How Tea Baggers Think. Hint. They Barely Do.

Below I am going to post this rather long chunk I first published on FB.  It was on someone else's wall.  So I was not really going to go into actual ideology there.  As I was a guest.  And I was involved in this extremely fucked up exchange with another "guest."  Some guy who's anger at government led me to believe he was a garden variety tea bagger, wing nut, conservative, libertarian.  What ever the fuck.

Anyway.  He started off with that all government is bad, stupidity.  Now instead of taking that head on here, I will go to the evils of conformation bias.  Even if this guy knew he was not at his local tea party. "Get yur Hateon," session, he was cutting lose with the insane ideological invective and seemed  genuinely, if not with reasonable basis, surprised that he wasn't getting the amen chorus.

And to my mind that is exactly what the Tea Bagger movement it.  It is (far as the rank and file goes)  some twisted group therapy session where people who don't really know fuck all about World and American History, or Political Science, or Theories of Government, who as an inbred redneck genetic predisposition just fucking hate fucking government.  And that hatred really for them needs no clear, identifiable basis.

In the last round before my reply, below, the dude switched away from a shockingly ignorant government is evil line (which I never directly refuted;  I just tried to get him to admit the fact that government has been part of human civilization for over 6,000 years, and one of the first things government ever regulated was commerce.) He got closer to Ideology.  He tossed out that This Government Is Too Intrusive bullshit at me.  Now as it shows at the end, I chose not to get into ideology with him.  But I did continue my History and Political Science Lesson.  Which perhaps sunk in  for the moment.  But I am sure an hour later he was back to thinking that life in America in 2012 is the worst time place ever.  What can you do or say to such a person?  Anyway   here goes:

Generally hating government is one thing. Denying that government is not only a salient, but a foundational requirement of that thing called civilization, is another thing. But now it seems the conversation is being moved in a very different direction.

As far as the question of whether or not this current government in The USA is so horribly, specifically invasive (compared to what? The Iranian Regime? Stalinist USSR? Singapore? Red China under the Gang of Four? England during the Reformation? England during the Tudors? I could go on for ever . . . ) is an entirely different conversation Mark. And that would get us out of the realm of plain, objective, incontrovertible, historic, sociological and anthropological fact, and into ideology. Sorry. Pass. 

Now many a better writer, be they linguists or proper political scientists  or historians have taken on the issue of why do conservatives think the way they do.  And if you have been following this blog at all, you know I blame redneckism for this witless version of government hating.  And it is witless since except for the real anarchistic militia types, these redneck wing nuts end up voting for main stream oligarch GOPers who really only care about concentrating more money and power in the hands of a tiny elite.  It's so fucked up.

That is why I say they, the tea baggers are barely thinking.  They'd actually be  supporting more what they say they ultimately want, if they voted dem.  Granted, that is not going to make for a smaller government.  But smaller does not mean less intrusive.  They really don't know the meanings of words, an the natural and logical results of a pro corporation agenda.  What the fuck.  I know not to waste too much time trying to convince them otherwise.  I just hope there is a insurgent wing nut 3rd party during this Election Year.  Split the Right Wing.  And maybe we can finally smash the instution hard enough to keep it from being a viable political movement ever again.  Hey.  I can dream, right?