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Conservative Women on Liberal Guys

8 Responses to “Conservative Women on Liberal Guys”

1. Karen Says:
   March 31st, 2008 at 9:21 pm

   To be liberal is to be focused on yourself, your rights, and materialism, and no ultimate sense of morality? Please explain. I think anyone, conservative, liberal, progressive, moderate, lost, found, etc. can be the things you describe. There is a Hitler and a Mother Theresa in everyone, no? What is the absolute truth that guides how you live? I’m trying to understand what conservatives think, so I’m communicating, trying to learn.

   Off I go on my search to learn, clarify, and meet others who might perceive differently than I…..

2. AltHippo Says:
   March 31st, 2008 at 10:46 pm

   I’m only guessing here, but Sharon, who is the one being quoted, may be taking her views from the fundamentalist strain of conservatism. She’s describing the conservative stereotype of a liberal- secular humanist, amoral, etc. The way that she takes it to the next step: “focused on yourself,” “guys who are selfish and into themselves,” “don’t care so much about humanity” sounds like she may just be talking about, well… kids. Probably the vast majority of us as we enter that awkward post-college phase.

3. KathyF Says:
   April 1st, 2008 at 4:34 am

   That reminds me of this:

   http://WWW.samefacts.com/archives/campaign_2008_/2008/01/obamas_liberalism_and_conservative_voters.php

4. AltHippo Says:
   April 1st, 2008 at 10:25 am

   Yep, that one’s a keeper all right: “no sane person, he thought, would seriously refer to himself as a liberal, any more than one would refer to oneself as a sociopath or a hypocrite.”

5. KCinDC Says:
   April 1st, 2008 at 1:04 pm

   I think she’s using “materialism” to mean believing that the material world is all there is and spiritual concerns are meaningless, which she no doubt connects with liberals, who are apparently all completely nonreligious (or even antireligious) as far as she knows. My first thought on hearing “materialism”, on the other hand, is that it refers to obsession with accumulating material goods, which I’d connect with practitioners of “prosperity theology” and with the corporate greedo wing of the Republican Party (though there are certainly liberals who are caught up in the race for the shiniest gadgets too).

6. AltHippo Says:
   April 1st, 2008 at 2:00 pm

   Yeah, I couldn’t get past the “materialism” thing, I kept thinking “WTF, you’re the ones that are the materialists, as opposed to the liberal DFH’s.” Materialism as opposed to spiritualism works here, at least in the limited sense of fundamentalist spirituality (teh abortion bad, teh gays bad, teh socialism bad).

7. Jamelle Says:
   April 1st, 2008 at 10:09 pm

   It’s a well known fact that ideological conservatives (at least most of them) throw around words like “materialist” or “Marxist” without actually knowing what they mean.

8. KathyF Says:
   April 3rd, 2008 at 6:45 am

   I think it’s very important for us liberals to understand, like that article points out, when we use the word liberal and when conservatives do, we’re talking about two completely different things. The way they define it, I’m not a liberal either: I abhor pornography, dress very “conservatively”, and I have a strict code of conduct that does not include excessive drinking or gambling or profligate spending. In many ways, I am more “conservative” than Mary Matelin–have you seen her house? Pink and orange and polka dots! I’d never!

   We really need to find common ground on lifestyle issues to start the conversation. Ask the next conservative you meet how he or she feels about orange polkadots in the dining room, and see where that leads.

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