How does a liberal turn conservative?

[mdmc]

A: S/he gets mugged.

Q: How do you turn a conservative into a liberal?

[demnan]

1. They lose their job

or get arrested unjustly.

[Doctor_J]

2. Let him/her

get arrested, or drafted, or lose her job.

[mdmc]

17. true

but if you can buy good legal advice, and if you have a hundred additional job offers, these things don't really bother you much. Rich people don't get drafted too often.

[LoZoccolo]

3. They get embarassed...

...by their informed liberal friends constantly exposing the absurdity and lack of factual grounds for their arguments.

[mdmc]

18. unless having liberal friends

is an abomination to the conservative creed. Liberals are commies, and enemies to the USA. Good conservatives don't associate with traitors to their class or country.

[Friar]

4. how does a liberal turn conservative?

they get either a lobotomy or alzhiemer's.

[mdmc]

My Dad's best friend has alzhiemer's

And had to divorce his wife to ensure that their life long savings (both are retired professionals) would not be liquidated by his treatment. He was already a liberal, but his story makes a great conversion story.

Imagine working your whole life, saving money and raising a family, only to have it all taken away because you can't afford medical service.

[LondonReign2]

47. They get RELIGION

EOM

[mdmc]

50. GOOD One

:kick:

[RichM]

5. Lib to Conserv: they acquire a portfolio.

Conserv to Lib: the portfolio loses most its value.

[JanMichael]

45. But there are plenty of RICH Liberals!

And certainly mountains of financially secure Liberals like just about everyone that I know.

Hell I even have top 2% Income friends that are freakin' SOCIALISTS!

No shit. It's a sense of Fairness, Empathy and Egalitarianism, more that anything else IMHO.

The money transformations are for those that were probably only opportunistic Libs in the first place.

[Liberal Classic]

6. People change

Some people grow more liberal, some people grow more conservative. As others have noted, for some there is a watershed even which forms an opinion. Look at Barry Goldwater, he got more libertarian as he got older.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

7. easy

they make less that 100k a year and realize they are not among the top 1% in earnings.
Or like my recently registered-Democrat-from-Repuke friend, they have a brother in Iraq and break an arm without health insurance. I call that a 1-2 punch.

[Maeve]

8. Actually, I was more conservative before I got mugged

I was younger and less tolerant of others back then...the attack didn't change my politics at all, really.

An awful lot of being a "conservative" nowadays seems to be fearfulness and a desire to control others. That's part of why I no longer identify with them....

[Friar]

12. Bliain Eorpach na dTeangacha

hehe

[Maeve]

39. Is fearr Gaeilge briste na Béarla cliste

Faltering Irish is preferable to clever English!

[mdmc]

21. I got mugged

and a little piece of me died. I have always cherished black people, and felt that their struggle deserved my upmost respect. After being mugged, I felt hatred and racism. I felt a little piece of me die. I didn't like it. Months later, I still have issues generating compassion. Compassion rules all.

[Friar]

36. I had a similar experience

while in the army. Funny thing is I wasn't prejudiced against blacks but one night at a base Club for enlisted men, me and my buds were assualted by a group of black GIs. I was hit with a sawed-off pool cue. A friend of mine involved in this scuffle drove off the attacker. His name is Raoul, a great guy of hispanic background. Now, the funniest thing about this is that I WAS prejudiced against "mexicans" until I actually got to know them in the army. This singular experience taught me not to judge an entire race or ethnicity by the actions of a few.

[Gringo]

9. This is an old, and wrong truism

***How does a liberal turn conservative?
A: S/he gets mugged.***

I've been mugged, and had cars/stereos stolen, and I haven't fled to the 'burbs or turned repuke, in fact I turned more liberal after.

It is hard to "think liberal thoughts" after being victimized by those you might be trying to help, but it's better than giving in to hate and fear.


Q: How do you turn a conservative into a liberal?

A: I dunno, give him an education, turn off the TV and radio for a while, and have him read newspapers. Also, let him live in a foreign country for a year or two, and find out that those furriners are people too, and that other countries do a lot of things better than we do, and that we can learn a thing or two from them.

Our philosophies are not as simple as theirs, thus the answer to your question is not as simple as the old "mugging" sawhorse.

[slackmaster]

14. I think "mugging" is hyperbole

Speaking for myself alone, I became LESS liberal the moment I saw how much money was withheld for taxes from my first "real" paycheck.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. But of course, most of what is withheld from your paycheck

goes for FICA (supporting the current population of elderly and earning credit towards your own Social Security), the Pentagon, and service on the national debt, NOT on the dreaded "welfare" programs, although the conservative pundits imply precisely the opposite.

[Sirius_on]

46. Well the problem

The problem I have with your arguement is that being a man I will not get a big return on my SS investment. Most men lose out in fica by a long shot. Women are what taxes the system.

I took a visit to my grandmothers assisted living home and noticed that over 95% of the residents were women. This figure isnt exagerated either. My grandmother said there was 178 people living there and 165 of them were women.

As I grow older and pay more taxes I become more conservative. As I see the current administration in action I become more liberal. That makes me a moderate, which I have always been.

[mdmc]

23. It is actually a joke

but all humor rings true to some degree.

[EOTE]

29. If I got mugged.....

Why would I support policies that make more muggers?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

30. Living overseas is a good one

It gets people out of the "America as Number One" mentality.

[mdmc]

42. Good point Lydia!

A couple of my Dean meetup buddies work for Raytheon. The were GOP members until Bush ruined diplomacy. Now they back Dean (and think of im as a compassionate conservative). They had lived in Munich for over 13 years, and know many internationl people.

[Interrobang]

40. The joke is...

A conservative is a liberal who's been mugged. A liberal is a conservative who's been arrested.

I've never been mugged or arrested, and these days, I'm a bloody radical! (I used to be a Canadian centre-leftist, and then, lurch-thud! the political spectrum shifted to the right.)

[RandomKoolzip]

10. Tell them George W. Bush has been unfaithful to his wife?

Or raise the cost of Health insurance, or have them talk to a black person for more than 3 minutes.

[Terwilliger]

11. A: S/he was never really liberal

or they were Dem liberals, which could mean anything

A to Q2: take away their money

[slackmaster]

13. In the case of James Brady, you shoot him/her in the head

Although James and Sarah Brady are certainly still Republicans and conservative on most issues.

[mdmc]

24. oh, thats bad!

I love it.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

15. They wake up one day thinking complex thoughts rather than memes.

[mdmc]

16. A: You give them cancer!

Suddenly, after a life long obsession with social darwinism, they get to realize that we all end up weak and in need of others. Its the great human equalizer that no amount of intelligence, wealth, family, or connections can hold back. We all grow weak and, eventually life leaves us.

When you realize all this self sufficiency bullshit is an illusion, and that we are all interconnected.

I had a conservative high school teacher beat cancer. While he has a public school teacher, he hated the concept of free education, or equal anything. 'Survival of the fittest' was his social mantra. He sure did mellow out after his health scare.

[Az]

19. This is actually a good question

Humor aside this is a vital question. NeoCons are former liberals largely. What happened to them? It is angre that fuels the NeoCon movement. Anger and frustration at being unable to progress due to the mandates of PostModern ethoes.

PM mandates that all be given voice and that none can be struck down as wrong. The reason for this position is due to the necissities of a pluralistic society. With so many living side by side mandating one position over another becomes increasingly difficult.

While this may initially help to build a pluralistic society eventually it becomes a stagnation. Progress becomes thwarted. Frustration sets in. Eventually those groups that are more aggressive discover ways to circumvent PMs blocks or worse they learn how to use them to their advantage. Then the true progressive movement becomes stagnant because they continue to adhere to PM principles while those that have abandoned them abuse the principles to their advantage.

[pinerow]

32. I find that most of the so-called "Neo-Cons" that I know feel

a lost of entitlement.
Whenever they see a woman, or a person of color achieve whatever goals they may have set for themselves, the "Neo-Cons" seem to feel the need to trivialize their accomplishment, and tend to attribute that success to "Affirmative Action:"

My answer has always been "Who the hell told you it was your job\school\award to have in the first place?

Neo-Cons fear a meritocracy, it would mean they would have to win without the trust fund or the legacy.

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Terwilliger]

34. *BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT*

but thanks for playing! :hi:

[Az]

37. Um

Do you know what a real NeoCon is? There are probably a handful of what were originally called the NeoCons. It has since then become a derogotory term use by the left to represent the horde of followers the NeoCons have genrated. For a good description of how a NeoCon is born read David Brock's book Blinded By the Right.

[mdmc]

44. My fish (faith) swallows yours!

But thats a different thread.
love the feet on the Darwin fish, though.
:0)

[GabysPoppy]

20. After a Conservative is mugged

Make him get 3 approvals from his HMO before he is treated.

Then tell him he is limited to $250,000. for the loss of his eyesight and 3 limbs mangled in the incident.

[mdmc]

25. You got it POPPY !

:dem:

[cmf]

22. I know this one

They live 20 years without changing their views.

[mdmc]

31. lol

not bad..

[leftofthedial]

26. they become eligible to collect Social Security

n/t

[LawDem]

28. Historical note

"A conservative is a liberal who got mugged last night."

Frank Rizzo, former mayor of Philadelphia.

My suggested alternative:

"A liberal is a conservative who got laid off yesterday."

[AntiCoup2K4]

35. Actually, the Rizzo quote explains a lot.

The entire country got raped December 12,2000 and then mugged September 11,2001. And then was told by the Corporate Media that "liberals" were to blame for both.

Guess that explains why a lot of the poor fools believed it.

[Vladimir]

43. indeed

Maybe its a case of collective Stockholm syndrome...

seriously though, all this proves is how dangerous the media is becoming, and how important the Internet is today - sometimes the only place to find the 'other side' of the story.

[classics]

38. They become self aware.

Usually through some personal trauma.

[Vladimir]

41. education, education, education

all you can do is keep screaming the truth at them, and hope that there is something other than a vacuum between their ears.

Interestingly, I have been mugged... by two white guys. The line was 'welcome to Britain mate' if I remember well. Funny in retrospect, eh? :)

[LiberalLibra]

48. You got me, I never figured it out, except that some......

.....marry into a repuke family and day by day decide that soap is preferable to strife.

[JohnKleeb]

49. the green stuff

or forgetting who they are

[Syn_Dem]

51. Conservative to Liberal

When they get a heart.

[ursacorwin]

52. isn't it really all about FEAR?

i've been mugged and arrested, and had health problems and gotten into a school w/o affirmative action...blah, blah i'm sure we can all tell stories about stereotypes and how we do/not live up to them.

but what is at the heart of most if not all conservative "philosophy?"
fear- of change, or of difference, or of being wrong, or of the new.

conservative religious types want to keep the whole world under the sway of one text, and ultimately one interpretation of that text, because they fear being shown that most of it is made up stories...

they want to keep women & gays and minorities out of (pick endeavor) because they fear the incontrovertable proof that they were wrong, and a woman/lesbian/black person can do (whatever) just as well or better as they can.

conservative economic types fear progressive regulation because they fear that their control, their economic power, would be taken away from them and that they'd be forced to share with others, others who don't have a tradition of trust funds and tony business schools in their families. they fear that people might one day wake up and say, "gee, this is just a little green piece of paper! it has no *real* value at all!"

liberals fear things as well, but generally use that fear to motivate them to make progressive change to avoid that which they fear most, and frequently seek to overcome fear with love or compassion. conservatives, it seems to me, are nothing without the fear, and all that goes with it, to drive them. they use it to control others and their own selves, to squash independent and critical thought, and to keep the little people in their places.

it is the root of all they believe, and they are helpless without it.

[ChadCoffman]

53. move him into a city

Q: How do you turn a conservative into a liberal?

A: Move him into a city.