Opinions And Assholes

Close-minded people, and particularly conservatives, tend to base their opinions on things not necessarily connected to reality.    They tend to come up with their views, and then twist reality to try to fit it to them, or ignore huge portions of reality.  That's one reason I don't like many conservatives.  I think history matters, I think reality matters, I think both shape who we are as individuals and societies, and they do not think that.

A couple of recent examples from conversations I have had:

"Republicans have always been the civil rights leaders!  That didn't change in the '60s; only two senators switched sides."  Well, no.  This is what you get from pulling a fact out of context, and twisting things to support your views.  Yes, Lincoln was a Republican, and for a while after the Civil War the Republicans were indeed a reasonably principled party.  That changed over time, and from the early 20th century on the two big parties went through gradual transformations.  Many individuals and politicians switched parties in the '40s and '50s in response to civil rights issues.  Only a few actively switched parties right around the 1964 Civil Rights Act debate, but after that the shift continued, with many switching and also with many officials losing reelection due to their views.  Basically, the Republicans became anti-civil rights and the Democrats became pro-.   There was a time when both parties were reasonable, and where bipartisanship was possible.  Nowadays, with so many lunatics in the rank and file and rising up among elected officials, the Republican Party is a lost cause.  The fact that conservatives have to look back to Lincoln, and a few people in the '60s, to find examples of civil rights advocates is telling. 

There are many good articles about this "but Republicans are the good guys!" nonsense.  Here's a great one to start with.


"The Crusades were defensive!  The Muslims invaded Europe, and Europeans rode out valiantly to repel them."  Well, no.  Yes, Muslims invaded places, Spain first, and there were many battles there and elsewhere, and access to the Holy Land was cut off during some internecine Muslim struggles.  But saying the Crusades were a defensive response to that is ridiculous.  Hundreds of years elapsed between the Spanish Conquest and the start of the Crusades.  By that logic Britain would be justified in taking back their American colonies tomorrow; after all, they would just be fighting defensively.  And of course you're ignoring all the Crusades in Europe against Jews and heretics, and the siege of Constantinople (Christian on Christian,) and the pillaging along the way, and all sorts of other things. 

This article is a good starting point for further research into Crusade revisionism.


"Climate change isn't real!  The temperatures are leveling off!"  Well, no.  You can't pick a short period where temps aren't increasing quite as fast, and claim proof of anything.  Fit those years into the big picture, and the earth is still definitely getting warmer, and that period is in fact barely a blip in the scheme of things.  Science describes reality; ignore it at your peril (and ours.)

Please read this great article about the latest nonsense from climate-change deniers.


You can't just pull one fact out and base your opinion on that, out of context (and actually, you are just trying to twist that fact to fit your already-decided opinion.)  You can't say "Oh yeah, well the first slaveowner in the U.S. was black" and think that invalidates all the history that has come after that, and the contextual reality surrounding even just that moment.

If you cherrypick facts, you end up with a distortion of reality.  If you research and understand history and current events, you can come to conclusions based on reality.  Maybe they will be conservative conclusions; that is possible.  I am conservative on some issues, and I love having reasonable discussions with people of differing views.  But liberal or conservative, if you do not know what you are talking about, if you think history does not matter, if you insist that you are right in the face of obvious facts to the contrary, I will not bother pretending to respect you or your opinions.  If you get your information from unreliable sources like Limbaugh and Beck, if you pick and choose your facts to fit your opinions, you are delusional.  And probably a conservative.