It makes sense if you remember that conservativism doesn’t actually exist, and all people claiming to be conservatives are just narcissists who pick and choose what they care about in any given situation.
Eh. Conservatism does exist but, it’s never been what it’s claimed to be. It’s all about establishing and enforcing hierarchical power structures in society by any means necessary. Almost universally, the adherents desire to have power over others, so, even if they’re not at the top, they get to be cruel towards their “lessers” and that makes them feel better about themselves. Through the lens of their philosophy, things like hypocrisy are privileges of those higher in the hierarchy with which to taunt their “lessers”.
Additionally, they do not believe in objective reality but, subjective reality that bends to their will (when it doesn’t, they deny the delta and pretend that it does). This applies to morality as well; moral correctness is relative to one’s place in the hierarchy, not their actions (ie supporting a convicted felon, rapist and pedophile is ok because he’s rich and supports hierarchy).
The reason, I think, that the belief system has been able to stick around so long (beyond the propaganda) is that its followers do gain some mental health benefits. They are able to reduce their cognitive load through deference to their rulers and reduce potential for anxiety and depression by avoiding self-reflection and embracing the Just World Fallacy.
Conservatism does sort of exist, but it’s all about conserving the social, economic, and power structures of the present. Honestly most so-called conservatives are actually reactionaries - they want to bring back the social, economic, and power structures of the recent past, i.e. reverse the past couple of decades of development. Mostly, of course, because they believe they were better off back then.
Bull crap. There is not now, nor has there ever been an inherently conservative value. Conservatives define their values based on their identity, and decide to conserve the social, economic, and power structures that benefit themselves. Any social, economic, and power structures that are not beneficial are evil and must be destroyed. Any position a conservative needs to take, any idea the conservative needs to spread, any argument a conservative needs to make, any action a conservative needs to take, all are justified because it is in the conservative’s best interests. It’s how they can say one thing today, and then attack the same idea tomorrow. To a rational person, this looks like hypocrisy, but a conservative is no more capable of hypocrisy than a scorpion. “How can they support this, but believe that?” “How can they say they believe X and vote for Y?” Conservatives are not tethered to any ideological foundations, so they can say or do whatever they think will help them most in the moment.
It makes sense if you remember that conservativism doesn’t actually exist, and all people claiming to be conservatives are just narcissists who pick and choose what they care about in any given situation.
Eh. Conservatism does exist but, it’s never been what it’s claimed to be. It’s all about establishing and enforcing hierarchical power structures in society by any means necessary. Almost universally, the adherents desire to have power over others, so, even if they’re not at the top, they get to be cruel towards their “lessers” and that makes them feel better about themselves. Through the lens of their philosophy, things like hypocrisy are privileges of those higher in the hierarchy with which to taunt their “lessers”.
Additionally, they do not believe in objective reality but, subjective reality that bends to their will (when it doesn’t, they deny the delta and pretend that it does). This applies to morality as well; moral correctness is relative to one’s place in the hierarchy, not their actions (ie supporting a convicted felon, rapist and pedophile is ok because he’s rich and supports hierarchy).
The reason, I think, that the belief system has been able to stick around so long (beyond the propaganda) is that its followers do gain some mental health benefits. They are able to reduce their cognitive load through deference to their rulers and reduce potential for anxiety and depression by avoiding self-reflection and embracing the Just World Fallacy.
You’re describing shared narcissism.
Conservatism does sort of exist, but it’s all about conserving the social, economic, and power structures of the present. Honestly most so-called conservatives are actually reactionaries - they want to bring back the social, economic, and power structures of the recent past, i.e. reverse the past couple of decades of development. Mostly, of course, because they believe they were better off back then.
Bull crap. There is not now, nor has there ever been an inherently conservative value. Conservatives define their values based on their identity, and decide to conserve the social, economic, and power structures that benefit themselves. Any social, economic, and power structures that are not beneficial are evil and must be destroyed. Any position a conservative needs to take, any idea the conservative needs to spread, any argument a conservative needs to make, any action a conservative needs to take, all are justified because it is in the conservative’s best interests. It’s how they can say one thing today, and then attack the same idea tomorrow. To a rational person, this looks like hypocrisy, but a conservative is no more capable of hypocrisy than a scorpion. “How can they support this, but believe that?” “How can they say they believe X and vote for Y?” Conservatives are not tethered to any ideological foundations, so they can say or do whatever they think will help them most in the moment.