Understanding the Conservative Mindset

[d4m10n]

Were conservatives to have some crystal ball to foresee these bad ideas?

They weren't exactly speaking out in favor of the "viewpoint that if you remove the incentives for economic self-interest you get decreased production and innovation" until progressives got together to create a huge nationwide demonstration of what happens when you take economic self-interest out of the loop. Once progressives did that, though, conservatives finally started standing athwart history shouting "Stop!" but by then it was far too late for the people of Russia and China.

My point remains unrefuted: Conservatives generally operate by reacting against progressive reforms. They don't have an agenda, they have nostalgia.

 

[Trausti]

They weren't exactly speaking out in favor of the "viewpoint that if you remove the incentives for economic self-interest you get decreased production and innovation" until progressives got together to create a huge nationwide demonstration of what happens when you take economic self-interest out of the loop. Once progressives did that, though, conservatives started standing athwart history shouting "Stop!" but by then it was too late for the people of Russia and China.

My point remains unrefuted: Conservatives generally operate by reacting against progressive reforms.

Mao's elimination of private property and forcing farmers to work for the collective was a "progressive" reform. How many people in the last century were dispossessed or kill under the banner of progressive reforms? The notion that a "progressive" reform is inherently good is clearly not correct.

 

[d4m10n]

Mao's elimination of private property and forcing farmers to work for the collective was a "progressive" reform.

Yes, I've already said as much.

The notion that a "progressive" reform is inherently good is clearly not correct.

Yes, yes, appeal to modernity^WP is a well known fallacy.

 

[Trausti]

Of course, reforms can be good and necessary. There are surely plenty examples of that, too. But it is much easier to destroy than to create.

 

[d4m10n]

Of course, reforms can be good and necessary. There are surely plenty examples of that, too.

Have any of those examples sprung from the "conservative mindset" in your view?

I'm genuinely interested to hear whether it is possible for conservatives to do anything other than harken back to the way things were.

 

[Trausti]

Have any of those examples sprung from the "conservative mindset" in your view?

I'm genuinely interested to hear whether it is possible for conservatives to do anything other than harken back to the way things were.

Your caricature of conservatives just might be incorrect.

 

[d4m10n]

Did you even notice the question mark?

 

[d4m10n]

Let me rephrase me question for anyone else who might be interested.

Are there any examples of "good and necessary" reforms which spring from the "conservative mindset," however you conceptualize it?

While my understanding caricature of conservatives might well be incorrect, I've yet to see a counterexample put forward.

 

[steenkh]

Yes, that people are who they are. You brought up that people can be mean and bigoted. Yes, so what?

In your argument, politics should be mean and bigoted.

 

[dann]

Is Conservatism a Personality Disorder? The Psychology of the Empathy Deficit (Thom Hartman & Raw America on YouTube, July 19, 2026 – 12:38 min.)
Thom Hartmann sits down with Christopher Armitage—journalist, criminal justice researcher, and former law enforcement officer—to discuss his provocative piece, "Conservatism: America's Personality Disorder." Armitage shares his firsthand observations from working within the prison system, where he noted a striking overlap between the psychological traits of hardened inmates and the rhetoric of modern conservative media.
His book: Conservatism: America's Personality Disorder - https://amzn.to/4yyFj2M
The conversation explores the biological basis of empathy, the role of mirror neurons, and why figures like Elon Musk view empathy as a "bug" in Western civilization. Thom and Christopher also discuss the "spoils system" of political disinformation, the impact of childhood trauma on leaders like Donald Trump, and whether cognitive empathy can actually be taught in schools to bridge the growing political divide in America.

00:00 Christopher Armitage on Conservatism and Personality Disorders
01:03 Convening Grand Juries Over DOGE and Elon Musk
01:44 How to Join the Citizen Grand Jury Petition
03:14 Lessons from Law Enforcement: The Prison Guard Mentality
04:47 Empathy Deficit: The Link Between Inmates and MAGA
05:26 Elon Musk and the "Empathy Bug" in Western Civilization
06:35 Can Empathy Be Relearned in Adulthood?
07:46 Teaching Cognitive Empathy in American Schools
09:00 "Conservatives Without a Conscience" and Authoritarianism
10:49 Why Conservatives Attack PBS and Sesame Street
11:34 The Profitable Business of Political Disinformation

7:44–> – So there are things we can do and one of the suggestions, too, that I just want to bring up in the book is, you know, actually teaching cognitive empathy in schools and in education and to our children. You know conservative parents who identify as conservative are less than 50/50 chance that they're going to say that empathy is a value that they want to pass on to their children. But for parents who identify as liberal or progressive, about 80% of them say that that's something they want to pass on to their children.
– Right, and probably that empathy deficit or access to empathy is, you know, is the predicate for the political worldview.

There's a reference to John W. Dean's 2008 book, Conservatives without Conscience (GoodReads), which ...

... not only highlights specific right-wing-driven GOP policies but also probes the conservative mindset, identifying recurring qualities such as the unbridled viciousness toward those daring to disagree with them, as well as the big business favoritism that costs taxpayers billions. He identifies specific examples of how court-packing seeks to form a judiciary that is biased by its very nature, how religious piety is producing politics run amok & how concealed indifference to the founding principles of liberty & equality is pushing America further & further from its constitutional foundations. By the end, he paints a vivid picture of what's happening at the top levels of the Republican Party, a party corrupted by leaders who cloak their actions in moral superiority while packaging their programs in blatant propaganda.

It's not as if any of this should have come as a surprise, but it obviously did to many people.

 

[dann]

Continued from post 130:
Consistent with the conservative mindset's lack of empathy, the Republican campaign strategy for the midterms will be running on hate:

Republicans Confirm They’re Running On HATE For Midterms (Farron Balanced on YouTube, July 24, 2026 – 6:35 min.)
Republicans are privately admitting that Donald Trump's obsession with relitigating the 2020 election and ignoring the issues Americans actually care about is dragging the GOP toward a potential midterm disaster, leaving the party with little more than fearmongering to sell voters.
(...)

• "It's going to be a hate election," a Republican tied to President Trump's political operation told Axios. "Voters have to hate the Dems more than they hate us. And we have material to work with."

However, the problem with this consistency is that it no longer seems to resonate with the voters. The previous GOP campaigns were based on the hate for allegedly criminal immigrants, wokeists allegedly trying to abolish Christmas and Christianity, and LGBTQ+ people allegedly performing sex-change operations on school children. In 2024, the immigrants were allegedly eating people's pets, and furries were placing litterboxes in classrooms, but nobody buys into that idiocy anymore, so what are haters gonna hate in 2026?
Trump more or less announced that it will be a resurrection of the 1950s' Red Scare, which will no doubt appeal to the remaining MAGA base of fascists who are eagerly embracing it on X, but it doesn't seem to resonate with anybody beyond hard-core conservatives:

GOP midterms strategy: Make it a "hate election" (Axios, July 19, 2026)

• A majority of voters consistently view Trump as dishonest (even in red states, including Texas).
• And Republicans counting on voters hating liberal Democrats more than them might consider this: A CNBC poll out Friday found that voters now are more likely to be turned off by a MAGA candidate than a democratic socialist.

Americans seem to have seen through the scapegoating lies that appeal so much to the traditional conservative mindset. It will be interesting to see if the Epstein class can come up with a boogeyman that can misdirect their attention from the economic realities once again.

The Farron Balanced video shows an interesting Kalshi bet:

Which party will win the U.S. House? Odds & Predictions 2026 (July 24, 2026)
Democratic Party 82.9%
Republican Party 17.1%

 

[dann]

In your argument, politics should be mean and bigoted.

Mean and bigoted is the conservative mindset in a nutshell.
And they are openly embracing it now:
No more Mister 'Compassionate Conservative.'

 

[Trausti]

In your argument, politics should be mean and bigoted.

No. But recognizing that some people are mean, bigoted, or criminal minded because that is who the are is my argument. Society or some invisible "ism" didn't cause that.

 

[Trausti]

Mean and bigoted is the conservative mindset in a nutshell.
And they are openly embracing it now:
No more Mister 'Compassionate Conservative.'

You just posted a thread pre-emptively blaming White kids for the death of a Black kid solely because they're White.

 

[steenkh]

No. But recognizing that some people are mean, bigoted, or criminal minded because that is who the are is my argument. Society or some invisible "ism" didn't cause that.

I can agree that some people are mean, bigoted, or criminal minded. You originally wrote:

I'd say that conservatives have in common is the acceptance of human nature as it is rather than as we might want it to be. And policy should be based on reality not imagined utopia.

I asked if it meant that politics should cater to this human nature, and so far, you have just evaded by saying that this is how human nature is.

So, conservatives accept human nature as it is. What influence does this have on conservative politics?

 

[Trausti]

I can agree that some people are mean, bigoted, or criminal minded. You originally wrote:

I asked if it meant that politics should cater to this human nature, and so far, you have just evaded by saying that this is how human nature is.

So, conservatives accept human nature as it is. What influence does this have on conservative politics?

Tax cuts? Limited government? Third strikes for violent offenders? Personal responsibility?

 

[arthwollipot]

Conservatives don't want people to be better. They don't want people to improve themselves. Bad people are bad, and they will always be bad, so conservative politics should assume that all people will always be bad.

Progressive politics, on the other hand, gives opportunities for people to be better.

 

[Trausti]

Conservatives don't want people to be better. They don't want people to improve themselves.

No, they do. That's why they're against endless government bureaucracy that creates permanent dependency.

Bad people are bad, and they will always be bad, so conservative politics should assume that all people will always be bad.

Yes, a criminal is bad because he is a criminal. That's who he is. And he'll show you that's who is by re-offending every time you let him go.

Progressive politics, on the other hand, gives opportunities for people to be better.

Better for whom? The bureaucrats and "non-profits" who profit from taxpayers dollars on crises they don't ever want to solve?

 

[arthwollipot]

Yes, a criminal is bad because he is a criminal. That's who he is. And he'll show you that's who is by re-offending every time you let him go.

And there you have it. Criminals cannot reform. Once a crim, always a crim.

You must have really hated the end of Return of the Jedi, hey?

 

[steenkh]

Tax cuts? Limited government? Third strikes for violent offenders? Personal responsibility?

Tax cuts and limited government could mean deregulation so that the criminal human nature of business leaders can endanger the lives of workers and customers. OK, you are working with human nature here. But third strikes for violent offenders seems to be an attempt to work against the criminal human nature. And I can't see how human nature is relevant for personal responsibility. Some people will act responsibly, and others will not.

So my conclusion is that conservative politics is only using references to human nature as a nice sounding slogan, but there is really nothing of the kind behind it.

Trump and the conservatives who support him have also clearly demonstrated that their politics is only being used to make themselves richer, and the world a worse place for everybody who is not a billionaire.