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"The way in which conservatism became basically not so much pro-liberty as anti-leftism, is also part of the story. Anti-leftism is basically, everything we do is about liberal tears. If the left is upset about it then it must by definition be right. If somebody on the left hates someone, they must by definition be doing something right. Well, that’s deeply satisfying for a long period of time, but...that’s going to be very, very hard for us to extricate ourselves from."
How the Right Lost Its Mind
Free Thoughts Podcast – 48 min 10 sec – Nov 24, 2017 – Episode 215 of 259
Charles J. Sykes joins us this week for a discussion on the origins of the populist, pro-Trump Right.
Why does it seem like politics now is more about attitude and tribal loyalty than ideas and discourse?
Charles Sykes: Yes, it has. Two points to make about that. Number one, there was a time when the conservative movement had gatekeepers like William F Buckley Jr, who were able to excommunicate [00:04:00] those crackpots and those cranks. I go back into the 1960s, when he drew a red line about the extreme paranoia of the John Birch Society, when he expelled folks like the Ku Klux Klan. Not because he was squishy or because he was a rhino or because he didn’t take anti-communism seriously, but because re recognized that those kinds of movements would deface conservatism, would make it impossible for the [00:04:30] movement to be taken seriously.
Fast forward to 2016, what we realize is there is no one with that moral authority, that intellectual authority, to act as a gatekeeper to exclude the cranks and the crackpots who made a recovery. But I will also admit, that’s the first point, the second point, I will admit that we always knew they were there but I always thought that they were on the fringes. I think that along with a lot of other conservatives, perhaps [00:05:00] we didn’t take their presence seriously enough. We didn’t push back on them enough. As a result, folks on the fringes made their way into the mainstream of at least the conservative movement last year.
Charles Sykes:
But what you’re describing is exactly right, the conservatives really became very clear about what they were opposed to and who they hated, less so focus on what they were for. But that tribal identity cannot be overstated.
The way in which conservatism became basically not so much pro-liberty as anti-leftism, is also part of the story. Anti-leftism [00:10:00] is basically, everything we do is about liberal tears. If the left is upset about it then it must by definition be right. If somebody on the left hates someone, they must by definition be doing something right. Well, that’s deeply satisfying for a long period of time, but as you point out there comes a point where it goes, okay, maybe this got out of control. Maybe now suddenly our desire to [00:10:30] annoy the left has led us into a cul-de-sac that’s going to be very, very hard for us to extricate ourselves from.
Charles Sykes: I mean, everything you’re describing is in fact accurate. We see this on university campuses on a regular basis. But yeah, that persecution complex, that sense of being under siege is essential to understanding the conservative movement. As I write in [00:08:00] the book, the conservative movement, yes is reactionary, but it had something legitimate to react against. The overreach of the left, the browbeating of the left, all of those things. But you’re right, at some point the conservative movement seemed to have adopted the culture of victimization.
One of my early books that I wrote was called A Nation Of Victims, which argued that everybody in America at some time or another can claim victim status. Well, somewhere along the line conservatives [00:08:30] decided that they would like to play that victim card. That’s a constant theme, that they are under siege, they’re under attack, they’re looked down upon, they’re being insulted. You see that playing out in conservative media and conservative politics all the time.
Aaron Powell: I think one of the interesting that seemed to happen with that in 2016, the direction that took, Trump voters when they were asked why you’re voting for Trump. One of [00:09:00] the common things was that he, it was essentially that everyone hates him. Everyone I hate hates him so he must be doing something right. That the victimization turned into, “Well, my politics now are whatever will most upset the people I see as victimizing me.”
Charles Sykes: That is exactly right. I think it’s important to understand that my book does not beat up on everybody that voted for Donald Trump, I want to make that clear, that they are not the ones necessarily who lost their minds, [00:09:30] because many of them I think did think it was a binary choice. But what you’re describing is exactly right, the conservatives really became very clear about what they were opposed to and who they hated, less so focus on what they were for. But that tribal identity cannot be overstated.
The way in which conservatism became basically not so much pro-liberty as anti-leftism, is also part of the story. Anti-leftism [00:10:00] is basically, everything we do is about liberal tears. If the left is upset about it then it must by definition be right. If somebody on the left hates someone, they must by definition be doing something right. Well, that’s deeply satisfying for a long period of time, but as you point out there comes a point where it goes, okay, maybe this got out of control. Maybe now suddenly our desire to [00:10:30] annoy the left has led us into a cul-de-sac that’s going to be very, very hard for us to extricate ourselves from.
So what I see happening is that you’ll continue to see the kind of polarization that we’ve had, but that polarization will be more tribal than it will be ideological, unfortunately.
FBでながれてきたので流し聞き。2017年11月のもの。
保守も、信念や理想ではなく、人種差別主義的な極端な団体まで受け入れたり、左翼に対抗するだけの部族活動になってしまっている、と。また、保守も犠牲者カードを使い始めている、と。
会話の中で引用されているのだが、
暴力的なビデオゲームが子供に悪影響を及ぼすんでは、と親たちは恐れていたが、その恐れていたことをフォックニュースが親たちにやっている、とーー面白いね。
