So I love in a pretty conservative part of the country and I have been noticing that there are alot of similar veins of thought among conservatives that are identical to leftist beliefs.
ETC
In my personal experience of you can make an argument that focuses on the already deeply held core values of a typical conservative as opposed to abstract economic theory conservatives tend to be more willing to make the jump to radicalism than most liberals. You can even stroke their market homer by talking to them about syndicalism and market socialism.
Has anyone else noticed similar trends or am I alone on this?
The average redneck is definitely ripe for turning if you can either manage to break their nationalism or somehow spin the left message into a (relatively) harmless national appeal (ie the people are what make up the country, and the people should control its destiny, and to do so requires control of the MoP)
Isaiah Robinson
The way i see it conservatives in USA are anti government, not anti state. So if you managed to unite all people to abolish Washington DC and just keep each individual state as countries that would be nice.
James Brown
I think the pitfall here is thinking that modern conservatives really believe in anything, they don't, other than 'haha fucking liberals'. If Hannity told them swallowing a shotgun shell would upset Obama somehow they would do it.
Luis White
Boner not homer god damn it when socialism finally comes curse words better not autocorrect to other words to protect the fee fees of middle ages mothers.
Joshua Torres
This. The paradox of American politics is that despite being so consistently dramatic and controversial, most burgers don't really believe in anything. They've become overly complacent, feckless and incapable of critical thought; people who try to think critically are stereotyped as edgy teens and conspiratards.
Angel Gonzalez
Last time I checked murrican """"""""Christians""""""""""" were protestants that think that poor people deserve to be poor and fucked because they don't work hard enough for dah lord or something stupid like that.
Austin Thompson
Yeah not even the Catholics have too much love for the poor, most of the Catholics I know (including my rents) are "charity is enough" type people
Tyler Bennett
Ask them if the believe in papal infallibility, and if they do then show them what Pope Francis has to say about communism.
Daniel Walker
Ehhhheheh…
I mean, I haven't seen that much of this in my experience. I'm sure there's plenty of it, but Conservative Christianity tends to be pretty hypocritical about action and non-Christian Conservatism tends to breed a unique kind of active contempt for the poor.
Also, the anti-government sentiments largely end once you get more local than the federal government. "State's rights" tends to consistently rely on the "rights" of individual state governments to impose intrusive laws which impact minority demographics or workers. Even the stars-and-bars was initially popularized as a "southern pride" symbol as a sign of resistance against the north and federal government for pushing against segregation.
Alexander Powell
I've been saying this for months now.
Congrats, you've got a Market Syndicalist/DemConfed transitional state. Not perfect, but perfectly plausible, especially in the next 30 years or so. The combo of leftist economics and libertarian societal values is something that could be very potent indeed.
Ethan Jackson
lol
Jason Green
I mean, if you're an ML pulling this, sure, but I think a DemConfed using this strategy is being a hell of a lot less disingenuous than normal politicians. You're still telling people the truth, and what you're planning to do, but you wrap it in pro-american, pro-christian language when possible. It's the inverse of neoliberals like Clinton appropriating leftist themes and phrases to seem "progressive" while still having neoliberal policy.
Honestly, if it's a choice between having to fake being a devout Catholic and having to conduct (an almost certain to fail) violent revolution, I'm up for it.
Nicholas Green
no the rural cons are anti-feds they like the local and state governments
Austin Morales
Remember to support tariffs, and farm subsides.
Colton Jones
Sounds somewhat similar to my beliefs, except I very strongly anti-immigration.
William Gray
American conservatives (Burgertives for short) ain't the Ned Flanders typa Christian, more like Paul Ryan without money or political influence. They're racist to other Christians, they hate the poor and they love war.
I agree with you that socialists *could* shift their Overton window to the left a little if their American Exceptionalist brainwashing was undone. There's definitely a lot of overlap between the two sides of the political compass.
Grayson Sanchez
American anarchist folk singer Utah Philips was converted when someone told him that love of the land does not have equal love or respect for the government. Think that might be a good start
Ian Jenkins
also: the whole idea that capitalism basically just rapes genuine culture might be good
Jack Taylor
You know, it's prolly best not to try to "convert" them anti-gob'mnt conservative types to the far-left by making it clear that you're a socialist cuz they have pretty strong opinions (brainwashing) bout communism. I think a lotta them are better off being "red-pilled" softly without even knowing it so they can get to know bout what the left actually is before they get a chance to go "Gommunism is against Murica Didya know Stalin killed every atom in teh universe?" as part of their brainwashing.
I mean, if Republican voters actually like The Affordable Care Act when it's rebranded without Obama's name in it, but just don't know it then they'd prolly agree with a lotta the stuff the left (the actual left) says if it was repackaged:
if you can posture yourself as anti-state (that doesn't mean be anarchist, but even still don't be vocally pro-USSR emphasize that you're antiestablishment) only two main problems remain for most here trying to convert conservatives. 1. most are pretty racist and are much less anti-state and pro-gun when it comes to racial minorities 2. most are christian, and most people here are not only anti-theists but probably wouldn't be able to hide their spaghetti when confronted with religious people Not saying these are insurmountable. but if you actually want to establish a dialogue with these people for whatever reason, it's worth keeping all that in mind.
Connor Evans
They aren't necessarily anti-State, pro-liberty, or caring towards the poor. If the State was vigorously enforcing Christian belief, they would be all for it. Same goes for liberty vs. vigorous enforcement of Biblical morality. They certainly aren't huge fans of the poor - why would God make people poor if he loved them?
I think it's most useful to view the average American conservative (or at least older ones) as closer to radical Muslims than extreme Libertarians. Faith is really the key point here, but there is an undercurrent of worshipping America in their practice of Christianity.
Luke Green
So just get the racist, christian wing of the far-left to do it.
Christian Diaz
...
Ian Fisher
This. Assault rifles are still banned in California to this day cuz of that one time The Black Panther Party "pulled a Bundy Militia" at the state capitol building back in the 60s.
Oliver Butler
The vanguard's gotta be comprised of someone. It might as well be the most violent and angry people we could get our hands on.
Alexander Martin
They'll cannibalize their own before even taking it to the enemy.
