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Conservatives want political affiliation to be a protected class. It makes sense -- they're a minority (especially online, but also offline at a national level
by TameAntelope 6y ago
Conservatives want political affiliation to be a protected class. It makes sense -- they're a minority (especially online, but also offline at a national level), and they'd like to be protected from the majority, who they feel at this moment are persecuting/abusing them for their beliefs.
Lots of problems with that (and the irony is palpable), but I think that gets them all the protection they want without any of the Constitutional crisis.
- chii 6y agowhy should a minority be "protected" just because they are a minority? The only protection offered to a minority is and should be only for abuse of said minority in the past.
- TameAntelope 6y agoThere are a bunch of protected classes already in US law, and I believe the reasoning tends to be that the folks in those protected classes would, if not protected, be trampled by the majorities for things the members of those protected classes have no control over. Some protected classes include Americans with disabilities, African-Americans, etc. You can't fire members of the protected class, and (I believe) you can't ban folks from Twitter for being disabled or black. Conservatives seem to want that treatment.
- luckylion 6y agoI think disability or skin-color are bad examples, religion is a better one. You can't change whether you're missing a leg (well... yet) and you can't change the color of your skin. You can (though probably not really actively) change your political convictions the same way you can change your religious beliefs.
- inglor_cz 6y agoI wonder what happens once you can get a new leg and refuse to do so. Will the protections still apply? This is not a morally clear situation; some people may refuse a cloned leg in the future because the price tag will be too high, others for religious reasons etc.
- hntrader 6y agoIt's a false dichotomy to begin with. If political belief is caused by personality traits (e.g. orderliness) and brain structure (e.g. amygdala size), is it really a choice?
- inglor_cz 6y agoTrue. I do not really feel to have much latitude in what I believe. I only have choice to pretend X or Y.
- TameAntelope 6y agoIf you're interested in improving your ability to grow and change based on feedback, that is a skill that can be worked on.
- hntrader 6y agoA conservative can shrink their amygdala in response to verbal feedback? A conservative can become low-orderliness when they've been high-orderliness since childhood? This is gay-conversion therapy territory.
- TameAntelope 6y agoI am honestly struggling to come up with a constructive response to, "People's beliefs are determined by biological factors at birth." What you seem to have said here is, on its face, so obviously wrong, it's hard to take seriously. I mean no disrespect, I just don't know how to continue engaging with you.
- TameAntelope 6y agoThat does fit very well with the American conservative viewpoint, yes. What are the consequences of making that acceptable, I wonder?
- Aunche 6y agoIn the US, conservatives being a minority is mostly the product of the having disproportionate representation relative to population. The nature of a two party system incentives both parties to roughly obtain 50% of political power. There is no need to compromise your platform to get more votes when you already have enough to win. If larger states had more representation, then the Republicans would shift slightly further left.