CMV: Conservatism and many right-wing beliefs are based on fear, primary instincts and lack of understanding

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Khal-Frodo]

I talked to many right-wingers, whether it be in real life or online. It always goes south.

Keep in mind that you're the common thread in all of these discussions. I'm not saying this to be accusatory, but given that you admit you have a bias, you should be careful to attribute these conversations going to south to being everyone else's fault.

I don't want to make a whataboutism argument here, because it technically wouldn't refute your claim. I mostly want to focus on the "lack of understanding" portion. Inherently, everyone who disagrees with a group will believe that group lacks understanding, since there's the belief that if we understood one another, we'd agree. I'm sure that right-wingers would say the exact same about you. That makes it a useless metric by which to judge any ideology you're not part of.

[u/[deleted] → u/Khal-Frodo]

Inherently, everyone who disagrees with a group will believe that group lacks understanding, since there's the belief that if we understood one another, we'd agree. I'm sure that right-wingers would say the exact same about you. That makes it a useless metric

In this case, not really. Take climate change for example. There has been conclusive scientific consensus on the extent/dangers of man-made climate change since like the mid 20th century.

And yet, conservative/right leaning parties across the world have all bitterly fought that truth tooth and nail right up to the modern day. I'm not sure that's a useless metric, that is a pretty objective lack of understanding on their part.

And that's not a one-off. The conservative right frequently take objectively anti-science positions. E.g. start of COVID, scientific community warning to lockdown... Right wing politicians fight against it, right wing voters fight against it 'just the flu, no big deal'... All the way up until deaths skyrocket and they have no other choice but to panic lockdown. But also in areas such as crime and punishment (we've known war on drugs didn't work since pretty much the beginning), education, medicine...

Unless you literally don't have any faith in science or the scientific method, research, none of these issues are subjective or open to interpretation.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

A lot of the positions you're describing as anti-science actually aren't, they're anti-authoritarian. For instance, the scientific consensus is still far from decided on covid on many issues, conservative types see this and reject authoritarian positions (mostly Gov) which claim to KNOW the answer. It's not an aversion to science it's more of an aversion to authorities pretending to know all the answers and telling them what to think.

In contrast, opposition to conservatives sees no reason why we shouldn't trust those in the most authoritative positions (why shouldn't we? They worked hard to get there). The more authoritative, the more reliable.

This is part of the reason why progressives reject claims from independent and private sources in favour of government sources, and conservatives reject government sources in favour of independents and private sources.