Not All Conservatives Are Bigots.

Somebody queried the right-wing/bigot relationship, and the answer is far too complex to put in a short snappy FB reply.

Let's look at the word bigot and what it means.

One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

On the face of it, that's just "normal" human preference. Allegiance. In fact even patriotism could fall under that category.

However, let's look at what the word conservative means:

Holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.

I think it's fairly clear that there is a connection here. "We've always done it that way, and we avoid doing it other ways."

By definition, the conservative mind, which is known as "right-wing" politically, is going to prefer its own group and its own ways. Not that others never do, you understand, just that there is a particular link here.

When that conservative attitude becomes extreme, it very quickly and easily descends into bigotry. QED.

But let's look at the bigger picture here. The first, which cannot be overlooked is that if we are talking about politics, it is a known phenomenon that western governments in general have moved further to the right in recent years.

Full data and explanation of that here:

http://www.politicalcompass.org/

As a result, the left have moved to the centre, the centre have moved to the right, the right has moved to the far right, and the far right, as a friend of mine is always saying, have moved to the mental asylum.

The United States, in particular, has no left wing party in the game. There are left wing attitudes among the American people, certainly, but it has no representation.

There was a time when OPEN bigotry was the exclusive domain of extremists. General cultural racism notwithstanding, full blown displays of bigotry in public were minimal a few decades ago. Now, it appears to be the default position for a large number of mainstream politicians. Perhaps they were just quieter about it, and it was there all along. At least they aren't hiding who they are anymore, I suppose we should be glad of that.

The simple fact is, policy among right-wing parties appears to be just common or garden, standard bigotry. How else do you explain it?

They blame the poor for the economy.
They blame atheists for school shootings.
They blame women for unemployment.
They blame anyone of colour for....well just about anything, really.
They even blame gay people for natural disasters.

This scapegoating is classic bigotry. There's a problem? Find a group who are not like us, and blame them.

It's been done right though history, and you know why? It works. The general public are quick to join in. It's "them". They are the cause of all our woes. This then justifies the bigotry in their minds.

So here's a Venn diagram.

I am absolutely certain this will not go down well. I am also absolutely certain that my less easily enraged conservative friends will simply see themselves in the pink section, and some of them actually are.

I am also quite certain that some reading this will still not understand what bigotry is, or that they are guilty of it. But you know me, I don't give up.