I was thinking about making a post on the subject of conservative vs libertarian politics, where the (dun dun dun) obvious conclusion was that most mainstream right-wingers were just deranged libertarians, rather than conservatives, preservers and upholders of America or Western Civ, or whatever.
However making a Serious Post would require an extensive intro, waffling, teasing, perhaps never reaching the conclusion -- since I don't have the energy for that, I'll write it like I would a comment, and then post it here for greater visibility to infrequent visitors.
For those who are not familiar with the research, the main difference between libs and cons is the disgust response (cons being more sensitive to disgust, libs less so), followed by the fact that conservatives place greater emphasis on purity, taboo, and in-group loyalty, compared to liberals -- see the work done by Jonathan Haidt.
It turns out that libertarians score even lower on disgust, compared to liberals. And they are numb to the other major moral themes, unlike liberals (who de-emphasize them, compared to conservatives). They are are the most blunted and callous, and the least sensitive to disgust. See here for the evidence / background.
Their moral attitude is also "relatively cerebral as opposed to emotional"-- keep in mind that this is distinct from smart / intellectual (which, on the whole, they are not). It's a kind of nerdy, disembodied, detached / non-visceral style of thinking, which is hostile to intuition / emotion.
Applying these concepts to the current political divide, I think this explains why I find so many right-wingers repulsive, and why they in turn are so enthusiastic about promoting various forms of deviance -- such as out / there bizarre substances, living in your own filth, hyping up incel serial killers and school shooters as if they were saints and heroes, pornography / fetishes, gore and snuff films and torture footage (especially when they target innocent people and/or children), revenge fantasies, and the rest of that warped slop.
Being libertarians, rather than conservatives, they are totally indifferent to taboo violation (which triggers the disgust response -- something they are incapable of feeling).
Instead the only emotion they feel is outrage and anger. These could, presumably, take the form of justified righteous vengeance or moral indignation at the fucked up state of society -- being a kind of martyr for a higher cause.
But in practice they never act like this, and probably would scoff at someone who did resonate with such themes: instead it's more like they're addicted to the rush of spite that comes from enforcing some abstract principle ('UM AKSHUALLY').
It's individualistic (rather than channeling higher forces), power-tripping (pointlessly over-correcting crimes that are irrelevant in the broader scheme of things), and over-zealous; moreover all this obsession on punishment actually undermines morality, since there is no longer any reason to obey the rules when they are just going to be used to punish you anyway.
It's also anti-conservative in the sense that it reduces everything to the utilitarian activation of certain receptors in the brain -- constantly stewing in rage, and making the consumption of rage-baiting slop your primary activity, fixating on punishment -- which in turn results in this kind of warped always-on-the-verge-of-going-postal zealot type of personality (anti-natural).
Their kneejerk response, when they're confronted about their behavior, is along the lines of 'you can't tell me what to do, mannnnn' -- this is because their asocial brains are incapable or hostile to group membership, so they cannot really resonate with moral norms and judgement in general, (which primarily revolve around placing restrictions on individual behavior). Instead, they conceive themselves as bold individual liberated consumers who can do whatever they want.
Of course the interesting irony is that the liberated individuals, who are defined by withdrawing into their own cocoons and consuming various flavors of copium in total isolation, are so devoid of a personality that they are impossible to distinguish from one another (lol). Then as the hedonism becomes the main activity, the primary emotion is actually seething rage, rather than pleasure or joy (which are strangely absent in self-indulgence).
Finally I also think this framework explains why the dorkazoids are so triggered by minorities, which I always found puzzling -- I don't mean wanting a more homogeneous nation, winding down immigration, feeling alienated due to being surrounded by foreigners, all of which are perfectly compatible with moral conservatism. I mean the characteristic flavor of rage, and getting worked up about the subject, and impotently fantasizing about revenge (as we see with the ICE masturbators).
It's because they're weak, physically stunted, cerebral nerds, who feel easily threatened by brown / black people, and then spend their lives coping with that impotence through revenge fantasies, lol.
Notice that they don't mention feeling what most people actually feel when they're surrounded by people who belong to a different ethnic group, speak an entirely different language, follow different customs, etc -- alienation. Most foreign ethnic groups aren't violently hostile, and nor do they practice rituals that are so sick and out there that you'd want to confront them and clean up -- it's more like you don't resonate with them, and that their presence makes you feel isolated and surrounded by strangers.
However for libertarians, the concept of belonging doesn't make sense (DOES NOT COMPUTE) which means it's also literally beyond them to feel a lack of belonging -- and so, once again, the only emotion they have left is impotent rage.
It also ties into the one group which is strangely absent from their retarded fantasies-- the homeless. Being surrounded by mentally-ill ex-asylum patients, who are often decomposing or shooting up right on the sidewalk, is a massive threat to normality. It's one of those things that does actually strike most people as needing a campaign / crusade to clean things up (unlike people of a different ethnicity living next to you) -- but once again, normality is not a theme they care about, so they pay no mind or even support it being degraded.
I always wondered, 'what kind of social conservative is seething with rage at the entire concept of normality?!' -- I never understood how you could hate the social order, and uphold being a gay reject... while calling yourself right-wing. Now, however, it makes much more sense.
For now these are the main examples, but I'll add more in the comments if / when I think of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment