Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice

[_mledbetter]

What I understand least of all about extreme conservatives is their visceral hatred of the idea of "multiculturalism." How is it a bad thing to learn about other people's cultures and traditions and languages? I, for one, have enjoyed learning about other people's traditions, folklore, history, mythology and cuisine. What better way is there than that to foster understanding between people and reduce prejudice, hatred and hurtful misunderstanding and unintentional insults and/or slights? This visceral objection to "multiculturalism" does more to belie their denials of bigotry on their part than almost anything I can imagine! Humankind's cultural diversity is something to be celebrated--not disparaged or condemned!

What about when you find things that are bad about someone's culture? What about a tendency towards violence, apathy and even contempt for education, hatred of women, etc that you see spreading like a cancer in some cultures? There are some things in other cultures that are just mutually exclusive to the culture I was brought up in. Does that make me racist for pointing that out and rejecting it? Having grown up on and around military bases all around the country and living in mostly poor neighborhoods most of my early to middle-school years and having gone to school where sometimes I was the minority white kid, perhaps I have a different perspective on race relations than you do, and mine aren't any less valid. Maybe to me, your idea of "fostering understanding" is just pie in the sky with regards to some cultures in this country and in other parts of the world.

I also understand that there are many, many different cultures in this country spanning all of the races. There are some cultures in the white community for instance, that I find mutually exclusive to my own views and beliefs. Just because you see some conservatives rejecting some cultures or aspects of some cultures doesn't mean that we reject all cultures. We are just more cautious before jumping head long into every novel idea and belief that comes around the bend. That's the nature of being conservative. We're more cautious. Don't paint us as being ignorant and racist because of that. I can see that there is fault in that as well. I can see the dangers of both the extreme right and the extreme left. There is a danger in being too steeped in tradition and being too cautious, just like there is a danger in being too quick to jump at every new vision or idea, or voting for a guy because you like the way he speaks and looks. If you voted for him because you like his ideas about wealth redistribution and universal heath care, then you might be on the extreme left. (not attacking you for those beliefs, but if that's the case don't try to say you are moderate, cuz you ain't)

Also, regarding the phrase "extreme conservatives": I usually find that people making these types of comments are on the extreme left. I would bet that most people using that phrase (I don't know you, so I can't say) view CNN, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, PBS, etc, as completely unbiased and Fox News as extreme right wing. Maybe it's because every study ever conducted on voting patterns of journalist has found that the overwhelming majority of them tend to vote democrat (one earlier study I saw had it up to 90% if I remember right). It's easy to say you guys are in the main stream, when you are overwhelmingly reporting what the main stream is. Therefore, it's pretty easy from that advantage to make statements like, "there are no more moderate Republicans" all the while scorning your own blue dog democrats from the south and midwestern states.

Book containing one studies of media voting patterns and media political leanings:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... 61-6406459

[Guest]

What I understand least of all about extreme conservatives is their visceral hatred of the idea of "multiculturalism." How is it a bad thing to learn about other people's cultures and traditions and languages? I, for one, have enjoyed learning about other people's traditions, folklore, history, mythology and cuisine. What better way is there than that to foster understanding between people and reduce prejudice, hatred and hurtful misunderstanding and unintentional insults and/or slights? This visceral objection to "multiculturalism" does more to belie their denials of bigotry on their part than almost anything I can imagine! Humankind's cultural diversity is something to be celebrated--not disparaged or condemned!

What about when you find things that are bad about someone's culture? What about a tendency towards violence, apathy and even contempt for education, hatred of women, etc that you see spreading like a cancer in some cultures? There are some things in other cultures that are just mutually exclusive to the culture I was brought up in. Does that make me racist for pointing that out and rejecting it? Having grown up on and around military bases all around the country and living in mostly poor neighborhoods most of my early to middle-school years and having gone to school where sometimes I was the minority white kid, perhaps I have a different perspective on race relations than you do, and mine aren't any less valid. Maybe to me, your idea of "fostering understanding" is just pie in the sky with regards to some cultures in this country and in other parts of the world.

I also understand that there are many, many different cultures in this country spanning all of the races. There are some cultures in the white community for instance, that I find mutually exclusive to my own views and beliefs. Just because you see some conservatives rejecting some cultures or aspects of some cultures doesn't mean that we reject all cultures. We are just more cautious before jumping head long into every novel idea and belief that comes around the bend. That's the nature of being conservative. We're more cautious. Don't paint us as being ignorant and racist because of that. I can see that there is fault in that as well. I can see the dangers of both the extreme right and the extreme left. There is a danger in being too steeped in tradition and being too cautious, just like there is a danger in being too quick to jump at every new vision or idea, or voting for a guy because you like the way he speaks and looks. If you voted for him because you like his ideas about wealth redistribution and universal heath care, then you might be on the extreme left. (not attacking you for those beliefs, but if that's the case don't try to say you are moderate, cuz you ain't)

Also, regarding the phrase "extreme conservatives": I usually find that people making these types of comments are on the extreme left. I would bet that most people using that phrase (I don't know you, so I can't say) view CNN, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, PBS, etc, as completely unbiased and Fox News as extreme right wing. Maybe it's because every study ever conducted on voting patterns of journalist has found that the overwhelming majority of them tend to vote democrat (one earlier study I saw had it up to 90% if I remember right). It's easy to say you guys are in the main stream, when you are overwhelmingly reporting what the main stream is. Therefore, it's pretty easy from that advantage to make statements like, "there are no more moderate Republicans" all the while scorning your own blue dog democrats from the south and midwestern states.

Book containing one studies of media voting patterns and media political leanings:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... 61-6406459

There is certainly nothing wrong with pointing out and denouncing things that are bad about others' cultures. Learning about other cultures, both the good and bad aspects of them, is important to understanding them and learning to get along with them. That does not imply wholesale acceptance of everything in them, whether useful or not. The ideal would be to select what is most useful and eschew what is least useful in both our own and others' cultures. Sometimes adoption of elements from other cultures can enhance our own, just as the best aspects of our own culture can enhance that of others.

[_Gunnar]

Yep Droopy....

The fact that he either doesn't know or is intentionally being deceptive of what "Multiculturalism" is, and then creates a STRAWMAN "as if" we are against learning about other cultures, etc. shows clearly the depth of liberal intellectual and moral vacuousness.

Gunnar is apparently not familiar with the difference between the "childs" version of Multiculturalism which is the "feel good" learning of and living with others and their differences in harmony etc., and the Political Philosophy of Multiculturalism which is a liberal political and social ideology which is what conservatives condemn, since we are after all talking about "political" things here.

Sorry. I am still convinced that this apparently visceral hatred and even fear of "multiculturalism" is more a product of paranoia and bigotry of extreme right-wing conservatism than of rational concerns.

[_Droopy]

LDSfaq was just as much as a right-wing extremist on ZLMB as he is today.

Fine, he may be, but unless you can tell me what that means, its really just polemical puff, isn't it?

I don't think there's anything wrong with getting help when you need it. I'm not asking him to 'fess up to humiliate him. I'm doing so to demonstrate that there are times when people need help, and that doesn't mean they're "those people" who see themselves as "victims" and refuse to care for their lives.

However, millions upon millions have, and do, and this therapeutic mentality, drenched in a mental set of victimhood and permanent grievance, in various forms, reaches well outside the welfare underclass and across the sociocultural landscape, all the way into academia, where much of it originated. It may take different forms that the more vulgar form it takes in the community organizing and "civil rights" world, but it exists nonetheless.

I just find it interesting that two of the most extreme right-wingers on this board also benefited from the "welfare state" they claim to abhor.

Its also logically irrelevant, and I do not "claim" to abhor it. I do abhor it.

by the way, his refusal to answer the question has already answered the question. And I wouldn't be surprised at all if his children still benefited from the "welfare state". Divorced, at least four children If I recall correctly, periods of joblessness.... that usually adds up to, at the very least, free or reduced school lunches, possibly medicaid, possibly food stamps. It would be quite unusual for his family to overcome these sort of difficulties in a short period of time. Not impossible, but unusual, particularly given these economic times.

The point is that the welfare state has been, across theoretical, historical, and empirical dimensions, a social, economic, and moral disaster as a system (as it has in other western nations), has no constitutional legitimacy, has created grossly corrupted incentives and mindsets among to the givers and receivers of such welfare, is endangering the viability of the American economy as well as a free, ordered, civil society, and could be replaced by a much more effective, humane, and morally viable system.