It’s more foundational than that. This site was started largely under the premise that personality determines politics, and people’s behaviors indicate whether or not they are conservative or liberal (not Republican or Democrat).
Of course conservatives are reluctant to wear a mask. Conservatives are inherently skeptical – especially of government, bureaucracy, and group think.
Democrats mischaracterize conservatives as anti-science, but it’s quite the opposite. The wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth that is the media’s reporting on coronavirus is based on data models that have been wrong from the start and tear-jerking anecdotal stories of people who have suffered a loss due to a coronavirus death. And they always come with the prescription of government intervention and slowing our economy.
But conservative reservations come from real science. While the media lack the curiosity or critical thinking necessary to ask real, thoughtful, and analytical questions at the White House press briefings, conservatives are out there seeking the truth from what science is telling them.
Consider herd immunity: the idea that the more people exposed, the more antibodies are produced and shared among the population. Regardless of whether or not it is in play in this pandemic (especially in California), you won’t hear anyone in the media press to learn more about it and if it’s happening.
Hydroxychloroquine. Doctors all over the world are using it with real results. And while that usage doesn’t fit the established definitions of clinical trials, there’s enough evidence to suggest it is making a difference. Conservatives know that if faced with the chance of dying with coronavirus, they would take their chances with it.
While liberals are listening to the nightly drumbeat of the gospel of social distancing from the mainstream media, conservatives are wondering what scientists in Santa Clara have found out about the real mortality rate of the virus. Is it really less deadly than our worst flu seasons? We’d like to see more studies like that one.
Conservatives are not only naturally skeptical of what they’re being told, or what the masses are doing, but they seek answers. Does this not describe some of the main tenets of science?
Other general conservative personality traits at work are risk-taking, individuality, holistic perspective, patient, taking responsibility, taking action, serving and considering others, optimism, tolerance for others, and trusting others. Liberals tend to trend the opposite.
The Bubbler routinely illustrates this daily. But if you’d like a simple example, look no further than Trump. His whole life has been a series of risks taken. And like a conservative, he knows he will sometimes fail. But conservatives also believe that failure is valuable because you learn so much from it.
He’s clearly not afraid of what others think of him. He’s always looking at the country and our direction, as a whole. By standing front and center every day at the White House briefings, he’s taking responsibility for the task force and leading with his actions. His policies are designed to make it easy for people to try and succeed. He’s been criticized for thinking we’d get past this pandemic easily. He trusts his task force, and he doesn’t criticize them. And he’s prone to action.
I was careful to use “conservative” vs “Republican” and “liberal” vs “Democrat.” That’s because many self-described liberals are actually conservative. They behave as a conservative would, and think as a conservative would. But they think they’re liberals because they think to themselves, “I’m not a racist, bigot, homophobe sexist, so I must be a liberal.”
And that is why the Republican Party is the worst marketing department in the history of marketing. Conservatives only see people. They don’t see race, gender, dress, ethnicity. It’s completely counter to the philosophy. But thanks to the Republicans not knowing how to address this line of Democrat marketing, much of America’s liberals have no understanding of conservatism or that they fit right in.
If you’re not wearing a mask because it symbolizes being told what to do, trusting bureaucrats, or blindly believing data models that have only been wrong, you may be a conservative.
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