Posted on 01/07/2011 3:45:29 PM PST by Rhonda Robinson
In Dinesh D’Souza’s book, Letters to a Young Conservative, D’Douza explains in layman’s terms the difference between conservatives and liberals.
At root, conservatives and liberals see the world so differently because they have different conceptions of human nature. Liberals tend to believe in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s proposition that human nature is intrinsically good. Conservatives know better. They recognize that there are two principles in human nature – good and evil – and these are in constant conflict.
I’m always reminded of this fact when I hear Oprah Winfrey speak. Indeed, Ms. Winfrey is the quintessential liberal, and her new network – network we’re talking here, not program: talk about a platform to spread your message! – is tailored around this fact. In a recent interview about OWN, Oprah repeated what she has said time and again for over 20 years:
I’m concerned about the bigger overall picture: my belief that people are basically good.
This is the worldview that drives Oprah; it is the basis for everything she produces. Like the now defunct Oprah Winfrey Show (reruns notwithstanding), OWN will be filled with programming that emanates from the liberal mind.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsrealblog.com ...
Yeah, but then they say conservatives are evil. How can they explain that, especially if they take over and start running everything?
Network!
I’m really beginning to think that Oprah might be the Anti-Christ.
Her OWN network is TANKING! In “sharp decline”!
http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/01/06/oprah-own-ratings/
And that will soon be defunct too. It's too late, we have awoken and there is NO ONE who can stop us until we right our wrongs (i.e. being asleep, which I shamefully admit to).
Don't we have enough networks with that kind of crap already?
Just like Air America, and just as successful I hope.
“Yeah, but then they say conservatives are evil. How can they explain that, especially if they take over and start running everything?”
Exactly. This is a false premise. Liberals DO NOT believe that people are basically good. They believe that people who are like-minded are basically good. The rest of us are evil. Just because someone says they believe something doesn’t mean they believe it for everyone.
“Yeah, but then they say conservatives are evil. How can they explain that, especially if they take over and start running everything?”
You are so right. The basis of this article is wrong. Liberals see good and evil, just not the same good and evil that conservatives see. Capitalism is bad, socialism is good. Christianity is bad, Islam is good. Government control is good, private property is bad. etc...
God help us
I love the spin over there. 315,000 viewers, down in days from 1,000,000 plus, is not a bad thing. Out of a nation of 310 milllion last I checked, I’d say it isn’t so good.
The folks over there need to put down the crack pipe a bit longer before they do commentary.
“Liberals tend to believe in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s proposition that human nature is intrinsically good. Conservatives know better. They recognize that there are two principles in human nature – good and evil – and these are in constant conflict.”
That’s a simplistic and uninformed view of Rousseau, wrong on liberals believing it. And wrong about conservatives as well.
In fact, it is conservatives that think that man is ‘basically’ good and can turn evil by making wrong decisions and not taking responsibility for them. They think the market works because people operating with their own self-interest in mind, works well for the seller, buyer and ‘by invisible hand’ - society.
The primary differentiating characteristic of a liberal is not that they think that human nature is intrinsically good; it’s that they think that THEY know what’s good for others. Not only that, they think they can change the self-interested individual into a ‘collectively-interested’ individual - at first they encourage voluntarism with efforts for the ‘general good’ and then use incentives and finallly when that doesn’t work (when they find out they CAN’T change the nature of man) - they do so with force.
A more proper difference is that liberals use force and violence to get what they want and conservatives/libertarians use consent.
The problem is every Conservative tries to approach the Liberal mind from their own perspective. They see a Liberal do something and say, “Why would I do that?” Liberals are nothing like us - and they don’t think like us at all. To understand the drives motivating the Liberal, you have to understand why they evolved to think as they do. The Liberal is profoundly envious, and extraordinarily fearful of Competitive environments, because this was what kept them alive, in the Darwinian realm. End of story. Read my profile page, where I synopsize the entire book I just wrote on it.
For years now, I have been screaming at the sky when guys like Dinesh try and ascribe benign motives to the Liberal philosophy. Liberals are just Evil, it’s what they do.
I was asleep as well. And silent. No more, nope, no more.
Well said.
I know that she was accused of lies by some of her relatives, but I can't find anything that indicates that she ever admitted to lying about her past. Given Oprah's fame, that would have been big news. Not one to miss an opportunity to feature a splashy new topic for her show, she probably would have capitalized on it herself.
Liberals don’t think. They emote. That is why most actors are liberals...
“The Liberal is profoundly envious, and extraordinarily fearful of Competitive environments,...”
This is another ‘trait’, along with the ‘knowing what is good for others’.
Liberals are true ‘agoraphobes’ - normally thought as fear to be outside but the greek meaning is ‘fear of markets’. Most would prefer (just ask them) that there would be only ONE brand of cereal at the supermarket. They are overwhelmed with _choice_ - ie. they have to have information to make an ‘informed choice’ and either they are too lazy or unable to correlate the information needed to do that. They’d rather have some ‘expert’ TELL them what to get. Of course the ‘top down’ part (see Beck) are the ones that have determined (by what best furthers their power - not by what are the best products) what choices are “good”. And they tell the rest (and us) what that is and when we would rather make our own choices - they, if in power, take those choices away and force us to choose _their_ choices:
- Social Security rather than Individual Retirement planning
- Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare, rather than Medical savings accounts or simply our own health care insurance
- Their vegen leaning diet, low in transfats, ‘no chemicals’ (even though everything is a chemical), etc. rather than what we prefer to eat.
- _their_ lightbulbs, toilets, toilet paper, electric cars, antifreeze, ad infinitum, ad nauseum... rather than what fits our own interests and lives.
“Well said.”
Thank you.
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