Difference between revisions of "Conservative vs. liberal"

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(Growth of religious conservatism in the world and its affects on politics)
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See: [[Conservative values]]
 
See: [[Conservative values]]
  
== Growth of religious conservatism in the world and its affects on politics ==
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== Growth of religious conservatism in the world and its effects on politics ==
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''See also:'' [[Culture war]]
  
 
Religious conservatism is a big driver of [[social conservatism]].   
 
Religious conservatism is a big driver of [[social conservatism]].   

Revision as of 10:55, June 4, 2017

Russell Kirk was an American political theorist, conservative intellectual, historian of ideas, social critic, and man of letters, who is best known for his role in the American conservative movement.

Numerous differences exist between conservatives and liberals. This article compares the two ideologies.

Liberalism and conservatism are two opposing ideologies of two different words, one of which is much smoother with its "-ism" suffix. While there are no definitive or official texts for either, it is usually believed that liberalism connotes the belief that new is always better than old and that history is irrelevant to the present, while conservatism states just the opposite.[1] It could also be described that liberalism is the force of change, and conservatism is the force of preservation.[2] However, in a society in which very much change is the spread of perverted beliefs, diminishing morals, and deceptive indoctrination, it can be that liberalism is the belief which supports such things, and conservatism that which seeks to keep peace and righteousness, even if that does become the change that occurs.[3]

Both sides, as ideologies, enjoy claiming to be the force of reason.

In American politics, parties are often generalized as supporting one cause or the other, and labeled as red or blue. The two ideologies are also made linear by the use of the terms "left" and "right." This is illustrated by the chart below.

liberal conservative
left right
Democrat Republican
blue red

Liberalism

Barack Hussein Obama was one of the most liberal presidents in the U.S. history.

Liberalism, if it is all the ideology that supports change, has no consistent ideals throughout history, but this does not bother it, as it generally ignores history. Identifying its particulars cannot be done based on the literal meaning of the word, "the belief in freedom," because in the present context, liberals often suppress freedom of speech, freedom of the Second Amendment, and in the case of recent judicial activism, the freedom to use executive powers granted by the Constitution and to fulfill one's duty to protect one's country. While the drafters of the Constitution are often regarded as liberals, as they were in support of change and freedom, their ideology is often in conflict with the liberals of today. See: Liberalism, Liberal

Liberal values

In a present context, the liberal stance on current issues is as follows:

  • Liberals oppose the right to life for unborn children
  • Liberals support homosexual marriage
  • Liberals oppose the right to keep children safe from pornography
  • Liberals support legalizing all forms of drugs and chemicals
  • Liberals support "affirmative action," i.e., the granting of special rights to minority groups and women.
  • Liberals oppose the Second Amendment

Conjecturally, people who are liberal on political ideals...

  • prefer bawdy jokes and potty humor over wordplay, even in children's movies.
  • use profanity.
  • listen to hip-hop or punk rock music, and associate each style with a race.
  • believe Satanism is a legitimate, harmless religion, but Christianity is not.
  • didn't know Alexander Hamilton wasn't a president until they saw Hamilton!.
  • oppose private schools.
  • enjoy watching the Oscars.
  • spend more time watching the Super Bowl on Super Bowl Sunday than remembering veterans on Veterans' Day and Memorial Day combined. (Memorial Day regards only deceased veterans; veterans includes all).
  • think James Joyce and Jack Kerouac were great writers.
  • consider Communism as a feasible means of economics.
  • believe that World War Two was the cause of the end of the Great Depression, not FDR's economic policies.
  • will not accept a tax cut if it requires Donald Trump to take a tax cut as well.
  • believe anything a scientist says is true
  • accept the existence of hurricanes and other natural disasters as evidence of climate change
  • thinks wind power is perfectly safe for the environment, despite reports of birds being killed by the blades, and that solar power is the same, though birds get fried by the concentrated rays. Coal power they reject on the grounds that it produces carbon dioxide.
  • accept without questioning that 1+2+3+4+5... is -1/12, because mathematicians say so.
  • base their perception of Christianity on its appearance in movies, television, and video games.
  • read and see importance in entertainment news and keep track of famous actors and actresses.
  • think that the Huffington Post is a newspaper.

Conservatism

Conservatives often wished to be defined as something other than the opposition to the more visible force of liberalism, not to be the background on which it occurs. If conservatism were to define itself as an ideology, it would likely related to certain more defined ones, such as the Judeo-Christian ideology taught by the Bible, the idea of classical liberalism as supported by Socrates and Plato but not Aristotle, and the principles of such men as the modern conservatives Edmund Burke, William F. Buckley, Jr., or the scholarly Christian ancients St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.[4] Yet, lacking in a scholarly and documented ideology, the epithet conservative is applied to such differently minded people as Rush Limbaugh, C.S. Lewis, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and the staff of Fox News.[5] See: Conservative

Conservative values

Conservatives generally support religion, particularly Christianity in the United States, capitalism and the free market, and the right to bear arms. Conservatives typically believe that the only couples that can bear children are those of a man and a woman, and that thus the union between them is sacred.[6] To conservatives, who believe true science*, gender in humans is determined by the presence or lack of a Y-chromosome.[7][8]

Conjecturally, those who identify as conservative...

  • do not appreciate slapstick humor.
  • upon seeing an inspirational video about a girl who raised a billion dollars for her 8-year-old brother by threatening to play annoying songs loudly and extorting money from neighbors ... do not become inspired, rather angry or grateful not to live in that girl's neighborhood.
  • suspect that "imaginary" numbers are so named because they are a figment of mathematicians' imaginations, and that such numbers do not apply to math.
  • think that anarchy is not about sharing, it's about stealing.
  • enjoy smooth jazz, bossa nova, and orchestral music.
  • retain integrity when no one is watching.
  • do not allow their children to watch programs of which they do not approve, but allow their children to go out into woods and plains.
  • support agriculture jobs.
  • find setting up dominoes and knocking them down to be more entertaining than popular television.
  • wonder how Fifty Shades Darker got its name when the actors have no visible skin coloration. They also wonder why the Twilight producers didn't save money and shoot the film in black-and-white, since there was hardly any color to show.
  • prefer children who act stunningly innocent rather than like precocious miniature adults.
  • are suspicious of the value of new technology, such as the safety of a self-driving car (Can they be remotely hacked?). They may doubt the significance of each new incarnation of the iPhone.
  • enjoy solitude and do not need to speak constantly.
  • do not enjoy being the victim of a prank or pranking others.[9]
  • wonder what anti-death penalty mean when the say "12% of executions are botched in ways that can lead to the convict dying."
  • thought in school that students who learned more quickly should be permitted to move through ranks quickly/
  • don't state their beliefs as frequently as liberals, which is why there appears to be less conservative activity on the Internet.
  • would rather pray for Donald Trump to improve than to see him killed or impeached.

See: Conservative values

Growth of religious conservatism in the world and its effects on politics

See also: Culture war

Religious conservatism is a big driver of social conservatism.

The Birkbeck College, University of London professor Eric Kaufman wrote in his 2010 book Shall the Righteous Inherit the Earth? concerning the United States:

High evangelical fertility rates more than compensated for losses to liberal Protestant sects during the twentieth century. In recent decades, white secularism has surged, but Latino and Asian religious immigration has taken up the slack, keeping secularism at bay. Across denominations, the fertility advantage of religious fundamentalists of all colours is significant and growing. After 2020, their demographic weight will begin to tip the balance in the culture wars towards the conservative side, ramping up pressure on hot-button issues such as abortion. By the end of the century, three quarters of America may be pro-life. Their activism will leap over the borders of the 'Redeemer Nation' to evangelize the world. Already, the rise of the World Congress of Families has launched a global religious right, its arms stretching across the bloody lines of the War on Terror to embrace the entire Abrahamic family.[10]

See also

References

  1. "Liberalism." Encyclopædia Britannica, 17th edition.
  2. The American Collegiate Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, 1959.
  3. Buckley, William F. Up From Liberalism. William F. Buckley, Jr. is often considered a leading conservative authority.
  4. "Liberalism." The Great Conversation. Great Books of the Western World, 2. Britannica.
  5. "The 100 People the Left Hates Most." TIME magazine.
  6. Walsh, Matt. "Yes, Gay Marriage Hurts Me Personally." Warning: contains harsh expletives in quoting an attack by a liberal. http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/yes-gay-marriage-hurts-me-personally/.
  7. "MasteringBiology." Pearson.
  8. "Genetics 101: All About DNA." http://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/blog/genetics-101-all-about-dna/
  9. Proverbs 26:18-19.
  10. Why is the year 2020 a key year for Christian creationists and pro-lifers?