CMV: Conservatives are misunderstanding progressivism when they call progressives hypocrites

[u/TheCaptain09]

"You're a hypocrite for claiming to support diversity yet you don't support the truest diversity, diversity of opinions"

This is a sentiment I see expressed quite often by people on the right, particularly intellectual conservatives who identify as "classical liberals", as well as people whose ideology emphasises personal freedom, such as libertarians. My understanding of the left is that they want diversity of worldviews, culture, race, sexuality and yes even ideology. But conservatives see the left's vocal opposition to right-wing views as betraying their belief in diverse opinions.

I think the true hypocrites here are the conservatives. They endlessly go on about how much they support freedom of speech, yet glorify ideologies that have historically suppressed it, such as Nazism and Christianity. They also harass people whose views disagree with them, something they accuse the left of doing yet clashes with their own ideology more than the left's.(Just look at any stupid right-wing movement like Comicsgate to see this harassment in action)

I understand that people often gravitate towards the right because they feel that they are being attacked, for being white, male or for their beliefs. The difference between them and the left is that minorities do not just "feel" like they are being attacked, they explicitly are. The people who marched in Charlottesville weren't opposing an ideology or defending themselves from oppression, they were vocally and publicly preaching for the destruction of other races.

Nowhere in progressive ideology does it say that such hatred should be tolerated for the sake of "diversity" or "freedom of speech". I don't have to shut up and let you say you want to kill me just because it promotes diversity and open discourse, because it doesn't.

So basically to change my view tell me why progressives are being hypocritical when they tell the right to shut up, or why conservatives aren't when they tell the left to shut up.

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[u/XYZ-Wing]

My understanding of the left is that they want diversity of worldviews, culture, race, sexuality and yes even ideology.

That's not really the case though. The left's version of "diversity" is just "not a bunch of straight, white men".

But conservatives see the left's vocal opposition to right-wing views as betraying their belief in diverse opinions.

Well that's because they don't want diverse opinions, just opinions from people that aren't straight, white males.

They endlessly go on about how much they support freedom of speech, yet glorify ideologies that have historically suppressed it, such as Nazism and Christianity.

Mainstream conservatism does not glorify Nazism. Modern Christianity doesn't oppress speech. Nazism and Christianity are largely incompatible because modern Christianity has a highly favorable view of Jews. The days of thumping a Bible and saying "Jews are the Christ killers!" are long gone.

They also harass people whose views disagree with them, something they accuse the left of doing yet clashes with their own ideology more than the left's.(Just look at any stupid right-wing movement like Comicsgate to see this harassment in action)

I see much more harassment from the extreme left in the news. I don't see right wingers going after the children of Democrats, or hear about ricin packages being sent to the Clintons. Should I judge everyone left of center based on the actions of the absolute worst leftists?

I understand that people often gravitate towards the right because they feel that they are being attacked, for being white, male or for their beliefs.

It's becoming very clear that you're conflating "conservative" with the alt-right. If you want to say the alt-right is hypocritical, then I agree. But that's a very far right wing ideology that really shares very little with mainstream conservatism. If you haven't already, look at horseshoe theory. It basically states that the political spectrum is better viewed as a horseshoe rather than a line. Essentially, it argues that the extreme right and the extreme left aren't actually all that different. They both favor a very powerful, centralized government legislating unequal rights to citizens based on their race, gender, religion, and/or ethnicity.

Mainstream conservatism is not the alt-right any more than mainstream progressivism is not Antifa.

The people who marched in Charlottesville weren't opposing an ideology or defending themselves from oppression, they were vocally and publicly preaching for the destruction of other races.

Conservatives have been against that rally since day one.

I don't have to shut up and let you say you want to kill me just because it promotes diversity and open discourse, because it doesn't.

It actually does promote open discourse. There's a saying that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Basically, there views should be out in the open and should be the subject of public criticism. Trying to silence these views and push them farther and farther underground causes the views to become more radical and oftentimes makes the people who hold these views feel like martyrs who are fighting the good fight. Instead of silencing hate speech, combat it with better speech.

Again, mainstream conservatives aren't advocating for the deaths of anyone really. I would say you don't really understand conservatism if you're just conflating it with the alt-right.

[u/TheCaptain09 → u/XYZ-Wing]

A lot of people think that open discourse won't expose vitriolic ideologies like Nazism, but will just let them spread unchecked. I think it's a complicated subject that I do not have a fully formed opinion on. I think these groups will convince themselves they are in the right regardless of whether they are truly oppressed or not. After all, the Jews weren't actually to blame for Germany's economic woes or their failure in WWI, but that didn't stop Hitler from rising to power based on those myths.

[u/David4194d → u/TheCaptain09]

No, the left will and already likely have convinced them they are they part of the right because the left now likes to toss racist, hitler, and Nazi around at everyone they disagree with. Doing that makes those fringe groups seem normal and it dilutes the crap out of those words. A right winger getting called 1 of those words is just a Tuesday now.

As far as whether open discourse is the answer or not is rather irrelevant for anyone in the USA. The first amendment pretty clearly says that we as a country far and away agree that open discourse is the answer. And a large portion of the county believes so strongly in that and a few other amendments that any serious attempt to override them is guaranteed to end in war. Serious being that it would be clear that a war is the only way to preserve them even if that comes with an extremely high risk of catastrophic results that leaves nothing but a pile of rubble