Ummon wrote:The problem I have with conservatives is that they don't seem willing to compromise.
Socialists and communists are the same.
They cannot be happy with being one among many, but rather must be THE one and if you give them an inch (out of kindness) they will try to take a mile. In other words, they are unreasonable. They seem like bullies, it is "my way or the highway." Often, the worst thing is that they are JUST PLAIN WRONG. In a sense a lot of their reasoning could be understood IF it were correct, but it just seems disconnected from reality a philosophy of words that is meaningless because it doesn't predict accurately.
Again, IME this all describes socialists and communists even better than conservatives.
Heinie wrote:The problem with conservatives is that they lack ordinary human compassion.
The right is elitist, the left egalitarian. So as conservatives are on the right, they view the unfortunate as mainly authors of their own misfortunes, and thus unworthy of much compassion, whereas those on the left consider them victims of injustice and thus suitable objects of compassion.
My view has changed over the years, as I've gained perspective. I used to look at the poor and notice how they typically
chose behavior that made them poor: violence; use of alcohol and drugs; gambling; luxury consumption; dishonesty; criminality; irresponsible sexuality; etc. Now I have a more nuanced view, and believe that much of the poor's self-defeating behavior results from the doleful effects of generations of relentlessly compounded injustice -- like compound interest -- that makes it hard for them to rise out of squalor. I don't doubt that some portion is due to genetics, some to lack of character, some to bad luck; but I am convinced that most is due to centuries of massive, systematic, institutionalized, and wholly gratuitous injustice.