Exactly... they simply think they're "better" than everyone else.
They sustain that delusion by dismissing all evidence to the contrary as "reactionary screeches", because Truth is not coherent with their dogma.
Mix that together with all of their deeply-rooted prejudices: agism (elderly), racism (white), elitism (rural), globalism (nativists)... and they're just plain incapable of hearing anything but the screeches of elderly white rural nativists; nothing more than discomforting noises that they quite simply don't understand.

@rway 1. Just because those on the right see themselves as victims, does not mean they are any less guilty. 2. The extent of our polarisation is a result of political strategies pursued by both parties, which people on the left at least are trying to overcome in the long term. 3. Regardless, it is a fact that we are polarized and have real cultural differences along those lines.

@rway I've also found that my attempts to understand my right wing relatives and acquaintances have not been reciprocated. At some point, especially as one's generation comes of age and they approach the second half of their life, one has to move on and try to get the interests of their generation reflected in public policy. Late boomers have had representation in the White House for half of their lives! Enough of their increasingly demented moral panics!

@WilyRickWiles The extent of our polarization is the unavoidable and ever-increasing result of one group's continuous drift away from the ideals of America, and the other's determination not to abandon them.

@rway That's an interesting framing of McCarthyism.

@WilyRickWiles That's an interesting reactionary buzz-word response; please explain the characterization.
You do know McCarthy was proven right... right?

@WilyRickWiles Every generation rebels, but to abandon the underlying principles in the attempt to start from scratch is a whole 'nother matter. I think many older people on the "right" understand the "left" far better than they understand themselves. Humanity's been on this road before and we know where it leads, there's certainly nothing "new" being considered.

@rway "abandon the underlying principles in the attempt to start from scratch" That is where you have failed to understand.

@rway A whole generation of Americans failed to internalize the words "You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?"

@WilyRickWiles You're right, I don't understand. That sounds like an argument from the "right".

@rway Yes, because you have gobbled up the right's propaganda.

@WilyRickWiles Have I now... what propaganda is that? What is this lack of decency that you're asserting?

@rway This explores the smallness of your politics: [reason.com]

@rway Since we're on the topic of abandoning principles, are the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution among the ones you value? How about the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

@WilyRickWiles Did you have a point, or just a list of references?
What about those documents do you value, and what makes you think that other people don't?

@rway Typically the point of a sentence with a question mark at the end of it is to ask someone a question, not simply list references. So, yes, my point was to ask you a question. I would guess that you're not a fan of the things I listed, which would reveal the type of world you are actually trying to preserve if not return to, but feel free to prove me wrong!

@WilyRickWiles Yes, of course, but what about them? We could fill a library discussing these documents...
Is there a principle buried in there, anywhere, that you think is important and suspect that I don't?
The type of world that I'm interested in has never existed. And it never will, as long as people who don't understand it keep pulling us in the wrong direction.

@rway Yeah there are a couple big ones: equal protection and due process.

@WilyRickWiles Those are good examples, I fully support both.

You do not; unless you stand in opposition to Affirmative Action and all similar policies?

I hear you. And I do agree... Must be kinda nice to have friends though.... Can't be too mad at them about that....

...good thing there's so much other shit to be mad at them for!

We conservatives need to make our presence known. If people actually knew how many real friends they could have on the right, they may feel much more comfortable joining us.

If we came out in large numbers and stood up for ourselves and each other, the left might be a little more hesitant to fight dirty.

@DaveO276 I'm not exactly a conservative unless you mean of the Edmund. Burke variety. I'm more Lockian and Jeffersonian (yesss, progressives come fight me).

@ThomasinaPaine That's a good thing. Society needs people with diverse opinions who can cooperate with each other. We need to have the capacity for bipartisanship, which is not possible without diversity of opinion, nor is it possible when the partisan divide is too great.

You seem like a reasonable kind of person who I could cooperate with across the aisle, so to speak.

But there is irrefutable proof to lots of that stuff, isn't there? I was just wondering, wouldn't it be like... So solid, to have a tight nice anthology of their shit to present with all the necessary proof?

At the very least to defend against their accusations. I mean, they use that tactic against everybody else, they just keep nagging, and nagging, and nagging about shit that happened hundreds of years ago! Yet we have new shit daily to counteract, but barely use it and then poof forget.... So...

Don't know, may help. And it's something... U know,.. anybody... Maybe a very proactive well-intended, bright group of people who might also be so handsome and have big dongs and boobs, may want to overtake by themselves, to help out wink wink

I wanna hear it in French for some psychotic reason. But yeah, pretty much lol

@A1fredo Je parle un peu de francais... why French?