The other day while I was browsing through the articles linked from The 5 stage of Republican Grief and reading the bugfuck crazy comments, I came to the realisation that I just do not see this kind of inanity in most of my online activity.
But why is that? Why is the conservative presence so limited in most of the online nexus points? Not only will you very rarely find sentiments such as those expressed in popular news sites like digg and reddit, not only will you rarely find them in online fora and commenting on random blogs, but when they do come up, they’re immediately striken down in flames either through rebutals or downvoting, which just shows how much in the minority such commenters are.
My take on this is that they simply cannot survive in this world. The reason for this I believe lies in the following
1. Conservatives are, well…conservative.
As a result they have not started using the internet as much as the more progressive members. They were late to get online, late to start doing anything other than surfing&emails and the last to go social. As a result most places are already filled with progressive regulars ((Not to mention that because of the distributed and geeky nature of the Web, most of the early adopters are liberal and…Geeks)) and when a conservative attempts to take part, they are skewered. This of course turns them off and they slither back into the depths from which they came which of course does not allow a critical mass of them to gather and start shifting pushing the status quo.
Many, I’m sure choose to lurk instead where then, in combination with the Libertarians (see below), they have a chance to make themselves heard on specific topics.
2. The internet is an extremely toxic environment.
The conservative mind is a sensitive beast. There is a profound sense of denial necessary to avoid cognitive dissonance when you are not only a fundamental christian but you consider that the Bush regime was doing a damn good job.
As the saying goes, reality has a well known liberal bias and as the internet does not have the strict filters this denial requires, so does it. As a result, the hapless conservative is assaulted on all sides by information conflicting his preconceptions. Not only do they have to dodge surprise buttsex Daily Show videos and ridicules of their personal zombie saviour, but whenever they so much as open their mouth to protest in an online dialogue, they are shortly refuted, to say the least.
Indeed, there is precious little a conservative can do when the hard facts are staring them in the face and there is no Fox Network to hide or twist those uncomfortable truths. As an extra bonus, because of the dynamics of online conversation, it is not unlikely for someone to take the time to educate the unfortunate conservative which further shakes his psyche.
Since it is pretty much impossible now to both deny reality and muster the presence required to “detoxify” the online environment (see point 1), the conservatives prefer to simply huddle together in their own little corners of the internet, where they can preserve their groupthink.
There is not better example of this point than the creation of Conservapedia which happened because the disorganized nature of Wikipedia and the liberal nature of reality meant that Conservatives either had to avoid using an online encyclopedia or suffer more cognitive dissonance.
3. They are suddenly in a very small minority.
Whereas in the USA the Conservatives have roughly half the population (or at least are vocal enough to seem this way) online, where location is meaningless, they suddenly find themselves very, very lonely. They cannot even expect support from conservatives of other cultures since:
- They usually have wholy different values.
- Conservatives of other countries would be considered liberal for U.S. American standard. It is not simply a joke when people say that in the US you do not have left and Right but only the Right and the Extreme Right. For everyone else outside the US, it definitely seems that way. Your Obama would probably be quite capable of leading the Right party of any European country without batting an eyelid.
Thus, not only do the conservatives have to argue against their own countrymen who happen to be liberal, but they have to tackle with the liberals of other countries who they must think are like the extreme fringe left. I sometimes get the impression that if I ever had to discuss with such a conservative, their Left/Right compass would not have any position left for me except than outside the range.
They are in a way a bit fortunate that most of the world does not speak English as then they would have seriously have been the footnote in this story. Unfortunately for them, there are enough English speakers from many countries to seriously outnumber them.
The only thing somewhat pushing the conservative agenda is…you guessed it
The Libertarians
It is a well known fact that most Libertarians are only by name. Like true game theory defectors they declare loyalty to the Libertarian party but come election day, they cast their vote for Republicans as they promise to cut taxes ((for the rich)) and let them keep their guns. They conveniently ignore how the Republicans end up doing the opposite of what they say and have subsequently expanded the Government more than ever before, which for a Libertarian should have been anathema.
Nevertheless, because they are committed to the Republican ticket, they feel the need to defend their choice whenever they can. They will thus attack the Government tactics when it is going against their libertarian stances (Drugs, Abortion, Religion) but defend it when it reduces taxes to the rich, cuts healthcare and welfare etc, even if all of this is against their own hide.
The only thing saving them is that because they lack true faith in the Regime and they also tend to be more liberal in their faith (if not outright irreligious) they suffer much less of a cognitive dissonance and can much more easily take part in the social networks.
And this is of course the only way the Conservative agenda can ever appear. The Libertarians are generally active because they can, while conservatives probably just lurk around for fear of the intellectual smackdown. When however a topic where their two worldviews merge appears, they can combine their voices and votes and downvote the opposition effectively. Thus the reason why libertarian topics happen now and then to bubble up to the surface.
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Ooh, I must have hit a nerve. Why don't you refute me if I am mistaken then?
Well don't know about that gut, but all libertarians I knew didn't vote for bush. You just rolled up all libertarians and threw them in ball like they all vote republicans. Also I might add you consider youself a liberal? What exactly good things has obama done lately? They worship him like a messiah its rather disgusting.
I'm not a liberal. Rather far from it.
I agree with your sentiments about Obama and I expect many hopes to be dashed quite soon once the "honeymoon" passes
Do you know for certain that they didn't vote for Bush? Based on the crass individualism that right-libertarianism promotes it would be perfectly in character for one to "defect" in voting while telling his friends a lie.
I know this is a very old post and my comment may likely be over-looked by the author of this, but perhaps readers will find it useful.
I'm a huge internet addict. I'm only 22 years old, but I have been using the internet socially for over 10 years and at first, the internet seemed much more diverse than it is now. Today, liberals seem to own the internet. The only places to find conservative views is on conservative websites and even those blogs are inundated with liberal comments slamming those views to the ground. I certainly don't agree in some of the tactics used by those on the internet such as demoting conservative digg posts simply because they're conservative. Some arguments are legit and should be heard. However, a question came about recently to me: Why is the internet so damn liberal?!
I googled this and this article is what I found. I definitely agree in a lot of respects about it, however after taking a sociology class and writing a research paper on the effects of the internet on sociology and culture, I feel that the internet is actually breding liberals. Especially after the election of Obama and the humongous generation he created in young votes through internet sources such as facebook, it seem only to further my point. The internet is a global culture, and those who partake in the internet as a social means soon learn to be more open-minded to other ideas and different cultures. Eventually, you find large numbers of people backing things that do not further their own goal but merely show their empathy for others. An example of this would be the gay rights movement which is growing by the day, way beyond the population of homosexuals.
In order to be an active participant in the internet as a social means, you constantly have to accept differences, because there are very few online communities where everyone agrees on the crucial topics. Those from other countries have their own biases and cultures that you must learn to accept as different but not inherently wrong, or you will simply be banned or shunned by the community. Disagreement is accepted, but personal attacks and disgusting tactics are not.
Anyway, I didn't mean to write a giant essay rivaling this blog, but I had to speak my mind on the topic. I hope that this worldwide internet community will create more open minds and respect among people with different opinions. I see it more and more in the new generations who have grown up using the internet. I have great optimism for our future.
I always read (and try to respond) to all comments posted here, no matter how old 🙂
Thanks for the essay (I really don't mind the length as it shows engagement) and I basically agree with you in my points 2 and 3. 🙂
Optimism is not difficult to have in this age of free information but unfortunately I can't avoid having some pessimism when I see how much the status quo is trying to stiffle online dialogue and engagement. We can only hope they don't succeed.
Wow, this is where I end up on the internet tonight. I'm also a 22 year old (born in 1989) who has spent too much time on the internet. I joined my first forum as a kid (really embarrassing posts ugh) in 2001 and haven't really stopped browsing since. I never watch TV, I don't party hard or get in the 'wrong' crowds and have a healthy balanced lifestyle BUT I feel the internet is almost as responsible for this as my parents. I feel my generation is the first to be really 'raised' by the internet. I'm not talking email/facebook/twitter but, as this article talks about, the deeper levels of the net. The 'masses' have only just gone internet social in the past couple years. Heck, the fact twitter is so hyped up in the media is that the 'public conscious' doesn't know any better. But technology to work twitter has been around since the 80s! I feel there is becoming a bit of a class structure in terms of information access and broad knowledge. Facts and reality are starting to win political arguments and make redundant a lot of social norms. And the 'majority' or 'mainstream' seem to be fighting tooth and nail to keep it away. They demonize the internet. They spread word that it is 'filled with lies' and 'you can't believe anything you read on it'. Which, we know, is more of a reflection on man's ability to be in denial than man's inhered-ed dishonesty.
It makes me mad, to have access to all this truth and information about everything ever – and have so many people unaware of their opportunity to be exposed to it too. The internet is exposing western society's social norms and culture as a lot of bunk. Not all bunk but some pretty key elements. For example, religious affiliation is correlated with geography more than any other variable and yet its members still see themselves as possesses of the 'ultimate truth'.
All I know is the internets seem to have slowly turned me into a cynical hippy and I have a feeling there are others out there.
Ye gods! The terrible paragraphing is terrible! Sorry about that, chaps and lasses.
Here it is again:
Wow, this is where I end up on the internet tonight.
I'm also a 22 year old (born in 1989) who has spent too much time on the internet. I joined my first forum as a kid (really embarrassing posts ugh) in 2001 and haven't really stopped browsing since. I never watch TV, I don't party hard or get in the 'wrong' crowds and have a healthy balanced lifestyle BUT I feel the internet is almost as responsible for this as my parents. I feel my generation is the first to be really 'raised' by the internet.
I'm not talking email/facebook/twitter but, as this article talks about, the deeper levels of the net. The 'masses' have only just gone internet social in the past couple years. Heck, the fact twitter is so hyped up in the media is that the 'public conscious' doesn't know any better. But technology to work twitter has been around since the 80s! I feel there is becoming a bit of a class structure in terms of information access and broad knowledge. Facts and reality are starting to win political arguments and make redundant a lot of social norms. And the 'majority' or 'mainstream' seem to be fighting tooth and nail to keep it away.
They demonize the internet. They spread word that it is 'filled with lies' and 'you can't believe anything you read on it'. Which, we know, is more of a reflection on man's ability to be in denial than man's inhered-ed dishonesty.
It makes me mad, to have access to all this truth and information about everything ever – and have so many people unaware of their opportunity to be exposed to it too.
The internet is exposing western society's social norms and culture as a lot of bunk. Not all bunk but some pretty key elements. For example, religious affiliation is correlated with geography more than any other variable and yet its members still see themselves as possesses of the 'ultimate truth'.
All I know is the internets seem to have slowly turned me into a cynical hippy and I have a feeling there are others out there.
Actually religious affiliation actually isn't bunk until they start murdering/hurting people for it as they have a right to their views as you do.
History shows again and again anytime you allow unlimited mixing of cultures there is and always will be polarized clashes as part of a global spiritual lesson and INSTEAD of teaching us how to deal with it wisely the government puts regulations after regulations on what you can say to the public and what you can't thru fines and jail sentences which only increase tension till people have had enough and fight for freedom one way or another.
At first there will be chaos in the big cities for a short time but after the stupid people are weeded out the rest of the society will use some kind of bartering system that is actually worth something instead of printing money we don't have.
The Liberals always whine about overcrowded jails and abusive CO's yet they are content with putting the same people in jail who voice their opinions that conflict with their left wing views such as banning the phrase "Merry Christmas" as it related to Christ. It DOES NOT matter at this point if the bible is right or wrong.
The trend is clear our freedoms are snatched away one by one on what we say and can't say and united we stand, divided we fall!. We can argue the bible later when our country is at peace.
Some battles are worth fighting and others aren't.
In fact. This is it's similar to the 1600s when King George sent troops to America to spy on his people for any signs of disloyalty where the police would listen in to your conversations from the stairwell or have undercover people try to make you slip up so you'll go to Prison for treason.
If they had the internet back in the 1600s I am sure Britain would overload it with crap about how evil America is since they could not and still cannot handle being responsible for themselves and want the government to be responsible for them. (TV License) (Anti Guns) (multiculture stealing jobs) (Mega corporations taking away Mom And Pop stores screwing around the little guys)
I'm most likely on the terrorist hot list for believing in individual responsibility from the government and will be rounded up when the concentration camps open up unless I flee to the mountains to hide which is what I plan on doing when the crap hits the fan. I would rather die alone in the mountains then be tortured for information by The Feds which the former I will die peacefully. I'll not let The Feds get what they want from me.
The only way I'll be able to use the internet is at Libraries or Wi Fi cafes but the latter will likely require a microchip be installed in yourself to use.
At least public Libraries will always be free as long as you don't take anything home until people decide to fight back the NWO happening under our noses.
Also it's funny how internet posts always demand freedom yet when a talk radio host says governments are too intrusive they talk hosts are considered evil and anything they say gets twisted beyond control to the point the original message is lost unless you were actually listening live.
I tend to be liberal over conservative and I agree with you. I don't like it as the higher population of liberals engaged in online debates scares the conservatives away and the quality of discussion suffers.
I find your post very amusing!
Like watching a Jackie Chan kick everyone's butt.
Actually the conservatives I know tend to be more interested in tangible things such as reaping crops, hunting for deer, and building houses. It never sit well with me that the Internet can never grow crops or build a house. It's quite vulnerable and needy, and the threat of a solar storm doesn't instill confidence. The Internet is a glorified telephone, that's about it.
Wait a minute, isn't it the women who like to talk to each other on the phone all day long?
Actually now it's cell phones they talk to each other all day long. Forget what I said. They don't even talk. They text on tiny screens with tiny keyboards you're fingers can barely brush.
That's an especially funny comment because I'm neither a liberal, nor a US. American.
This was one of the funniest things ever. A classic.
I found it sophmoric and lacking. Oh, I must be in your — finger quote — 'minority'.
🙂 nuff said.
Not sure what internet you’re using but the internet I use seems to be chock full of conservative conversation and (yes I will use the word) bias. From the first time I ever logged on the internet back in 1997 and subscribed to Usenet threads, I was bombarded with conservative rhetoric. Everything from gun rights, to anti-abortion threads, and especially the Rush Limbaugh fans newsgroups it was the way I found out how much of a voice conservatives really have. In fact, I had a hard time finding anything that was liberal leaning. Now, you have blogs like The Blaze, Breitbart, the many Tea-Party portals, Sarah PAC, CPAC, Free Republic, Freedomworks, Campaign for Liberty, Infowars, as well as the many Talk Radio DJ pages (ie Sean Hannity, Mark Levine, Michael Savage, and Glenn Beck). If you get on YouTube, all you need to do is search for someone you would consider liberal – try Rachel Maddow, or Young Turks for example – then scroll down through the comment section of these videos. These conversations tend to get “hijacked” by those who oppose their views aka “hijacked” by conservatives. It’s also fair to note that everyone and anyone is free to use the internet. Everyone has a voice. No one is immune from expressing their point of view. To post a blog about “liberal” the internet is is rather irresponsible.
you obviously have a liberal bias and are clearly incompatible with reality, you can’t even see the facts right in front of you because like you said the internet has a very apparent liberal bias, and you assist in conveying it as well. you are by far the worst hypocrite i have had the displeasure of reading monologue from
Well said! I was going to take his article seriously as he started off showing the pros and cons to Conservatives but he had to as usual be all snarky just like all the rest of them doucebags.
To those who aren’t spiritually blind we are in the end times and very well in this generation may be tested with death to see if we strive towards the light while politicians *on both sides* continue to cheat people who use Christian values often disguised as something else.
You actually don’t have to be a Christian to go to heaven but I’m discovering it’s about a personal relationship with the lord though it does help to go to Church to see different views of how they all came to where they be but I am not a social person so I don’t go to church.
I am struggling myself with Christ vs religion as so many facts are spun around *mainly again by Liberals* and a lot of the bible has been grossly misinterpreted from the original Hebrew meanings.
The bible says there will be no place to run when this happens as people who do hide will be praying for the rocks to fall on them assuming they are in caves or living underground.
I’ve decided for me it’s best to take my chances with death to show that I am now serious as I’ve been on rocky ground with my wavering faith due to reasons I won’t get into on here where you never know who is an Obama agent.
Actuall you’re right. Most of the internet is usually women with the male being more into violent video games. When we have a mother fucker solar storm wipe out a good chunk of the net it’s gonna make a lot of people angry when they can’t play World of Warcraft anymore and actually have to face making real consequences. (gasp)
OH NO!!!
Scary thing is with the NSA and Globalists that have ran Congress since the 70s we are now heading towards *cloud servers* where you won’t be able to own you’re own computer.
Sure you may have the *box* to it but it will all be online where someone else has the kill switch and can later blackmail you if you cross an invisible line that you didn’t know was there.
Watch Colossus Forbin Project on YouTube to see what I mean on where we are going with computers and privacy invasion. It was damn right and fits right up there with 1984 in it’s own unique way.
The only thing 1984 got wrong was that the Big Brother chanters were labeled as being like zombies with no minds of their own where if you even blink you will be spied on as a rebel but in our reality they look like ordinary people who appear happy but are totally brainwashed because that’s all the news they ever listen too without giving anything else a chance. They hear from their friends that Conservative talk hosts are no good so they believe it without actually listening to a SINGLE SHOW to form their own conclusion.
I’ve listen to Liberal shows and they tend to swear a lot making themselves act like 12 year olds in grown up bodies not being able to take them seriously.
A good site I go to know is called Prison Planet which explains in a non biased way though even there a few *Wag the Dog* articles slip thru once in a while but they are pretty good at quality control unlike Above Top Secret which is a paid front actually.
Nahhhh too many paid trolls to keep people’s heads clouded though you are right. People are now finding out the problems Obama care is creating even though Conservatives tried to warn the public since actually the Clinton era from time to time.
Instead we Conservatives get shouted down before a sentence can be finished if they don’t like it but if we don’t like it we cannot shout them down but maybe we should start trying and give them a taste of their own medicine. Show them bullies that Conservatives are not their play toys and that play time is over.
Since there hasn’t been any articles recently about communism taken over the internet even though it’s more apparent then 5 years ago when this article was written I say that the Liberals have done a good job of silencing their opponents but just like the rising sun and the moon so shall the Liberals set on the other side.
Right now the Liberals are rising to their zenith and then fall to the other side once the peak has been reached. No side is better then the other so we all need to compromise.
There are 60 and 80 year economic cycles and even 500 year cycles.
WTF are you even on about?