this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
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That's the appeal of conservativism. If you are a member of the in group, you are good, and anyone who isn't in the group is bad. That's all the justification a conservative needs to say or do anything that benefits the conservatives in the group.
It's not a contradiction at all. When it serves them to argue you need thirty 5.56 rounds, a silencer, and a bump stock to hunt quail or whatever, then that's the argument they make. When it is best to argue that their assault-themed hunting rifles will help them overthrow the government, that's the argument.
When it helps them to push moral wedge issues to lather up their small minded constituents, they will promote their credentials as the last bastion of moral authority in a world filled with demons. When one of those demons rises to be the leader of their party, they fall in line and claim he's the fucking messiah.
Those arguments aren't contradictory or hypocritical, because when they make them, they are benefitting themselves. Previous statements or positions are like farts in the wind. When they criticized government handouts, it was correct because the criticism helped them get elected, and spending less on social programs let them spend more on benefitting themselves. When they accepted government handouts, it was correct because it benefited themselves.
See how easy this is? Rational people are often confused, and assume there must be some Olympic level mental gymnastics going on inside of the mind of a conservative. It's not that complicated, and there isn't hardly anything going on. That's the appeal. You don't have to think, you don't have to remember, and you owe nobody an explanation. You are right because of who you are and therefore anything you want to do or say is righteous. Just don't go against the in-group.
It's worth pointing out that there's almost always some sort of intellectual bulldozer on their side who has to assemble a legal or logical explanation to bamboozle normies, and it's unfair to think of those folks as stupid per se... but they shouldn't be assumed to be intellectually honest, either. Your average Scalia or Buckley or Alito is very bright, but uses their intelligence to create post-hoc rationalizations in support of positions that are otherwise unsupportable. Underestimate them at your peril, but never give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to integrity.
It is contradictory, they just don't care about that. They lack the integrity to care about. It's still contradictory.
I don't think you understand. Let's say you prefer red wine over white wine. But you go to dinner, and maybe you feel like having fish and so you decide to have white wine. Have you contradicted yourself? Maybe tomorrow, you are in the mood for steak, and so you pick a full bodied red to go with it. This is also not a contradiction from the previous day's order.
This is how the conservative mind views political positions. They might have a loose sense of rules, but what is true on Tuesday is irrelevant on Wednesday. That's not contradiction, because what you wanted before may or may not be what you want later. For a conservative, hypocrisy isn't even a possibility, because nothing is set in stone.