I cant follow conservative thinking because all their advice seems to boil down to “make good decisions and everything will be fine”….like wow what an astute observation! It’s like saying “to have more money, you need to make more money”. Well no shit, Sherlock! Tell us something we don’t know. Their advice never takes into account or minimizes barriers people face in making “good decisions” (they don’t account for context or individual variables), and won’t even acknowledge that many things are beyond individuals’ control. They ignore history and have this simplistic “if one person can do it then anyone can” mentality.
It's interesting, I really like Rob and his substack and have his book in my queue to read. I grew up similarly to him, although I was not in foster care, I lost my mom early on and my father was never there. Nevertheless, I got a good education and have a good job now.
It's interesting because I feel the opposite! I used to be progressive but as my faith in God strengthened, I would consider myself to be socially conservative in most areas. I don't think he is saying that one size fits all but the research shows that a nuclear family, a loving family, a safe home are the best predictors of outcomes.
Also, him choosing to not have a relationship with his addicted and abusive mother is not "lack of empathy," it's common sense. Why is there a fixation on the progressive side to empathize with blatantly abusive people? Why should he? It's not nuance, it's just reality.
I don't understand why advocating for traditional values means "lack of empathy." I don't get how conservative values gets coded as evil, when it is way worse for kids to grow up in broken homes with abusive parents.
I live in an anti-abortion/forced birth state. I shudder to think of how many children will be abandoned, neglected, and abused because of conservatism here.
I also don't assume that homes that are not traditional are abusive, and that's my primary issue with the traditional values brigade. It's not enough to promote the ideas; conservatives demonize and punish (financially, socially, and politically) people who do not have traditional values or family structures. Those punishments ruin lives and destroy communities without offering support that would make kids safer or healthier.
I saw an interesting short video on this from Innuendo Studios on YouTube. He makes the argument that conservatives believe that if you can’t get rid of a bad thing completely, then there’s no point in trying to do anything about it policy wise. So take gun violence, for example. Because gun violence will always occur, even in places with strict gun control laws, there’s no point in trying to mitigate it in their eyes. Then he gets into the topic of abortion. Why don’t conservatives feel the same about abortion? You will never get rid of all abortions, right? Well the thing is, they know that, but their view of crime is that it just needs to be punished, not mitigated or eradicated. They’re ok with certain crimes existing as long as the people who do them get caught and punished. For them, It’s not about reducing crime, but merely punishing it. The video is called “I hate Mondays”
Thanks. I don't think his memoir is focused solely on abusive homes. Research universally shows that kids raised in a two-parent household fare better overall almost all life outcomes. That's the issue I don't understand. It's not demonizing or punishing people who don't fit that, it's encouraging people to aspire to that ideal. What is so wrong with that? The same thing with having children, why does it have to be "forced birth"? It makes it seem that having children is somehow wrong.
These are the ideas I struggled with when I was progressive. Now as more conservative, family and children are natural. They are fundamental to humanity. I question people who think otherwise.
Endorse whatever you want, but we will never be able to ensure children grow up in a "two-parent household." Even people who start with two parents lose one or both of them to death, illness, abuse, incarceration, etc. Rob's adoptive family had two parents until his new dad decided he didn't want to be a dad anymore. How do you account for that?
We are not stupid. We see the research (though the research also says several factors impact the life outcomes of children beyond the presence of two parents). Still, the refusal to grapple with the reality of how people live their lives and how policies that try to force people into nuclear families are ineffective is why I don't respect the conservative political worldview.
I cant follow conservative thinking because all their advice seems to boil down to “make good decisions and everything will be fine”….like wow what an astute observation! It’s like saying “to have more money, you need to make more money”. Well no shit, Sherlock! Tell us something we don’t know. Their advice never takes into account or minimizes barriers people face in making “good decisions” (they don’t account for context or individual variables), and won’t even acknowledge that many things are beyond individuals’ control. They ignore history and have this simplistic “if one person can do it then anyone can” mentality.
💕
Good thoughts Kim
Yes brains reflect absolutely unique, individual ecosystems and this notion of trauma politics is absolutely spot on in my view
I have seen more than one extensive analysis of Chief Justice Thomas as forming his "conservative" views in exactly this way.
It's interesting, I really like Rob and his substack and have his book in my queue to read. I grew up similarly to him, although I was not in foster care, I lost my mom early on and my father was never there. Nevertheless, I got a good education and have a good job now.
It's interesting because I feel the opposite! I used to be progressive but as my faith in God strengthened, I would consider myself to be socially conservative in most areas. I don't think he is saying that one size fits all but the research shows that a nuclear family, a loving family, a safe home are the best predictors of outcomes.
Also, him choosing to not have a relationship with his addicted and abusive mother is not "lack of empathy," it's common sense. Why is there a fixation on the progressive side to empathize with blatantly abusive people? Why should he? It's not nuance, it's just reality.
I don't understand why advocating for traditional values means "lack of empathy." I don't get how conservative values gets coded as evil, when it is way worse for kids to grow up in broken homes with abusive parents.
I live in an anti-abortion/forced birth state. I shudder to think of how many children will be abandoned, neglected, and abused because of conservatism here.
I also don't assume that homes that are not traditional are abusive, and that's my primary issue with the traditional values brigade. It's not enough to promote the ideas; conservatives demonize and punish (financially, socially, and politically) people who do not have traditional values or family structures. Those punishments ruin lives and destroy communities without offering support that would make kids safer or healthier.
I saw an interesting short video on this from Innuendo Studios on YouTube. He makes the argument that conservatives believe that if you can’t get rid of a bad thing completely, then there’s no point in trying to do anything about it policy wise. So take gun violence, for example. Because gun violence will always occur, even in places with strict gun control laws, there’s no point in trying to mitigate it in their eyes. Then he gets into the topic of abortion. Why don’t conservatives feel the same about abortion? You will never get rid of all abortions, right? Well the thing is, they know that, but their view of crime is that it just needs to be punished, not mitigated or eradicated. They’re ok with certain crimes existing as long as the people who do them get caught and punished. For them, It’s not about reducing crime, but merely punishing it. The video is called “I hate Mondays”
Thanks. I don't think his memoir is focused solely on abusive homes. Research universally shows that kids raised in a two-parent household fare better overall almost all life outcomes. That's the issue I don't understand. It's not demonizing or punishing people who don't fit that, it's encouraging people to aspire to that ideal. What is so wrong with that? The same thing with having children, why does it have to be "forced birth"? It makes it seem that having children is somehow wrong.
These are the ideas I struggled with when I was progressive. Now as more conservative, family and children are natural. They are fundamental to humanity. I question people who think otherwise.
Endorse whatever you want, but we will never be able to ensure children grow up in a "two-parent household." Even people who start with two parents lose one or both of them to death, illness, abuse, incarceration, etc. Rob's adoptive family had two parents until his new dad decided he didn't want to be a dad anymore. How do you account for that?
We are not stupid. We see the research (though the research also says several factors impact the life outcomes of children beyond the presence of two parents). Still, the refusal to grapple with the reality of how people live their lives and how policies that try to force people into nuclear families are ineffective is why I don't respect the conservative political worldview.
"Forced birth" denotes how people who get pregnant are, literally, forced to carry fetuses, even if the fetus died "naturally." Here's the story of a woman who carried a dead fetus for weeks because of the anti-abortion/forced birth laws in Texas. https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2022/07/18/woman-carried-dead-fetus-texas-anti-abortion-ban-cohen-new-day-dnt-vpx.cnn