Here’s why conservatives are enemies of the human race.

[Cyrano]

In general, conservative come in three flavors: financial conservatives, neo-conservatives, and “values” conservatives.

Financial conservatives are perhaps the easiest to define. Michael Douglas summed it up in “Wall Street” with the line, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” How much more explanation is needed? “Hurray for me, screw you and everyone else. I’ve got mine. If you can’t get yours, starve or die. I don’t give a flying shit about you and yours.” And oh yeah. They hate taxes.

Neo-conservatives simply want to control the world and all of its resources. Their weapons of choice are an invincible military and a nuclear arsenal. Their attitude is “We are number one and we’re going to remain number one whether the rest of the world likes it or not.” Of course, the fact that the vast majority of Americans aren’t part of the definition of “we” doesn’t matter to them. Disagree or protest and you’re a traitor. They too hate taxes.

Those two types of conservatives are dangerous, but I believe that those who present the greatest threat to all of us are so-called “values conservatives.” These are the bible-beaters and others who believe that: “It’s okay to hate The Other.” -- “All Muslims are fascists.” “All Liberals are baby killers.” “All illegal immigrants are evil.” “All atheists will burn in Hell.” “Jesus is coming back to bite the unsaved in the ass.” “Live by our beliefs or else …” – Or, as Mike Huckabee told us, he wants to change the Constitution to “God’s standards.” And, oh yeah, they too hate taxes.

Since the common thread among them is hating taxes, let’s just privatize the military, the police, fire departments, teachers, maintenance of the country’s infrastructure, air safety, food safety, health and human services, -- and let’s not leave out dog catchers.

We’ve gotten a taste of this kind of world in the past seven years and it’s blatantly apparent that it doesn’t work. It benefits the few while brutally crushing the many.

So to get back to my original premise, conservatives embrace greed, hatred and indifference to the value of human life. Virtually everything else they champion, can only lead to the detriment, and possible destruction of humanity. In effect, I believe they are a danger to every living organism on this small rock we call Earth.

[yourout]

1. Well said....K&R

[ingac70]

2. K&R.

[undergroundpanther]

3. conservatives cost too much

Is something HUMANITY cannot afford.

http://www.jmooneyham.com/bright.html

But what happens to a society which suffers domination by right-wing politics over a prolonged period of time? With no chance for even temporary recovery from the excesses of such government over an extended period?

Actually, we know what happens for it has occurred before, both in America and other nations.
Of all the roads which could lead to human extinction, three of the major thoroughfares must be economic collapse, over-militarization, and environmental damage due to pollution and/or over-harvesting so severe that the planet can no longer sustain us.

The world already witnessed US conservatives lead the way into the greatest economic depression the world had ever seen, during the 20th century.

http://www.jrmooneyham.com/they-own-you-and-all-your-property-too.html
http://www.watchblog.com/republicans/archives/003441.html

[Cyrano]

6. Yep. Herbert Hoover marched us into the Great Depression of the 20th Century.

And Bush seems determined to do the same in the 21st Century.

This is a creature with a foot in all three conservative camps. His fiscal conservatism has served to greatly enrich his family, Cheney, and all the whores who contributed to him, bowed down before him, and received unconscionably immense contracts as their rewards.

His neo-conservatism has served to feed his sociopathic personality. "Mission Accomplished," "The Decider," "The Commander Guy." This man should long ago have been dragged away in a straight jacket.

And then there's his pseudo-family-values-conservatism. For anyone who's been paying attention, he pays just enough lip service to it to satisfy the rubes. It would seem that selling snake oil is easier than it used to be.

As much as conservatives are trying to run away from Bush in this election cycle, he embodies the raw sewerage that embodies their positions and beliefs.

[Buzz Clik]

4. Congrats! You get your official Knuckledragger Membership Card.

Yeah, those three kinds of people exist, but those aren't the only flavors of conservative.




Let's not forget to think.

[whatchamacallit]

5. I sometimes think it's a DNA thing and the Bonobo / Chimp war is inevitable

Maybe we could coexist if they didn't want it all, but they do and they won't stop until it's us or them.

[angrycarpenter]

7. The leaders of all of these movements are to blame.

Most conservatives are just people who Generally have a good quality of life and want it to stay that way. There is no evil plot there. The right-wing leaders have used the desire for stability as a tool for control.

There has to be a more accurate term for the men who did this to us. Republican is too broad because many vote out of habit.

conservative is too broad because it includes so many people who are victims also.

What do we call the men who used our government as a tool to enrich themselves at the cost of everyone else.

[Cyrano]

14. How about anti-humans. When matter and anti-matter meet, it

results in the total destruction of both.

Perhaps the collision of humans and anti-humans also results in the destruction of both.

[pingzing58]

8. Thanks for the analysis. From your own analysis it seems Neo-Cons are the most dangerous

becuase of their megalomaniacal ideology. Fiscal conservatives suffer when the poor and underemployed revolt since government is not willing to creat a safety net that catches those in most financial need. Government and society must protect and ensure that evryone receives what is needed to live with dignity addressing basic human needs. Religious Conservatives fall prey to their own human nature and as we have seen "hypocrasy rules the day" and their narrow minded beliefs carry no moral force. The Moral Majority is neither moral nor a majority (discuss among yourselves). But Neo-cons control by placing their advocates in places of influencial and powerful beaurocracies. We know what has happened to Neo-cons such as Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and others. Their foreign policy has been inplemented with disastrous consequences. And, indeed, the neo-con threat is still there and we will suffer their effects for the next 100 years (since that's as long as the Bushies expect us to be in Iraq).

[baby_mouse]

9. Yeah, that's what I think.

Strange, though, whenever I post stuff like this my threads are covered with turdy "neeeer, you're being MEAN" posts.

[indepat]

10. Have long proffered on this board that large tax cuts for the most affluent and large corporations

is and was Junior's et al's job number one, a job often accompanied historically with new or higher regressive taxes, such as the much high social security taxes, both as a per cent and the base on which the tax applies, but conveniently not applying to higher incomes. So when the Gipper dramatically cut the highest marginal tax rates, he also imposed a much higher payroll tax on the "little guy," compliments of Alan Greenspan et al, ostensively to build a trust fund (lock box) from which to pay future social security benefits. But in reality, the extra trillions of dollars collected in payroll taxes for more than a quarter of a century have instead been offloaded from the "lock box" in the form of much lower income taxes paid by the most affluent. So in one foul swoop, trillions of dollars have been confiscated from the "little guy" to pay for tax cuts for the most affluent. And raiding the "lock box" of the trillions of dollars for bestowal on the wealthy means only one thing: the money ain't going to be in the lock box to pay the social security benefits of baby boomers a little later down the line. This has been possibly the largest heist in history, but literally tens of millions of Amurikkkans who have supported those who perpetrated this scheme will be the beneficiaries of a greatly reduced social security benefit, at least in purchasing power.

[Smith_3]

11. Have you ever seen the movie "Amores-Perros" ?

I think your writings kind of resemble the plot of that movie.

[Cyrano]

13. Nope, haven't seen it. Do you know where I can get a copy?

[Faryn Balyncd]

12. There once was a 4th type of conservative - that believed in the Rule of Law, Checks & Balances. . .

. . . 500 year old legal principles such as habeas corpus, that were opposed to an Orwellian surveillance society & police state, that valued civil liberties, that did not actively try to dismantle the legal infrastructure upon which our liberties depend (posse comitatus being another example).

This 4th type of "conservative" may have even held such discarded "conservative" values as opposition to unrestrained executive power (now replaced by "unitary executive" theory which recognizes no congressional or judicial constraints on presidential authority), and the promotion of international treaties outlawing torture.

But with a few exceptions, this 4th type of "conservative" ("classical liberal" or "libertarian" variant) has disappeared from modern Limbaugh/Fox/Weekly Standard/Bush/Rove/Republican "movement conservatism".

Almost without exception, the only "libertarians" now welcome by "movement conservatives" are those that interpret liberty as consisting solely of the lowering/elimination of taxes (slyly avoiding responsibility for the regressive stealth tax of inflation), or those that have so twisted their version of liberty as to rationalize wars of conquest.

(The most visible surviving & uncompromised libertarian/"classical liberal" idealist still remaining in the Republican Party, Ron Paul, now facing "movement conservative" opposition for his congressional seat, may be the next to be banished.)






This is the paradox that former "conservatives" of this 4th type - - - those that values constitutional restraints on presidential power, that value civil liberties, and habeas corpus, and oppose pre-emptive wars of conquest - - - now face:

. . . . . . . that on the basic American principles of liberty secured by the Rule of Law, they have a measure of common ground with "liberals" and with Democrats, but virtually nothing in common with the authoritarian corporatists that now control "movement conservatism" and the Republican Party.

[warren pease]

15. "...a danger to every living organism..."

I wish they'd get on with destroying mosquitoes, tics and various deadly viruses. Then there might conceivably be some positive use for them.

As it is, though, I'd just as soon load them all into a giant rocket and blast them into the sun. Now that would be a sunrise worthy of a standing ovation.


wp

[Cyrano]

16. Like it or not, almost all insects are necessary to our ecosystem.

Having said this, I'm not sure if the human species is as relevant to life on Earth as mosquitoes or tics.

Not that I'm against the human species. It's just that, given the relatively short existence of humans on this planet, we seem to be (pardon the partial quote from "The Matrix") a destructive virus that consumes everything in the vicinity we inhabit, and then moves on elsewhere.

[warren pease]

17. Yeah, I know and I was balancing the reality of species interdependence with...

...the need to insult conservatives of all stripes at every opportunity. I wouldn't want to be responsible for birds going hungry or bats starving just to serve my narrow interests.

I suppose even deadly viruses have their places in Gaia, or the planetary ecosystem, or whatever the contemporary term is for the earth as a wholly integrated and interdependent system rather than a bunch of discrete unrelated elements. Maybe they're used as population limiters or natural selection tools.

But my relationship to biology is pretty tenuous, so I could use some help with the concept of viruses as anything other than deadly pests, like the one that just got through living in my upper respiratory system and making life thoroughly suck for about four weeks.

And I'm right there with you re humans and their questionable contributions to planetary improvement. For every Mozart or Pavarotti or Springsteen or Chomsky there seems to be at least 10 million malevolent, unconscious, dimwitted, functionally illiterate, armed, dangerous and belligerent assholes ruining things for everybody and everything else.

For instance, on the one hand, here's Mark Knopfler, formerly of Dire Straits, appearing at a smallish concert hall and playing the most heartbreakingly beautiful electric guitar solo imaginable -- one of many preternatural feats of guitar virtuosity he'll unleash that night.

Slow, dreamy, peaceful melody in A Maj, punctuated by a couple of minor chords to provide counterpoint and generate a little push-pull tension-release. He sustains some notes so long you'd think it's impossible for a string to keep vibrating; other notes are more like brief hints of suggested tonality as he runs a string of 32nd notes from High G all the way to the fourth harmony on the A string. And then lands at the perfect millisecond, chokes the note off, and returns to the mic for another verse.

On the other, there's the Army of God, Operation Rescue, CPAC, Pat Robertson's TV congregation, Revs. Dobson and Phelps and their maniac adherents, Oral Roberts, the KKK and we'll throw in the entire cast of "BushCo: Seven Short Years to
Obliteration."

One brilliant virtuoso human, even the amazingly talented Mark Knopfler, can't exert enough positive force to overcome the malicious influence of all those vile bigots, religious nuts, pro-life murderers and genocidal maniacs.

But I'm a little out of sorts this morning. Maybe it's not that bad after all. Hell, maybe Oral Roberts really does need some money. I think I'll mail him a $20 and see if he gets a decent tie out of the deal.


wp

[MedleyMisty]

18. copy of a post I wrote on another board about this subject

It's not different species. It's the spectrum of humanity. You have the genetic psychopaths, the people who aren't genetically psychopathic but susceptible to it, people in the middle, people who aren't genetically - hmm, need a new word for opposite of psychopath - let's go with empath for now - empathic but susceptible to it, and then the empaths.

Hmm - actually the possibility for splitting off does still exist. In fact I'd say that the current time just may be the battle for dominance between the two ends of the spectrum.

The ability that sets the human mind apart from other species is the ability to make connections. I recently read a book about how consciousness evolved, and it combined the theories of general intelligence and multiple intelligences - there's the lower general intelligence, then the multiple intelligences, and then the general intelligence that links together all the multiple intelligences.

Human society mirrors our brains - we started out as a relatively small and concentrated group and then spread out and became isolated from each other, and in recent decades we have all come back together in a higher unity - epitomized by the internet, although of course not everyone has access to it yet.

With more people than ever before being literate and having access to knowledge, we've achieved a higher general intelligence as a species. Like I said, the ability to make links is what defines the human brain. And now with so many people educated and able to communicate and make links within the communal brain, the barriers in the minds of the masses have started to fall - thus why there's more empathy now than in any other time in human history. The psychopaths are starting to lose power.

And they are fighting back with every trick they know, and they know an awful lot of tricks and aren't afraid to use them. I wonder how much longer we'll have the internet.

If the species is going to survive, those of us who can feel have to win.

OMG, was just rereading this and noticed my heart! Thank you ever so much, whoever you are! :) *off to go find the official thank you thread*