For as long as I can remember I’ve suffered an allergic reaction to right-wing people and their ideas.
A few weeks ago I was standing in a school gym in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the United States, when a big light went on in my head.
You see, for as long as I can remember I’ve suffered an allergic reaction to right-wing people and their ideas.
A genuine stomach-troubling, where’s the nearest sink, gagging recoil.
Listening to Republican Rick Santorum in Kalamazoo, drawing hysterical cheers from his supporters as he lambasted benefit claimants, universal health care, liberals, greens, taxes, gays, immigrants, abortion and sex education, I realised why.
Because their ideology and motivation is based on hate.
More under cut for those what don't like linkage:
It is something that I’ve seen at BNP marches, even Tory party conferences – where a collective loathing for anyone who threatens their wealth, their ideals and their way of life is lingering just below the surface.
Here, the right uses propaganda machines like MigrationWatch and The TaxPayers’ Alliance to highlight statistics which inflame anger towards immigrants and welfare claimants.
Our right-wing tabloids spew hate towards laws that protect human rights and safety for workers, are contemptuous of support for those who are weak and poor and also paint trade unionists as the enemy within.
The right says it wants to give people freedom – but it’s freedom on their terms. There is a glaring contradiction at the heart of their ideology.
They detest state interference in taxation, workers’ rights and the economy, but they believe passionately that it should intervene when it comes to telling people how to live their lives.
They assume a monopoly on personal morality.
They protest loudest against gay marriage, believe global warming is a pinko con and basically loathe any individual who threatens their mythical 1950s view of a country which was white, Christian and where everyone knew their place.
It’s Boris Johnson calling blacks “piccaninnies”, Ann Winterton telling gags about throwing Pakistanis off trains and Tory MP Aidan Burley on a stag do with mates dressed as Nazis and toasting Hitler.
The right possess an instinctive intolerance which is dangerous and disturbing.
Which is why it was no surprise that French police’s initial reaction to the murders in Toulouse (wrongly, as it turned out) was to blame extreme right-wingers.
As we saw in Norway, where neo-Nazi Anders Breivik killed 69 kids at a Labour Party holiday camp, right-wing militancy is on the rise across Europe.
With Santorum winning over swathes of the United States by calling on “right-minded people” to take a stand against all who think differently, it’s on the rise there, too.
And it raises that age-old question we need to ask each time politicians beg for our vote: Why does the right hate so much?
Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/th
OP: Opinion piece by Brian Reade. Its something I have always wondered too. Its like most people on the right class themselves as Christians but their opinions and ideology are often anything but Christian in the conventional sense.
A few weeks ago I was standing in a school gym in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the United States, when a big light went on in my head.
You see, for as long as I can remember I’ve suffered an allergic reaction to right-wing people and their ideas.
A genuine stomach-troubling, where’s the nearest sink, gagging recoil.
Listening to Republican Rick Santorum in Kalamazoo, drawing hysterical cheers from his supporters as he lambasted benefit claimants, universal health care, liberals, greens, taxes, gays, immigrants, abortion and sex education, I realised why.
Because their ideology and motivation is based on hate.
More under cut for those what don't like linkage:
It is something that I’ve seen at BNP marches, even Tory party conferences – where a collective loathing for anyone who threatens their wealth, their ideals and their way of life is lingering just below the surface.
Here, the right uses propaganda machines like MigrationWatch and The TaxPayers’ Alliance to highlight statistics which inflame anger towards immigrants and welfare claimants.
Our right-wing tabloids spew hate towards laws that protect human rights and safety for workers, are contemptuous of support for those who are weak and poor and also paint trade unionists as the enemy within.
The right says it wants to give people freedom – but it’s freedom on their terms. There is a glaring contradiction at the heart of their ideology.
They detest state interference in taxation, workers’ rights and the economy, but they believe passionately that it should intervene when it comes to telling people how to live their lives.
They assume a monopoly on personal morality.
They protest loudest against gay marriage, believe global warming is a pinko con and basically loathe any individual who threatens their mythical 1950s view of a country which was white, Christian and where everyone knew their place.
It’s Boris Johnson calling blacks “piccaninnies”, Ann Winterton telling gags about throwing Pakistanis off trains and Tory MP Aidan Burley on a stag do with mates dressed as Nazis and toasting Hitler.
The right possess an instinctive intolerance which is dangerous and disturbing.
Which is why it was no surprise that French police’s initial reaction to the murders in Toulouse (wrongly, as it turned out) was to blame extreme right-wingers.
As we saw in Norway, where neo-Nazi Anders Breivik killed 69 kids at a Labour Party holiday camp, right-wing militancy is on the rise across Europe.
With Santorum winning over swathes of the United States by calling on “right-minded people” to take a stand against all who think differently, it’s on the rise there, too.
And it raises that age-old question we need to ask each time politicians beg for our vote: Why does the right hate so much?
Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/th
OP: Opinion piece by Brian Reade. Its something I have always wondered too. Its like most people on the right class themselves as Christians but their opinions and ideology are often anything but Christian in the conventional sense.
And really, I'd like to know the answer. I think it must be tiring to go through life with that much contempt.
1. Fear. Conservatives fear progress and anything they don't understand. This leads to hate of those things because it makes them feel powerful whereas fear makes them feel powerless.
2. "So much" can mean two things: many things or with such vehemence. Obviously, for conservatives it means both.
3. Religion. Let's face it, the more religious you are, the more likely you are to be swayed by things that adhere to your beliefs, no matter how irrational or false they are. See the birther movement.
"3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc."
All 14 can be found here: http://www.oldamericancentury.org/white
Edited to replace obviously biased link with a lesser-slanted one.
Edited at 2012-03-22 03:33 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2012-03-22 03:49 pm (UTC)
Right-wingers are less intelligent than left wingers, says study
Children with low intelligence grow up to be prejudiced
Right-wing views make the less intelligent feel 'safe'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet
Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice
http://www.livescience.com/18132-intell
I'm pretty sure that in addtion to the loss of power, it's concern of how the other will use that power in relation to them. After all, white men have been so
vilegenerous in how they have treated the other throughout history.Because of changing demographics, the only way white men can keep the power in the US is to somehow reduce the power of competing interests. So if they can convince/force/mandate/oppress women back into traditional roles through restricting abortion and birth control as well as dilute the minority vote through voter disenfranchisment, incarceration, redistricting, not allowing a path to citizenship and the like, they might be able to hold back the change a bit longer.
But their day of reckoning is coming. If they're whining now, just wait until the people in power really don't give a flying fuck about their priorities. Then they'll understand what being marginalized feels like. Frankly, that day can't come a minute too soon for me.
but, i think we should compile a info post - for voting and all that - why it's important to vote, deadlines to register, how to get mail in ballots --- etc.
Voting is all that may save us from this vile hatred.
Edited at 2012-03-22 08:52 pm (UTC)
After all, how do you convince people who aren't multi-millionaires to support parties whose basic premise is "fuck the rest of your, I got mine"? It's a pretty hard sell.
So, lies, uber-patriotism, fear and hatred (which also pretty much sums up the "guns gods and gays" line as well) are the way you covnince people to ignore the financial screwing over and vote for them
Well no shit, straight white cis dude, took you long enough. This is what women, queer people, people of color, etc. have been saying for ages.
I've briefly studied the history of the Christian church, and it's like as soon as the emphasis switched from being about Jesus' life to being about his death and the injustice of it (definitely by the time 'Constantin the Appolinian' co-opted the cross as a symbol at Milvian Bridge), the Church became a tool for expressing everything negative about humanity- discrimination, judgment, hatred, fear and similar. It's like the faith symbolically put *itself* on that cross and has used that sense of perpetual injury.
Now we have an entire sect dedicated to 'righteous vengeance' against anyone who does not conform to their views, who just can't get over the fact that their martyr got killed in a political disagreement, like so many do. No, the world has to suffer and burn so they can feel justified in taking their own suffering and unhappiness out on everyone.
I think that helps explain why I feel so divided about Christians and similar. The ones who focus on Live!Jesus' teachings, I'm fine with, but the cult of AvengeDeadJesus scares me. That's just a way to channel- even glorify- the worst in human nature, and a way for the Church leadership to unleash that hatred for their own ends.
Edited at 2012-03-23 04:54 am (UTC)