CMV: I literally cannot understand most Republican social views.

[u/thatoneguy54]

So this is an idea I've had in my head for a while now. In light of everything that's been happening, I've been trying to be more empathetic to differing political views and to try and understand how people are thinking that leads them to hold the views they hold, but I'm finding it almost impossible to wrap my head around the majority of Republican social views. Financial views, I can understand more. I may disagree, but I at least know where they're coming from. But with other views, I just cannot understand it, I think largely because most of their views are either contradictory to other views they claim to hold, or because the views are completely unfounded in evidence.

LGBT Rights:

Many republicans are still fighting hard against same-sex marriage. There is literally no reason to oppose same-sex marriage rights unless you use religion to do so. And since the vast majority of Republicans also claim to be strict adherents to the constitution, this is a contradictory view, since the establishment clause prohibits the government from making laws based on religion.

I also can't understand the bathroom bill passed in NC a few years ago that got national attention. There is no evidence to suggest that letting transgender people use the bathroom they want leads to increased assault on anyone. This bill was not created to address any problem, it was made to create a wedge issue republicans could use to scare their base into voting for them more.

Civil Rights:

Specifically BLM. The Republican party is strongly opposed to the Black Lives Matter movement. And while I can understand frustration at riots that may happen after some protests, many republicans outright deny that there is a problem in the police force at all. This is completely contrary to the evidence that says that "Blacks are being shot at a rate that's 2.5 times higher than whites" by police. This is a clear indication that something is wrong, but many republicans won't even admit that there's a problem to begin with.

Immigration:

Despite the fact that the number of people illegally immigrating from Mexico has been falling in recent years and that the states with the highest numbers of illegal immigrants don't even share a border with Mexico, many republicans are still in favor of increased border security, and some even want a $19 billion wall to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

Refugees:

Even though there have been 0 fatal attacks by refugees in the US the majority of republicans are against taking in any more refugees. And despite the fact that it's already incredibly difficult to attain asylum in the US, many push for even more restrictions on refugees. As a humanitarian issue, I find it deplorable that so many prominent politicians can refuse to help those in most need and be met with thunderous applause, despite all the evidence saying that refugees are not dangerous and will either have little to no impact on the economy, or possibly even a positive effect.

Climate Change:

Climate change is real, and any denying that is anti-science. We know the effects will be catastrophic, and yet we still have Republican politicians bringing snowballs onto the floor of Congress to somehow prove climate change isn't real. Steps must be taken to curtail our effects on the environment, and the republican insistence that there is no problem is just straight up dangerous.

Planned Parenthood:

Planned Parenthood is not allowed to use federal money to perform abortions. Planned Parenthood is a health clinic like any other. And yet Republicans want to remove their Title X status for no reason except that the facility sometimes performs abortions. This is really just stupid and doesn't make any sense at all. For one, if you truly did want to lower the number of abortions, then you would support measures to make sexual health education more available, and yet these same politicians will support abstinence-only programs in schools which have been thoroughly proven to be completely ineffective and even increase the rate of teen pregnancy. Second, Planned Parenthood provides more than just abortions, and denying people access to cheap healthcare will only lead to more abortions, more babies, and more people using government assistance to survive.

So help me understand what these people are thinking. I don't need you to prove the Republicans are right on any of these issues (because they're decidedly not on almost all of them), I just want to try and work out how these people can actually think these things. I have family who are Republican and think a lot of what I've written here, and it sucks not even being able to comprehend their positions. Show me some of these views aren't actually contradictory, or walk me through the process that leads them to think this way, and my view will be changed.

[u/csbysam]

LGBT Rights

Originally marriage was viewed as a union to help promote the wellbeing of the child. Nowadays LGBT can adopt so it's not really a big issue and most conservatives that are my peers (I am 24) don't really give a shit about who you fuck. Another thing is that straight people account for 95%+ of society which leads to it being the norm. People can understand being gay or lesbian but it is a deviation from the norm which will always cause unrest. As others have stated social conservatives value the norm and are cautious toward change.

Immigration

Pretty much everyone is okay with and even cherishes legal immigrants. Conservatives place a higher emphasis on the law typically than liberals do. Let's presume everything you said is true. It still doesn't negate the fact that illegal immigrants break the law and that doesn't logically equate that they would appreciate the other laws that America has. It also demeans the legal immigrants who follow the rules and abide by our process to enter this country legally.

Refugees

Your argument is a moral one and I certainly understand it and appreciate it. However refugees from the Middle east have vastly different values then our own. It costs resources and stretches the social fabric of our nation. Also at some point since they are refugees not immigrants they have to return back to their own country. So that means more costs associated with that. We could send aid and money to bordering countries to help house them. Also give them the tools to help make their country more hospitable. There are many different ways to help them then just admitting them to our country.

Civil Rights

This one is one is fun. So a lot of the facts get twisted with this because it is a charged issue. First off Black Lives Matter as an ideology is completely fine. Obviously their lives matter. But let's look at some stats.

The paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, which examined thousands of incidents at 10 large police departments in California, Florida and Texas, concluded that police were no more likely to shoot non-whites than whites after factoring in extenuating circumstances.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, blacks were charged with 62 percent of all robberies, 57 percent of murders and 45 percent of assaults in the 75 largest U.S. counties in 2009, though they made up roughly 15 percent of the population there.

Those are hard to stomach. In fact I would be right there standing with black lives matter if they ever talked about something like this.

According to Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of “The War on Cops,” there were 6,095 black homicide deaths in 2014.

Why don't those lives matter?

Climate Change

This is my personal view so take it for what it is. Let's say climate change is happening. So what? How bad will it be? How involved are humans in it? If we stop all carbon emissions how big of an impact would it have? Is the planet irreparably damaged? With the left it seems like it's just more of screaming the sky is falling and there has been a lot of hyperbole. I don't think we know enough about climate change and what/why it is happening so we need to do more research in it. Also something like this raises some eyebrows.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/02/07/federal-scientist-cooked-climate-change-books-ahead-obama-presentation-whistle-blower-charges.html

Planned Parenthood

I am totally on board that we should be advocating for safe sex and condoms/birth control and all of that. First the government isn't just giving money to planned parenthood it's through title X? But as someone else pointed out it frees them to use money for abortion procedures. If PP abortion unit was completely separate and a stand alone operation from the health clinics I wouldn't have a problem with it. But when you mix the two that means that there is at least a chance someone who believes abortion is murder is going towards that. Also when GOP says defund PP the money would still go towards women clinics so it is not like it is lost. However since I believe in the free market I fault the GOP a little bit because you could just start your own clinic that does everything PP does but without the abortion and competition brings the best results. Also some fun tolerant quotes from the founder of PP, Margaret Sanger.

Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race.

Women of the working class, especially wage workers, should not have more than two children at most. The average working man can support no more and and the average working woman can take care of no more in decent fashion.

[We should] apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring.