Making Conservatives Cringe Since 1977

Thank you, thank you, great to be back...

The 78th Academy Awards. Another rubberneckers delight in the ongoing saga of the culture wars. Over the last few weeks I've taken some time to focus on my studies. From time to time though, I've posted over at my old standby, My own private Idaho. MSN Spaces has always had an odd dynamic about it, but that's not the subject of this rant.

A post by my brother on the recent slaying of a police officer here in Central New York has brought to the surface just how deep the divide in our country while in the midst of this culture war. Dan is currently going through the Police Academy for a local county Sheriffs department, so it's more than understandable the tone of sentiment embodied in his post and of that of the comments found there. I could only wonder what he'd have to say about tonight’s juxtaposition of Dolly Parton and Three 6 Mafia. I also wonder what they'd say about the latest offering from The Guardian:

A study funded by the US government has concluded that conservatism can be explained psychologically as a set of neuroses rooted in "fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity".

. . . the report's four authors linked Hitler, Mussolini, Ronald Reagan and the rightwing talkshow host, Rush Limbaugh, arguing they all suffered from the same affliction.

All of them "preached a return to an idealized past and condoned inequality".

Nothing makes me snicker more than the irony of some of my more Conservative acquaintances telling some worn out joke or railing in a tired fashion about Lefties and Communists, and then turn around and suggest in a very Stalinist manner that the solution to prison overcrowding has something to do with a 13 cent rifle bullet. Conservatism isn't a disease and neither is Liberalism. Dogmatism is. Being an Ideologue is. Xenophobia. In a day and age when anyone who raises a question about the state of things is labeled "negative," how does anyone get away with harboring age old hate and prejudice?

- H/T to NaveySwan for the Guardian article.

P.S. Voting has opened over at Wampum, please stop and show your support to the community.

posted by Frederick  # 3/05/2006 11:43:00 PM