Conservatives and the Compassion Deficit

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One of the most striking things I've noticed about conservatives in general is their lack of compassion for others; self-interest guides conservative policy more than anything, and that self-interest benefits the present economic élite most. The hypocrisy becomes most striking when they claim to be true, good Christians. Those who are in poverty or some other bad situation are looked down upon, the idea being that, "God helps those who help themselves." As they look the other way, they feel good about their personal security and morality. Libertarians, at least, do not have the hypocrisy that comes from injecting their religion into contradictory political views. Conservatives will gleefully remove any trace of government-sponsored social welfare, giving the platitude that maybe private charities and volunteer groups will fill the void.

The one area where conservative seem to show an inkling of compassion is their pro-life stance; however, this call to the "sanctity of life" is forgotten when their bloodlust leads them to call for the deaths of persons who committed capital crimes (George W. Bush) and for the gruesome hunting, slaughter, and gutting of animals for sport (e.g., Sarah Palin). Their eagerness for war, nominally in defense of national security, directly leads to the deaths of many civilians and soldiers (e.g., Americans and Iraqis in the Iraqi War).

My experience has been that the average conservative has less compassion than the average American (although there are of course exceptions). They "make up for" this by attempting to have the government mandate a strict and usually religiously peculiar (peculiar in the sense of deriving from one religion in particular) set of laws legislating sex acts, marriage, etc. in a way that disenfranchises many people (e.g., gay people).

I have read somewhere that, in general, liberals and conservatives tend to prioritize different values. For example, conservatives prioritize respect for tradition, punitive morality, and deference to authority whereas liberals tend to prioritize compassion for others, nurturing values, respect for cultural differences, and individuality.

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"Who cares"

Conservatives and liberals appear to have equal lack of compassion when taken as a whole

Liberals very frequently have no tolerance for people who are different (i.e., a danger to the social contract) and anyone who doesn't fully subscribe to their self-righteous horses**t

Conservatives are often dillholes, period

Compassion is a weakness I don't smile upon.

Well, honestly, I think that the conservative notion about these things isn't just a lack of compassion(although we can argue that this correlates with their attitudes), but also a notion of what government is and isn't. They don't see government as a provider of social services, but rather a force to fight evil. Conservative social causes and certain foreign governments are evil. Poverty is seen as bad, but it isn't seen the same way as active evil, such as murder. The whole self-righteousness element exists in all human beings though.

As well, this "sanctity of life" refers to innocent human beings, not to guilty beings or non-humans, and not only that, but I doubt most conservatives don't go to war relishing a chance to kill people. I mean, such an idea approaches that of a strawman.

You are right, conservative values are certainly different than those of liberals, however, I do not think that the divide is typically as stark as most people like to think it is.

By your logic, shouldn't all Aspies be conservative since we lack compassion?

From an outsider's point of view both your liberals and conservatives are a bunch of hypocrites with no compassion whatsoever only caring for themselves and their own agenda and wishing the other side drops dead. Not to mention INCREDIBLY hypocritical.

Most of the hard-core conservatives have this Ubermensch mentality. To them liberals are weak sissies. They also tend to be shallow people with little in the way introspection. To look inwards or self-critisize is a weakness. Direct action and moral instinct is valued more than thoughtfulness and empathy.

They’re also overly obsessed with the military struggle. According to conservatives freedom only exists because we engage in armed struggle to keep “evil” at bay. The philosophical underpinnings of liberty are of lesser importance to conservatives than is physical action.

I admit this is somewhat of a caricature but that kind of vibe definitely exists in conservative America these days.