conservatives in general, american conservatives in particular, are just people who are afraid of change. they are so afraid of it that rather than trying to control it, which could occasionally be useful, they just straight out resist. where this voice comes from more-or-less the sidelines there may perhaps be some utility to their actions but where they dominate and control the actions of government they are regressive, and this at a time when change is necessary to aid survival of the whole human fraternity.
but there is a second thing some conservatives indulge in and when they do they are truly dangerous — existentially dangerous — they indulge in magical thinking, they ignore, distort and lie about the very facts that decisions must reflect. and they refuse to examine examples of actions that have been tried successfully in other parts of the world outside their nation. this is more than confirmation bias. it is faith-based thinking and faith-based thinking, along with us-and-them ingroup/outgroup hostility, is ultimately fatal. if they lose their battle they are vicious, if they win we will all suffer hardship and ultimately, death.
what do you do about people like that, people who do not believe in reason or objective truth or the danger of faith-based conviction? i think lying about objectively verifiable facts and events should be a crime for every elected official, and should be prosecutable for any media attempting to spread false information. these are crimes against civilization and they are more dangerous than many of the behaviors we routinely prosecute. they are also more dangerous than any so-called restrictions on our rights to free speech that protect these false statements from censure.
