Simple Thinking Conservatives

There is a lot going on that I could talk about.  

Semi-rocker and all chicken hawk, Ted Nugent, a man that has threatened the president multiple times was invited by a member of Congress to attend the State of the Union yesterday…nah, maybe later.

Wayne LaPierre is spouting some of the most paranoid nonsense we have heard so far in the current gun control debate, but that can wait for another day.

The NRA helped distribute a small newspaper that stokes the reactionary far right.  It feeds on their fear of government and strokes their infatuation with American myth.  Maybe another time.

The special education teacher that has been vocally supporting Indiana high school students in their quest to bar their homosexual classmates from attending prom has been called out over her claim that gay people have no purpose in life.  I’m just not feeling it right now.

But what do these all have in common? 

They all really demonstrate how separated from reality these conservatives are.  Whether they should be called spokesmen for the political right or not, I don't know, but they sure act like it.  There was a study that was released last year that stated that conservative thinking was "low effort" thinking.  They did not mean that as an insult, though unsurprisingly conservatives were upset.  I really don't blame them.

This just means that conservatives have a hard time seeing the "big picture" and thinking through what the end results of policies might be.  Some advocate deporting every undocumented immigrant in the country but they don't think it through.  These immigrants contribute to the economy and we would definitely feel it if they were all gone.

It is simple to fear those different than you, whether it is LGBT folks or other minorities.  Hate is simple.  Understanding that these people are just like you, with maybe a slight difference is not as simple.  They have similar goals and similar feelings.  Empathy, catch it.

Sometimes hearing all this ignorance and simple thinking makes me sad.  I'm sad because I don't know what the answer is.  Is it more education?  Is it simply exposing hateful people to what they hate in the hopes that they see similarities?  Do we simply ignore them?  I truly don't know.

These people vote, and elections have consequences