Do Conservatives Do This Too?

[cpwill]

It's a question of bubbles.

The thicker your bubble, the less likely you are to run into average proponents of other beliefs in real life, the more likely you are to believe caricatures of them.

Conservatives used to be less prone to this, because in addition to having a broader moral perspective they tended to be more exposed to the left's actual beliefs, instead of what a talking head on Television or sneering colleague told them:

Haidt reports on the following experiment: after determining whether someone is liberal or conservative, he then has each person answer the standard battery of questions as if he were the opposite ideology. So, he would ask a liberal to answer the questions as if he were a “typical conservative” and vice-versa. What he finds is quite striking: “The results were clear and consistent. Moderates and conservatives were most accurate in their predictions, whether they were pretending to be liberals or conservatives. Liberals were the least accurate, especially those who describe themselves as ‘very liberal.’ The biggest errors in the whole study came when liberals answered the Care and Fairness questions while pretending to be conservatives.” In other words, moderates and conservatives can understand the liberal worldview and liberals are unable to relate to the conservative worldview, especially when it comes to questions of care and fairness.​

​

In short, Haidt’s research suggests that many liberals really do believe that conservatives are heartless bastards–or as a friend of mine once remarked, “Conservatives think that liberals are good people with bad ideas, whereas liberals think conservatives are bad people”–and very liberal people think that especially strongly.​

Since the Right has increasingly self-isolated into positive feedback media, however, (which, like left wing media, continuously reinforces the we-are-the-good-guys-they-are-the-bad-guys narrative), they have become much less aware of what the Left, actually, broadly, believes, and more prone to fall into twisted caricature and false witness.

That, however, is strictly anecdotal; it would be interesting to see the same experiment run, again.

 

[Grand Mal]

Generalizations are necessary for any sort of political thinking whatsoever. Saying "Liberals support abortion, gay marriage, mutilation* of teenagers, etc." is substantively accurate, even if not every individual liberal supports those things. What I'm trying to identify are conservative beliefs about what liberals think that are inaccurate, even as generalizations. Greenbeard gave the example (from me four years ago) of describing liberal views on socialized medicine as "wanting to kill sick people". This is the sort of thing I'm talking about.

*This is a hostile Russell conjugation, but not inaccurate.

It's still there, but has died down as a result of the subject becoming common knowledge. Back in ~2021, many conservatives were genuinely surprised to learn that schools were normalizing "alternative lifestyles" to their students.

The belief that liberals support pedophilia is longstanding in conservative circles. Though it seems that liberals in recent years have decided to return the insult.

Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property and equality before the law. Liberals espouse various and often mutually warring views depending on their understanding of these principles but generally support private property, market economies, individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), liberal democracy, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion, constitutional government and privacy rights. Liberalism is frequently cited as the dominant ideology of modern history.

Liberalism - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Lovebug]

Apropos of nothing whatsoever, where did all the hype about groomers and pedophiles go?
I don't recall encountering it much lately. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong places to see it.

DeSantis isn't running for POTUS anymore.

 

[eohrnberger]

In a recent thread, I noticed that a number of liberals adhere to gross caricatures of what conservatives believe or want:

Yes liberals / progressives do this, and nearly all the time.
I've commented a number of times in threads in which they have, describing it as '3 Blind men describing an elephant', which is pretty accurate.

Liberals / progressives don't have sufficient insight and introspection into themselves much less any for anyone else.

. . .
This isn't the first time or issue where I've seen this, and my intention is not to relitigate the matters discussed in that thread (which is ongoing). What I'd like to get feedback on here (from liberals) is: do conservatives do this too? Are there conservative beliefs about what liberals want or believe that are, not just wrong in a technical or specific sense, but completely deranged and imaginary?

 

[X Factor]

In a recent thread, I noticed that a number of liberals adhere to gross caricatures of what conservatives believe or want:
This isn't the first time or issue where I've seen this, and my intention is not to relitigate the matters discussed in that thread (which is ongoing). What I'd like to get feedback on here (from liberals) is: do conservatives do this too? Are there conservative beliefs about what liberals want or believe that are, not just wrong in a technical or specific sense, but completely deranged and imaginary?

I’m not liberal but yes, we do it all the time too.