Jim Devine writes: "What in heck is a conservative? Defining "conservative" as money libertarian, conservatives don't care for others -- only about money for themselves and their immediate families (a.k.a. heirs). They define "fairness" or "justice" as preservation of their own private property rights, while their loyalty refers only to the fellow members of the capitalist class. The tradition they respect is that of the power of monetary wealth, while the purity is that of the gated community. They favor liberty for those with money and reject the oppression that democratic control over the government threatens them with. They then justify all of these positions with rhetoric involving caring for all of society, fairness with a capital F, loyalty to the human race, etc. They justify their privilege by reference to alleged benefits for all (i.e., trickle-down)."
You are a walking parody of Haidt's major point, which is that those on the Left are uniquely unable to understand those who are different from them (relative to the ability of the Right trying to guess how those on the Left think). From the NY Times, where you can find a link to Haidt's survey of 2000 Americans (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/opinion/kristof-politics-odors-and-soap.html?_r=4&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss): "The hardest part, Haidt finds, is getting liberals to open their minds. Anecdotally, he reports that when he talks about authority, loyalty and sanctity, many people in the audience spurn these ideas as the seeds of racism, sexism and homophobia. And in a survey of 2,000 Americans, Haidt found that self-described liberals, especially those who called themselves "very liberal," were worse at predicting the moral judgments of moderates and conservatives than moderates and conservatives were at predicting the moral judgments of liberals. Liberals don't understand conservative values. And they can't recognize this failing, because they're so convinced of their rationality, open-mindedness and enlightenment. " David Shemano _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
