Why do many conservative governments seem homophobic, racist, sexist?

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/haidt08/haidt08_index.html

@kevbo
So conservative governments play on our xenophobia and make us hate other people more to get votes?

Historically virtually all cultures have been against gay people, outsiders, and women challenging male superiority. It’s in the name. Conservatives offer to keep things the way they are. People are instinctually afraid of the unkown, even if what they know sucks—they can deal with it, and to a lot of people that sounds better than being lead into the potentially unknown by those who propose that change is for the best.

Most people are not complete intellectuals. They will not override their instincts in pursuit of what they think to be right. The conservative political groups in almost every country have a strong footing, even if they can seem unwieldy and delusional (even to their own), because they derive their persuasional power from being able to exploit that very basic instinct.

People of different cultures are unknown. Many interpret their presence as an attempt to change everything. Homosexuals have not been historically accepted by any culture. Women have historically not had the same credit and allowance of rights as men. To allow for these things is to change a culture in a lot of fundamental ways, and the results are unpredictable. It’s likely nothing would happen, but people tend to think the worst.

Mankind is remarkably adaptable when the situation calls for it, but it will also resist change for as long as it possible can. Conservativism is in our nature. It sounds like a good deal to anyone, liberal or conservative, but often times keeping things the same is unrealistic or impossible.

@kevbo
“a woman who can’t find any rags in her house so she cuts up an old American flag and uses the pieces to clean her toilet”
How can anyone this this is morally wrong? It’s a flag.

I’d have to say, because in general, they are representing homophobic, racist, and sexist supporters….

Conservative = Traditionalist

Traditionalism = obstructionism of any progressiveness

Because they are all of those things.

@Coting, I guess people take that stuff seriously.

flag etiquette

@kevbo
Just asked on Yahoo answers and many thought “a woman who can’t find any rags in her house so she cuts up an old American flag and uses the pieces to clean her toilet” was wrong, this shows the UK and America must be so different if some people care about a flag more than gay people.

I think most people care more about their ideas/ideals than people who represent or embrace the antithesis.

@Coting That’s kind of a straw man argument and doesn’t make any sense. Just because flag burning is looked down upon and gay marriage isn’t legal doesn’t mean that people in the US don’t care about gay people. That’s apples to oranges, first of all, and the laws on the books don’t necessarily reflect the trends in our culture. Our government is slow on purpose. The issue is quite divisive and that’s why there has been little progress—many people don’t think gay marriage is immorral and many people do, and the fact that they’re so evenly paired is what has made it so difficult for gay marriage to be accepted by the culture. Laws are constructed entirely in the public realm here, whereas in the UK you have this bubbling up through constituents to districts and finally to parliament, which is much quicker once a law moves through parliament, but the process is similarly arduous and both systems work to a similar effect.

@noyesa
Not all of you but many people seem to disapprove of homosexuality and many people think you should burn a flag.

Because as understanding as we can be towards others. Respecting others rights and such.

It is not easy to come to a conclusion when there are no facts.

@Coting Not the point. It is easier for us as a culture to agree on flag burning than it is to agree on homosexuality. You’re making the implication that our culture values flags more than it values people, which doesn’t really follow.

Conservative governments are in the habit of protecting the status quo, and they fear anything that threatens their systems. Minorities tend to do that, thus the conservatives react out of their fear and repress them.

Because if they weren’t homophobic, sexist, etc., they wouldn’t be conservative.

If your uncle had a vagina, he’d be your aunt. (I have a feeling that phrase is going to pop up in this question in a minute)

@Sarcasm
hehe. But couldn’t they take a right wing approach on economics and a left wing on social policy? Why aren’t there more parties like that?

Conservatives don’t like change. They like things to stay as they are. Perpetuating existing ideas means perpetuating homophobia, racism and sexism.

they also tend to be conservative, economically, most of all, in that Homosexuality, Feminism and Racial diversity will be sacrificed, but never, ever the capitalist economic model; disproportionate taxation for the wealthy, light touch banking/commercial regulation, curtailing of Union power, limited state health care etc.

I guess ‘because they are’ was already said.

There a difference between a moderate conservative and an ultra conservative. Liberals should avoid out-group homogeneity bias.

Conservative, in the most literal sense, means “conserving” that which has come before, the “stable” family unit. That is seen as the most ideal social and familial set-up for conservatives, typically. And I guess that they see empowered women (who may be more likely to work and “neglect” their role as mother) or gay couples (who may adopt children and subvert the ideal male-female 2.4 children nuclear set-up) as a threat to their status quo.

I’ve often wondered why people from both camps (conservative and liberal) are—when not openly hostile towards those with opposing views—are dismissive of the people themselves (as opposed to the ideas), as if “people with views like that are not even worth my time” or don’t merit serious consideration for whatever reason.

It makes me unhappy to see how much of that there is even here in Fluther, where most people tend to at least try to make cogent arguments in favor of their views—and haven’t even done such a good job of it in this thread. It’s much worse IRL.

@CyanoticWasp – I agree, but we have to be the change we want to see. We should appreciate different views. We should appreciate diversity. We should appreciate each other as people. Many of the moderate conservatives and modern liberals already practice this kind of open-minded debate. The only limitation is asking people to tolerate intolerance. I don’t tolerate intolerance.