'll have to give that a try.
I do indeed see this as a hypothesis, which is what I call it in the article. I tested the hypothesis at length in this series on conservatism I've done over the last couple of months. In one article I went through a series of common conservative policies, and I compared the standard justifications of them, which all turn out to be incoherent or otherwise dubious, with my cynical explanation. I think you can indeed predict conservative policies by positing a basis of deep seated savagery (i.e. anti-humanistic social Darwinism or some anti-modern prejudice).
We just have to ask how such a reactionary would be expected to fit in to modern/humanistic/liberal society and to attempt to sabotage it. At heart, conservatives are obscurantists and saboteurs.
I'm not sure which type of conservative is more ridiculous: the Christian who lionizes wealth and status or the social darwinist who wouldn't survive more than a few days if the government collapsed and the law of the jungle were reinstated.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting idea you have there of using cynicism to predict future behavior rather than as a post hoc explanation for past behavior. The latter course is more common, but all too often results in paranoia; but the former is falsifiable and thus an almost scientific attitude. I'll have to give that a try.
It's been a while, Sybok.
DeleteI do indeed see this as a hypothesis, which is what I call it in the article. I tested the hypothesis at length in this series on conservatism I've done over the last couple of months. In one article I went through a series of common conservative policies, and I compared the standard justifications of them, which all turn out to be incoherent or otherwise dubious, with my cynical explanation. I think you can indeed predict conservative policies by positing a basis of deep seated savagery (i.e. anti-humanistic social Darwinism or some anti-modern prejudice).
We just have to ask how such a reactionary would be expected to fit in to modern/humanistic/liberal society and to attempt to sabotage it. At heart, conservatives are obscurantists and saboteurs.