A Taxonomy of A2K Conservatives :-)

OK guys, but keep in mind - this thing is basically what's in my head! It's 100% subjective. And considering that I'm a rabid progressive, that's where I'd be coming from when sketching such a thing. Plus, I'm just joshing here guys, it's not supposed to be 100% serious. So dont approach it as some kind of academic exercise, however geeky it looks, or as some kind of standard format - it's all just in the landscape of the mind. Everyone should make their own...

And Okie, you're actually kinda in the overlapping borderlands of dittohead and populist. :wink:

But, if you keep all that at the forefront of your mind, OK, here goes with what's in my head:

Dittoheads would be people whose posts and arguments always echo the exact talking points you would hear about that subject in the conservative political universe at that time. If you can usually predict what someone is going to say about a political subject, because it will be what you'd see pushed about it round that time in that whole parallel reality [it's me talking, OK, remember where I'm coming from] that spans from the Weekly Standard and the National Revew to Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, then (s)he's a dittohead. In short, Foxfyre is the ultimate dittohead.

A dittohead is no intellectual - he doesnt come up with elaborate reasonings all of his own, twisted or otherwise. But he's devoted enough to the conservative political cause that he follows closely what the conservative media and experts are saying, and he'll pick up on the necessary buzzwords of the month when necessary.

Populists are a related and overlapping species, but they're different in temperament and discipline. A populist has the same knee-jerk (OK, ok: instinctive), solidly conservative responses to political stuff he might hear about. But it's all instinctive. Populists lack the close interest dittoheads pay to the day-to-day political developments. They're more likely to pick up on some personal outrage committed by a flaming liberal that turned up in the local news ("can you believe what this guy SAID?") than on the latest party political intrigue in DC. They're more likely to get fired up by cultural issues (flag burning, guns, that kind of thing) than by the protection of tax cuts or the vagaries of French diplomacy.

Just like the conservative intellectuals (think tanks, lobbyists, strategists) hone a simple message and basic toolbox of jargon and buzzwords to sell to the dittoheads, the two of those groups together will try to haul the populists into their camp by framing the issues they want to push in plainspoken, cultural terms. So it'll be about "welfare cheats" rather than capital gains tax cuts, or "freedom fries" rather than Chirac's treacheries.

But although there's a fair bunch of things that'll rile most populists into the camp any time (anything to do with commies and anything to do with the hippy type radicals like feminists and environmentalists and the like), populists have a mind of their own. They're not part of the disciplined party message machine, they're what that machine's aimed at. And sometimes it doesnt work. They might have met their local Democratic candidate and decided he's just a good guy, end of story, for example. Or they might have their own, decidedly off-message ideas about a subject.

I guess I coulda split off two smaller bubbles. One would be the rough, Western libertarian type conservative. He's an instinctive conservative, but he doesnt like elites, he doesnt like people of any political colour telling him what to think, he doesnt like government, and he doesnt like politicians of either stripe bullshitting him. He might still buy Limbaugh, but not Coulter. That'd be... Woiyo <grins>.

The other would be South Park conservatives. They dont give a hoot about "the war against Christians" or other religious right nuttery, but they're hardcore conservative on national security and they just lurve to get the liberals' goats. Limbaugh probably too plain for 'em (no irony), but they'll chuckle at Coulter. That'd be.. McGentrix.

There.

Hey, you asked... :wink:

That's about right. Nice job Nimh.

He must make a South Park Conservative bubble and overlap me....

<giggles>

Maybe to help you out here in understanding something. Rush Limbaugh of course invented the dittohead thing, which you probably know, but you likely do not know the definition. Liberals commonly think this term indicates the listeners of Rush are a carbon copy of what he thinks, that they swallow hook line and sinker what is said there. Actually to correct the record, the term, ditto, came into usage because somebody said they liked the show and hoped Rush would keep doing it, to which another caller said ditto, and another caller the same, and so forth. So a dittohead merely is indicating they like Rush's show and that he keeps doing it, not that they agree with Rush. There are in fact liberal leaning listeners that are dittoheads. I've heard them call in and say so.

So, the term is wrongly used to begin with, and the meaning has been twisted to what Rush's detractors would like the term to mean. I just thought you would like to know that, nimh, so that your labels can be properly understood.

Secondly, to correct another point, I do not read the Weekly Standard or National Review, I think it is the National Review that I took for a while and dropped it because I didn't like it. Ann Coulter, I don't care for her. I do listen to a number of talk show people, including Rush, Hannity, and to a lesser extent Michael Reagan, Lars Larsen, Michael Medved, Glen Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Mike McConnell, etc. Last night while traveling, I listened to a progressive, Thom Hartman I think was the name, for quite a while. Listening to the analysis and thoughts of others that are informed on politics should help anyone figure out who is thinking right. News is of little help, as it only gives very incomplete and surficial information in regard to any issue. One must evaluate every issue based upon foundational principles first and foremost, and so every issue has to be analyzed in terms of how it fits into these principles after the details are learned. Many of the talk shows do that, Rush being one of the better ones. He has his downside, and there are opinions with which I disagree. I have not heard all of what these guys have said, so my opinion is based on partial information, but Lars Larsen and Mike McConnell sound like pretty reasonable and balanced opinions in regard to most issues.

As conservatives, and your taxonomy illustrates it, none of us agree 100% on everything.

Lastly, your group you call dittoheads, they are generally not "intellectuals" as you say, but only in terms of not being based on classroom theory or idealism, but they are instead more commonly grounded in realism. Many are engaged in business or the real world rather than just studying it at a university. Dittoheads are very intellectual in terms of applying well thought out and detailed analysis of the realities of issues, but they may gladly not be called "intellectuals" as the term may be commonly applied in the academic world. Their intellectual analysis is based on common sense principles as applied to real world situations, rather than on obscure opinions written in books gathering dust in libraries. And most importantly, because of this real world experience, their opinions are very individualized and personal, as opposed to the idealistic or academic world where they all tend to follow like a bunch of sheep to whatever is the accepted norm or so called conventional wisdom.

Sorry about the long explanations in an effort to help you understand your terms or classifications, specifically dittoheads, but just trying to help. The Populist label, I won't even tackle that one for now.

the point Okie is and you Okie are the epitome of dittohead. the fact that you share that catagory with foxfyre should make you beam with pride.

I am in fact very proud of not being an "intellectual," dys. But my beliefs were already well set long before Rush or anyone else came along to provide a sorely needed voice for the conservative point of view around the country. One big reason for Rush's success and the success of others similar to him is because the media has been controlled and dominated by leftward leaning and biased reporting for a very very long time, and people were hungry for the common sense alternative to the garbage fed us for so long.

You could expand your mind and educate yourself beyond your own little intellectual world by listening to some of them, dys. Take your blinders off and become a little more open minded. Surely a previously Goldwater man could once again see the light just a little?

By the way, nimh, have you missed including icann in your taxonomy?

Are there any critical new members around the corner so that I am able2know?
Should we stoop the level of reality?

Correction, I don't know why I started spelling ican with 2 n's. Anyway to be exact, he is "ican711nm."

yes indeed i could have a pre-frontal lobatomy or get some of your education and learn to spell as well but as you put it so well, you have typos while i misspell and need an education. You notice that okie? You remain a scum sucking pig of a man no matter how you put it. try just this once, THINKING on your own. I don't hurt all that much.

Has nimh found a place for you yet in the liberal taxonomy? Last time I checked, I still could not find your name, not even in the ADHDer section, or Angry Men section. I also checked the Radicals and Wingnuts areas, still no dyslexia. You suggested Anarchists, but I still don't see that classification created special for you either. By the way, maybe you know William Ayers, Obama's friend and fellow board member of the Woods Fund, as he was also an anarchist. He wished he could have set off more bombs and done more damage. Maybe he would be one of those "intellectuals" that perhaps you could like better, as someone smarter than plain old okie here?

nah, the libs don't want him either.

But they even accept Roxxxanne! Why not dyslexia then?

I'm just a harmless, lovable little fuzzball.

Instead of typing some Good English let the new Members of A2k educate me to under this society.
Namaskar
Rama fuchs

I'd like to put Rama and Spendi in a room and see which gets tired first trying to make a coherent thought.

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