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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIs Breitbart News "conservative"?
I am going to show some respect to the intellectually conservative population. I disagree with them, but I don't think they're fringe or outside the mainstream. They're conservative to my liberal. Yin to yang. Mirror images of each other. Left to right.
And then we have Breitbart. The people there are, to coin a phrase, fucking crazy. They indulge in every conspiracy theory out there. They simply make shit up and publish it as fact. They are scruple free and vicious as a pack of junk yard dogs.
They are fringe.
To call them "conservative" is to regularize them. To make them appear mainstream.
They are not.
Now look at the average Trump event attendee. These now famous crazy older white guys and their equally crazy wives. They're not conservatives, either. They're haters. And they get their hate rations from places like Breitbart and InfoWars.
I grew up with actual conservatives. I spent my entire life rubbing elbows with actual conservatives. I discussed politics with actual conservatives. I am friends with actual conservatives.
To call Trump, his campaign, or his supporters conservatives is an insult to conservatives.
We would, of course, do well to tie these loons to mainstream conservatives. But we would also do well to help drive the wedge between them and real conservatives a lot deeper.
What to do? What to do?
ghostsinthemachine
(3,569 posts)The Obama's a Muslim who listened to Rev Wright for twenty years kind of crazy. No conspiracy too small to ignore kind of crazy. Too many wimmins on FOX kind of crazy. The right wing radio yakkers all quote Breitbart as well.
The thing is, like T rump, they occasionally hit on the truth. And everyday conservatives don't come close to the truth.
Metric System
(6,048 posts)Ace Rothstein
(3,110 posts)The term is picking up steam and needs to be used to identify these people.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Buckeye_Democrat
(14,848 posts)salin
(48,954 posts)If it were just extreme right - I would call it reactionary. But it is beyond that - it is conspiracy theory nuts - just a shade less nuts that Alex Jones/Info Wars - you know - Sandy Hook was a 'false flag' conspiracy so that Obama will take our gunz!
Serious campaign? No.
But - signal that even more we have to double down, regardless of how the polls look (per Clinton win/Trump Loss) right up to election day. Because if the presidency is run from an Alex Jones perspective or even not quite but almost Alex Jones territory, there will be no stability left in this country - as the new President would attribute his "win" to this particular fringe perspective. These folks would become the advisor on all policies.
*Shudder.*
KMOD
(7,906 posts)However, a lot of people seem to buy into their conspiracy theories. And it's quite obvious that this is where tiny hands gets his information. This is the type of nonsense that tiny hands and pushing. And enough people who call themselves conservative, chose tiny hands in the primary.
True conservatives would be wise to steer clear of tiny hands in this election and hope for a better candidate in four years. But too many of them are standing by him. They are choosing party over sanity.
I can respect conservatives who are opting out of this election. I can't respect conservatives who are either embracing it, or putting up with and enabling it.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,085 posts)I guess best to describe them as different sides of the conservative coin.
womanofthehills
(8,584 posts)Dana Loesch: Trumps New Campaign Chief Is One of the Worst People on Gods Green Earth
I will say that one of the worst, most hellacious years of my entire life involved this individual. And I have to question whether or not the campaign is sincere about winning a victory against Hillary Clinton by instituting someone like this as the CEO of the campaign, she said.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/dana-loesch-trumps-new-campaign-chief-is-one-of-the-worst-people-on-gods-green-earth/
Johnny2X2X
(18,747 posts)The Trumo campaign is full of total nuts. He's got people from the Bundy crazies. He's hot a bet who wants to execute his opponent. And he has a Breitbart's head since they went full racist.
This is full on KKK type stuff I actually think David Duke would have a less extreme group around him.
angrychair
(8,594 posts)As a person that also has conservative/teapublican/republican family and associates, I find them all repugnant, disgusting and vile to the last one of them.
No exceptions.
I have met and interacted with people from coast to coast and they are all the same at the end of the day.
The only "good" one is one that doesn't talk.
MrScorpio
(73,626 posts)Hekate
(90,202 posts)I think of actual political conservatives as having core beliefs that allow them to compromise to get things done; that believe in actual governance and the institutions that make it possible; that are not consumed with hatred; that are, as you aptly put it, Yin to Yang.
I try to hold that thought, even as I take grim satisfaction in seeing what passes for conservative intellectuals wring their hands and practically weep with shame and frustration at the takeover of their party. I feel this way because by and large they created and enabled this monster, and their agony means they recognize it.
We Democrats need a loyal opposition to stay healthy ourselves. But the Grand Old Party is going to have to die before it can be reconstituted. I hope this is the year that it does so.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)One of their "journalists", Milo Yannopolous, has been pandering to the Neo-Nazi 4chan crowd for some time.
m-lekktor
(3,675 posts)And i hate the premise that is implied when people , especially our side, say that there is a "good and respectable" conservatism and Trump or Breitbart represents a fringe bad element of it. Breitbart/Trump is just the pig without the lipstick. Conservatism SUCKS no matter how it is presented!
bullwinkle428
(20,627 posts)the only thing that drives it is opposition to anything liberal, in terms of either people or ideas.