Ultra-conservatives and American Political Culture

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
I suspect an ever-widening definition of mental illness is at least partly to blame.

In a study like this the researcher would generally send out questionnaires to the study population. The questionnaires I've seen used recently are pretty much the same as those used in the past. It is possible though that people are more accustomed to the idea of depression and anxiety and that mental illness is becoming less stigmatized. People may be more willing to reveal their problems on paper, or the fact that they have friends and family who have been diagnosed as having mental illness may make them more sensitized to the symptoms. OTOH the collective assaults of divorce, single parentage, increased competition for jobs, less job security, more drugs and alcohol, and longer lifespans may have something to do with it. Even the trend towards obesity could be a factor. Obese people are prone to have higher rates of sleep apnea, the symptoms of which may mimic depression.

[Mr. Harley]

Before you conservative types go prattling on about the poor and social programs. My brother, a veteran by the way with 16 years service, was seriously injured in the military, when he was trying to turn a 300 pound patient alone (the patient HAD to be turned, and they had no staff) and the patient slipped. He seperated his pelvis from his spine - he has no feeling from the ankles down. For that he got 15% disability, and being barred, due to insurance reasons, from his area of training, physical therapy assistant.

Now his personality is pretty f**ked up. My father about once a year beat him - as in putting his head through a wall, etc - and spent almost every weekends and some weekdays telling him how stupid/useless he was. Yes, my mom would have divorced him, but by that time my sister was burned and my dad was the medical insurance. So mentally he is not in the best of shape. Financially he is marginal - he works two jobs, and can just make ends meet.

Yes, his siblings try to help out - but not everybody has four siblings, in fact that is very rare today. In addition the highest rate of poverty is among the young. So before people prattle on about the poor, chances, and fate - many people who need government help are there because their employer screwed them over and/or a pretty hideous childhood. Want the best pre-indicator for poverty, crime, drug-use, et al? Be a foster child. Yes, some get lucky and make a life from it. Statistically you are better off having a parent killed by disease or an accident during your childhood than you are if you get shoved into the foster care system.

Let private charities deal with it? Yes, Mr. Scrooge, or any other righteous character from Dickens - take your pick. Victorian England used that system, and that's just the kind of Christian country we want the United States to be in the 21st century. The number of poor, especially when you factor in problems with housing, etc. is actually on the rise. While, if the conservatives are to be believed, Bush is presiding over an economic boom. For whom, I might ask? Is it a boom that increase inequities in a country, instead of decreasing them?

Oh - to correct anybody who posts on Food Stamps - it was A MILITARY PROGRAM initially. To make sure we had more potential draftees, as many were unqualified during WW2 due to poor childhood nutrition. I always laugh at Food Stamps as a liberal program. Learn some history, and discuss how it transmorgified, but don't blame the liberals, this was a military program at inception.

edited to clarify a sentence and delete a "he"

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
In a study like this the researcher would generally send out questionnaires to the study population. The questionnaires I've seen used recently are pretty much the same as those used in the past. It is possible though that people are more accustomed to the idea of depression and anxiety and that mental illness is becoming less stigmatized. People may be more willing to reveal their problems on paper, or the fact that they have friends and family who have been diagnosed as having mental illness may make them more sensitized to the symptoms. OTOH the collective assaults of divorce, single parentage, increased competition for jobs, less job security, more drugs and alcohol, and longer lifespans may have something to do with it. Even the trend towards obesity could be a factor. Obese people are prone to have higher rates of sleep apnea, the symptoms of which may mimic depression.

Since mental illness can be a family disease with things like alcoholism, can the rate of mental illness increase?

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by shawnmmcc
He seperated his pelvis from his spine - he has no feeling from the ankles down. For that he got 15% disability, and being barred, due to insurance reasons, from his area of training, physical therapy assistant.

Now his personality is pretty f**ked up. My father about once a year beat him - as in putting his head through a wall, etc - and spent almost every weekends and some weekdays telling him how stupid/useless he was. Yes, my mom would have divorced him, but by that time my sister was burned and he was the medical insurance. So mentally he is not in the best of shape. Financially he is marginal - he works two jobs, and can just make ends meet.

That's tough. Thanks for sharing.

[Dracon II]

Let private charities deal with it? Yes, Mr. Scrooge, or any other righteous character from Dickens - take your pick. Victorian England used that system, and that's just the kind of Christian country we want the United States to be in the 21st century. The number of poor, especially when you factor in problems with housing, etc. is actually on the rise.

Let's not forget that it was Victorian England that provided the backdrop for much of Marx's writing. If the conservatives get their way... they might just end up doing what they spend most of their energy trying not to do: help communism. If you can incorporate some of the demands of the left into the existing political and economic system, you're probably doing more to immunize yourself against communism than by ignoring the left altogether.

[Kontiki]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
heres another interesting figure - ancient greence, who handed out no government assitance to the poor, had less inequality then today: the richest athenians made only 2.5 times more then the poorest.

Yes, those ancient Greeks did a great job self-regulating their multi-national corporations and complex global secutities, commodities and fx markets. Why doesn't the SEC simply emulate their ancient Greek counterparts? I also hear their medical insurance providers have yet to be equalled, and the natural libertarian goodness of all Greek doctors meant you could get a free or low cost MRI at any Athenian or Spartan clinic.

But even better than the ancient Greeks were prehistoric cave dwellers. In the average band, Grog the Chief only had one more sharpened stick than the poorest member of the tribe, so clearly we should model our societies after these near perfect examples.

[Mr. Harley]

Dracon, many historians believe that Theodore Roosevelt, with his anti-trust and government regulatory agencies promoting food safety, etc. actually did more to prevent the rise of strong communist and socialist movements in the United States.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Kontiki
Yes, those ancient Greeks did a great job self-regulating their multi-national corporations and complex global secutities, commodities and fx markets. Why doesn't the SEC simply emulate their ancient Greek counterparts? I also hear their medical insurance providers have yet to be equalled, and the natural libertarian goodness of all Greek doctors meant you could get a free or low cost MRI at any Athenian or Spartan clinic.

But even better than the ancient Greeks were prehistoric cave dwellers. In the average band, Grog the Chief only had one more sharpened stick than the poorest member of the tribe, so clearly we should model our societies after these near perfect examples.

[Ben Kenobi]

Why? Someone already provided one example, though wasn't really what I was looking for. We've already had a number of the reverse, but I want to see examples cited (not from FAUX News, not from Rush Limbaugh) of "Liberal bloodlust

Closest that I have personally seen is a threat to attack our display with knives so that they would be able to cut our signs, and to make use of superior numbers in order to trash the signs and intimidate our volunteers. I personally broke the story to the campus paper, which forced the pro choice group to repeal their earlier statement and issue an apology.

There have been numerous instances of violence at our display, and fortunately, while I have not been present, they have been well documented. The latest one happened in Calgary, where pro choicers attacked and ripped up one of our displays.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by shawnmmcc
Dracon, many historians believe that Theodore Roosevelt, with his anti-trust and government regulatory agencies promoting food safety, etc. actually did more to prevent the rise of strong communist and socialist movements in the United States.

Well said.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Patroklos




I am sure when increasing the population examined from 10,000 to 300,000,000 you should compensate for scale. And again, the 2.5 figure is only for citizens.

Your problem with the analysis that conservatives hate the poor is that a very large portion of conservatives are poor.

I do see this hate in the pundits however, but I find the notion that all poor people are so because the deserve it no more repulsive that the opposite left notion that that all poor people are that way out of fate.

My conservitive knee jerk reation to the left is normally triggered when they try to strip the poor American of personal responsibility of the consequences of their freedom regardless of the circumstances of their poverty. The Crack addict down the street who dropped out of highschool and has never tried to get a job in his life is the same as the mine worker who got laid off and had his pension canceled to the left. And I am sure the later is the majority of the poor, but the left again sabotages themselves.

That and their definition of poverty is ridiculous. It makes it every harder to help the people who need it the most.

What exactly is, "their definition of poverty."

[Agathon]

There have been numerous instances of violence at our display, and fortunately, while I have not been present, they have been well documented. The latest one happened in Calgary, where pro choicers attacked and ripped up one of our displays.

Wasn't that Joncha?

[Ben Kenobi]

No, for once it wasn't him

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
No, for once it wasn't him

It's all right. Joncha will surely be punished!!!!!!!

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


Closest that I have personally seen is a threat to attack our display with knives so that they would be able to cut our signs, and to make use of superior numbers in order to trash the signs and intimidate our volunteers. I personally broke the story to the campus paper, which forced the pro choice group to repeal their earlier statement and issue an apology.

There have been numerous instances of violence at our display, and fortunately, while I have not been present, they have been well documented. The latest one happened in Calgary, where pro choicers attacked and ripped up one of our displays.

Sorry, but that's even less of what I was looking for. Tearing of signs? Fights between college students? How unthinkable. Though, definitely out-of-line behaviour.