Speaker 1: I want to talk today about the scam of modern conservatism and how the right
is manipulating and exploiting people with an ideology that exists only in theory and in reality
is completely different from that which it claims to be. Let me explain. Modern conservatism is a
political ideology that claims to be about limited government, individual liberty and responsibility,
traditional values, freedom, not regulating businesses on and on and on. And there's two parts
of this. The first part is that in theory, all of that sounds really appealing. It's sort of like,
hey, doesn't paying no taxes sound appealing in some general sense? I mean, yeah, I'd love to
keep every dollar that I gross and not pay any taxes in some general sense. That sounds pretty
good. It sounds appealing in certain contexts, the ideas espoused by conservatism sound beneficial,
but in practice, modern conservatism has become a scam that is used to manipulate and exploit
people, and its values are just as quickly abandoned by those espousing them once they
are no longer convenient or productive or helping their cause. Let's talk about some examples. One
way that modern conservatism is being used to manipulate the public is through propaganda
and misinformation. Conservative media outlets and politicians will often spread misleading
information based on their supposed principles in order to win elections. At the end of the day,
all they care about is winning elections. And this includes conspiracy theories when it's convenient,
cherry picking data, using completely loaded language to evoke an emotional response. We
are pro-life while everybody else must be against life. That sounds pretty bad. We're
for tax relief. While taxes must just simply be oppressive. Taxes must be like slavery, which is
quite literally what some libertarians say. And by using this language and manipulating the public's
understanding of the facts, conservatives shape public opinion and influence policy decisions and
voters in their favor in ways that are completely misleading and don't actually benefit the people
that end up voting for them. And that's a big part of the scam, and we're going to get back to that.
Another way that the public is exploited by the scam of conservatism is through dog whistle
politics. So this is when they use coded language that certain groups of people understand to have a
specific meaning. Like, for example, when they say family values, I mean, that sounds pretty good,
right? Like families are good and values that support families, that all sounds good. But it's a
signal to conservative voters, you're supposed to be opposed to same sex marriage. You're supposed
to be opposed to abortion more recently. You're supposed to be opposed to even fundamental,
just basic trans rights. They don't say it outright. And this allows the right wing
politicians to appeal to certain groups of voters without alienating others. It allows them to avoid
accountability, and it allows something that Donald Trump actually did very well,
which is you kind of take every position on issues. And even if you don't overtly do it,
you leave enough vagaries that anybody could sort of stumble across some version of a position that
they agree with you, or at least don't overtly disagree. Modern conservatism also exploits the
public through policy, and this is maybe the most important thing right wing, conservative,
whatever word you want to use for it. Policy disproportionately benefits the wealthy,
the powerful, and those with what we might call like standard or agent identities in American
society. And conservatives will argue lower taxes are good for everybody, increases economic growth,
increases prosperity. Rising tide, lifts all boats. They'll say it with regulation. Reducing
regulation is good for everybody. Economic growth, prosperity, it's great. The truth is, it's a scam.
Those very policies, they they do, particularly in the short term, increase profits for corporations
and the wealthy. But they externalize the burden of the pollution that is created or the low wages
that are paid, which then we all have our taxes go to social welfare programs to support people
who rightly need those programs. Because the corporations are paying low wages,
they claim it's good for everybody. Their economic policy is good for everybody, but it leads to cuts
in social services or increased spending on social services high. Are health care costs,
lower wages for workers. We all pay for it. We are getting scammed by it. So modern conservatism is
a scam that by scamming the public and exploiting the public through all of the things I mentioned,
disproportionately benefits the elites. They love to say Democrats are all about this elitist cabal.
That's that's all they care about. It's actually conservatism that is doing that. Couple modern
examples. We can look at how rightwingers sought to undermine the legitimate legitimacy of the 2020
presidential election. There was no evidence of widespread voter fraud that impacted the results.
They scammed their supporters. They raised money. Trump did, claiming we're going to use the money
to flip the election. He kept the money, used it to pay off campaign debt. Total and complete
scam. We've seen these conspiracies promoted by conservative media outlets and by politicians,
by Trump himself. And that is the prototypical example of how conservatism is used to make the
public think a certain thing and then get them to take an action, either going to the capital,
donating money, whatever the case may be. We have also seen, by the way, this very same rhetoric
used in order to get the public to support ideas that are seemingly completely antithetical to
the values of the right. For example, free speech for all, including for businesses,
until we no longer like the speech and moderation rules that are being applied
on Twitter or Facebook or whatever. And all of a sudden, freedom, liberty and low regulation
goes out the window. And it's we must force Facebook to publish our COVID disinformation.
We must force Twitter to publish the pictures of Hunter Biden's genitalia. They abandoned those
principles right away. And the voters at the end of the day are just getting scammed. They don't
know up or down, left, right. They don't know what's going on. Last thing on this, when you
wonder what is the end game with any of these supposedly conservative policy ideas, whether it's
the immigration reform ideas, they have taxation, whatever the case may be. Understand that the end
goal is to reinforce and perpetuate the rich and corporations maintaining power and profitability.
That is the big scam that they claim. Their entire movement is a set of policies that helps everyone.
And it doesn't. And we've talked before about how that is that is not completely missing from
the Democratic Party. But the degree to which it exists in the modern right wing movement is
completely stunning. It is a scam. Last week we spoke about what it is about people who
are victimized by scams that keeps them being victimized. And part of it is the cult aspect.
And part of it is psychological factors. We looked at the people being scammed. Now
we've looked at what the scam is, and it would be great if people would figure this out and
stop falling for it. But it actually is a party that depends on people continuing to fall for it.