Forum Post: Cult of Conservatism

Last Saturday I cut off my landlord. “Vern, you’re full of shit!” Then I turned and walked back to my car. That was August 15, 2020, about 1pm.

It started when we ran into one another by the dumpster. He was coming back from checking the mail. I asked, “Is is here yet?”

He spoke in his characteristically harsh and impatient whine. “I’ll bring it to you when it gets here!”

I usually ignore him. In fact I haven’t said much to him since 2013, my first year at Morris Ranch RV Park. I used to take the rent to him at the beginning of the month. After enduring a few of his insane far right rants and telling him finally to read the shirt pocket constitution he kept pointing at to lend validity to his arguments, usually by referencing non-existent articles, I quit going by and started leaving the payments in my site mailbox with the flag up.

Today, for whatever reason, I walked over and commented that the was late for a Saturday.

He said hotly and condescendingly, “No it’s not! It can come any time from 10 to 4.”

I don’t know why I challenged that but I did and the back and forth continued for a while, until he said, “It’s the new contractors. A few years ago it was here almost every day by 10:30 or so. But the last 3 contractors have been miserable.”

I said I remembered when the mail arrived regularly in the mid morning. Then added, “They’re screwing with the Post Office pretty bad right now.”

That really set him off. He denied that anything was happening It was all lies of the liberal news media.

I asked, “Where do you get your information? Fox news?” If I’d said, as I was thinking, Faux News, I don’t think he could have gotten any angrier. Actually, angry doesn’t really describe him. I think madder is more accurate here.

He was almost frothing at the mouth as he screamed, spittle flying, “They’re the only ones who aren’t commies like the damned communist Democrats …”

And on and on for a full minute until I interrupted in a firm but unheated voice, “Vern, you’re full of shit!”

As I walked to my car he raved non-stop about commies, liberal propaganda, lies and treachery. I never heard him say Trump in any of this defense of the traitorous moron. Maybe that’s a sign that the lies conservatives tell themselves are beginning to fail. But no. That’s probably just wishful thinking on my part.

The beliefs of the cons defy the power of reason to heal broken minds. They are too much a part of the reactionary identity. They live for their paranoid delusions and will fight to defend them. When challenged, the amygdala (the vestigial lizard brain that signals fight or flight) triggers a thought killing emotional response. It’s as if the truth presents a threat to survival.* Google “Amygdala Hijack.”

I toyed with the idea of calling this phenomena “The Cult of Trump.” But that’s giving the idiot too much credit. Hitler and other demagogues before him, as early as the Druid hating Julius Caesar, played on much the same right wing paranoia as Dimdon. In fact the Republicans have relied on the lunatic fringe and racism since forever. But the Donald has done it openly, which endeared him to his foolish base but may cost the Republican Party the 2020 election. Bottom line: It’s “The cult of conservatism” and it’s been around for a long time. Remember John C. Calhoun and, later, the Confederacy?

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala_hijack An amygdala hijack refers to a personal, emotional response that is immediate, overwhelming, and out of measure with the actual stimulus because it has triggered a much more significant emotional threat. The term was coined by Daniel Goleman in his 1996 book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.

https://youtu.be/KkAYCoQ-q2c