I don't have many interactions with conservatives IRL other than a couple of hardcore MAGA family at once a year get togethers.
I've found this sub has a lot of great nuanced takes and definitely gives me a better opinion of conservatives than I previously had from experience with family and watching right wing media.
Do you think that the conservatives on this sub are representative of a decent portion of conservatives?
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No, Reddit is very very very far from reality.
On the same token most Democrats I know are not nearly as far left and enraged as the leftists on Reddit. Reddit is not reality for either party in America.
That’s for sure. Unfortunately my city is run by people that are kinda close though. I’ve never met any of those people though.
Most real conservatives aren't allowed to freely share their opinions on this platform. Therefore, you're getting a very watered down view.
Frightening if true.
Yes, it is frightening that tech oligarchs don't allow a large portion of the country to express themselves freely.
I've given up replying to political posts on anything but this sub. If i disagree with the hive mind, my post is either removed by mods or just downvoted to the point where no one even sees it. Reddit is an echo chamber, by design.
I think I misunderstood you. I thought you were suggesting that conservatives aren't allowed to freely share their opinions even in this sub.
This sub hasn't been a problem for me. It's a very nasty sub and the pile-on is insane. However, when reddit as a whole is so hostile, you're going to get a watered down response from the right.
Wait, so you're saying that although this sub hasn't been a problem for you personally, the response from the overall right is watered down even in this sub?
Yes. Conservatives discovered how censored, biased, and botted reddit is, so the majority of them aren't anywhere on the site at all anymore.
Most Conservatives are fed up and done bothering, so you're really only hearing from the ones who are the most stubborn or just enjoy arguing.
Although I'm still unclear what you mean by "watered down".
"Watered down" was the choice of words by the commenter to whom I replied.
As for conservatives being censored, them's the breaks when you're on a privately owned site. Y'all are free as birds over on Elon's site.
Correct. Lots of conservatives won't touch anything on reddit.
Can you elaborate on this? What conservative views (other than the one Reddit has an issue with that starts with a T) can’t be shared in this sub? You can DM me if you’re worried it’ll get you slapped for bringing it up.
Basically any conservative that doesnt feel like being insulted for any view that opposes Reddit hive-mind just wont engage.
Even on this thread now there are a TON of passive aggressive insults spewed in response to many responses. It turns off a ton of people from engaging, so you never see their opinions.
Not the guy you were asking, but I think abortion is a good example.
Many conservatives believe abortion ends a human life, and therefore think there should be some laws regulating the practice.
Yet, many pro-lifers are portrayed as a bunch of Christian nationalists who just hate women and want to control their bodies.
Or, at least, they believe their words are just gonna be twisted to look as bad as possible.
Idk I feel like I see this opinion all the time here
This is a relatively recent development in terms of the historical conservative movement, and one that was explicitly politicized as a cynical means of consolidating christian support in the post-Civil Rights era for the GOP. Before the 70s, it was just a pet issue for Catholics specifically. It's a contrived position that seems to exist along mostly partisan lines now.
Regardless, people aren't being censored for being anti-abortion in any systemic way afaik. It's a painfully easy position to deconstruct in discussion regardless, given the pro-choice position is fundamentally rooted in basic bodily autonomy and not in when life begins (or whatever)
But just how the left debates. They won't have an actual exchange of ideas, they just call conservatives "racist/misogynist/phobic/bigot."
Yeah yeah, and conservatives call everyone left of GWB communists/socialists, terrorists, and slurs. There is no high ground here for conservatives
Dear God I REALLY hope that's a joke because anymore vitriol and hatred of people / for the people of this country and we have some serious problems.
I was not joking. There certainly is a lot of hate/vitriol... One side has even started assassinating leaders on the other side.
Yup. The right and the far right are at each other's throats. Its kinda sad to watch
You do know that nobody buys that shit, right?
Buys what?
There’s a whole lot of vitriol and hatred but it’s pretty one directional. And it’s not coming from the right, the left just confuses disagreement with hate.
And then use that incorrect assertion as a reason to call the right Nazi, Fascist, racist, etc.
And then a few people actually start to believe that there’s a no shit Nazi takeover happening, someone on the right gets predictably assassinated, too many people on the left cheer for it, lie about the assassinated dudes views, protest his memorials and mock his widow.
Just like the right calling the left the enemy within, terrorists, satan, and ACTUALLY demonizing the left on government websites, using it as a free platform for partisan politics; cry me a river, nobody cares anymore including myself. The right is hypocritical as fuck and is just complete toxic sycophants anymore.
The right needs safe spaces and can't even take the same thing done back to them in the exact same way.
"And it’s not coming from the right, the left just confuses disagreement with hate."
Wow, if you think vitriol and hatred is only a disagreement then it's worse than I imagined.
You won't find a single ounce of sympathy here, not one, I actually went against the left and go onto every who used that language towards people on the right, now after what the right has become / done / supports, who gives a shit.
I had to screenshot your comment.
"The right needs safe spaces" followed by "the right is hypocritical as fuck" 😂
“ButWhatAboutTrump”
Believe it or not, there’s more to the right than a 90’s Dem.
“If you think vitriol and hatred is only a disagreement”
No, what I clearly said was the left labels disagreement as hate and vitriol, even when there is none.
And yes, you’re just here to rant and whataboutism to avoid the reality of how the modern left operates.
"“If you think vitriol and hatred is only a disagreement”
No, what I clearly said was the left labels disagreement as hate and vitriol, even when there is none."
You are right, you did say that, I was wrong on that one.
"Believe it or not, there’s more to the right than a 90’s Dem."
What?
"And yes, you’re just here to rant and whataboutism to avoid the reality of how the modern left operates."
Comparing the similar actions is not "whataboutism" which deflects criticism by responding to an accusation with a counteraccusation, mine was not an accusation, it's a fact.
Your statement is conjecture, mine can be proven by government websites, leaders of the republican party, news conferences, was there a news conferences celebrating / demonizing people on the right? Has any other president demonized the other party at press conferences, telling other leaders of state, social media posts, various and numerous websites.
This is one thing I can't stand it's the right's sanctimonious, hypocritical, rhetoric rules for thee BS, I gave up on any sort bipartisanship a while a go and this is exactly what the right wants; they want to polarize and demonize people while they do the very same things they accuse other people of.
“What”
The majority of your examples, and the examples many people Ike to whataboutism, are from Trump. Who is a 90’s Dem.
And yes, it’s literally whataboutism and you’re still just ranting.
Why are you even here if you’ve given up?
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Yeah, exactly, you’re just a Progressive who actively hates conservatives.
And has given up on bipartisanship.
Which means you’re literally only here in bad faith.
Like I said, you’re right about the hate and vitriol, you just got the direction wrong.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressiveHQ/s/QvZXImc1fD
“Every day they remind me of why I hate their hypocritical ways”
Misquote me out of context, AGAIN as the right accuses people of misquoting Kirk, you do the same exact thing. For context the full title: "Every day they remind me why I hate their hypocritical disgusting ways. How much disrespect are we willing to take? Not once did they lower the flags for Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman, Minnesota House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman."
Not an ounce of respect came from the right, and insulting them by saying "if only they were more popular" BS, more sanctimonious BS.
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Personal attacks and stereotyping are not allowed.
Partly. This subreddit is mostly frequented by normie liberal conservatives. Not a bad lot.
What do you mean by normie liberal conservatives?
Liberal conservative: Personal liberty is paramount, civil rights, negative rights, small government, etc
Normie: Not eternally online, largely unaware of online drama
Wouldn't that be more a libertarian? What's the difference between a liberal conservative vs a libertarian?
Libertarians differ when it comes to subsidies
You mean they don't support them I assume? What other differences are there between a liberal conservative and libertarian? Just want to understand the distinction.
I think the conservatives who participate here tend to be people who have thought a lot about their beliefs and are willing to defend their reasoning for them, so that may skew things a bit. A lot of people of all political perspectives really haven't actually thought through their views that much.
This sub is definitely skewed by simply being on Reddit, though. Most of the very pro-Trump people stopped using Reddit after TheDonald was banned, so I think this sub skews more anti-Trump than most conservative spaces do. Another problem is that a few of the people on this subreddit are very clearly liberals who are just pretending to be conservative. I sometimes see a "conservative" posting liberal talking points on here, I check their post history, and find that their post history on every other sub besides this one is full of nothing but screaming and crying about how much they don't like Trump.
But Trump isn't a conservative as many many conservatives here continually say. It makes sense they are crying about how much they dont like Trump. He isn't a conservative and is in charge. That doesn't make them a liberal.
Very true statement about many (most?) people in all political persuasions not necessarily putting much thought into their beliefs beyond I'm red/blue, so I believe XYZ!" It's all so cultish.
I think that is the main thing I appreciate about this sub.
What percent of those on this sub would you estimate intentionally misrepresent their conservative flair? Why would they do that?
It's sorta representative, but not totally.
Generally conservatives here are ones that are actively looking to engage with liberals, are articulate, and bull-headed enough and secure enough in their convictions they're still using a heavily liberal social media site, whilst being even-tempered enough to not have yet been kicked off said heavily liberal social media site.
Generally, that's a fairly specific temperament. Your average conservative thinks mostly the same things on a gut level but can't articulate or justify it as well, often mostly holding the beliefs because their parents and peers do.
Also, we're all very online here. Your average conservative will hold the same views but with a different weighting on which issues are more or less important to them. Internet types tend to be more concerned with cultural issues that mostly crop up on the internet, free speech issues, and foreign affairs. If you asked your average conservative about foreign affairs or free speech they'd have roughly the same answers as you see here but they'll get a lot less worked up about it and be less likely to bring it up on their own, and probably be able to give less examples of specific cases/incidents they're concerned about. Conversely, people able to spend all their time online are usually middle-class, so they'll spend less time talking about economic issues. Ask an online conservative about the economy they'll say the same broad thing as your average conservative but they'll get less worked up and be less likely to bring it up on their own.
I don't agree at all....
I'm 35. Things have changed a lot and the leftist stereotypes of the right have not.
The right wing has been the counter culture anti establishment ideology for multiple decades at this point. Nearly my entire lifetime.
There's almost no spaces were you can be openly right wing outside of your immediate private life with people you trust, and anonymously on the internet.
Certainly not at any half decent job. The most vanilla and center right Ben Shapiro, or Charlie Kirk, or Jordan Peterson talking points or opinions would get you fired in most countries and in most professions.
That famous autistic Google engineer got fired just for saying that women and men have biological differences that generally lead to different personal interests when HR asked the group a question during training, and he was a well meaning democrat.
I worked at an extremely high paying construction company owned by a large black rock type corporation. Extremely skilled tradesmen, the best of the best. Most of them were really eccentric right wing dudes and we constantly had to do weird sexual harassment and diversity training and multiple times a year and just nod along.
I spent all of elementary and high school reading books like "It all falls apart" and learning about slavery and how evil white people are and getting automatically failed for any sentiment that was even center right..... and then things got even worse in university.
Of course my opinion is more nuanced, of course I'm more open minded, of course I have well thought out arguments.
I know everything the left believes. I've been force fed their opinion agaisnt my will, in a semi authoritarian manner, for my entire life.
Unless you are just a complete hillbilly.... Like you know, if you're any kind of successful professional at all, even a blue collar one, you have to be somewhat aware of and tolerant of the lefts opinion.
A lot of these people have never heard an intelligent conservative person state their true opinion on something in an articulate way a single time in their entire life.
That's why people like Jordan Peterson and Charlie Kirk blow up and go viral the way that they do. People are often hearing those arguments spoken out loud for the first time in their life.
The establishment wing is always going to be less open minded and less diverse in thought, becuase they can use force. That's just how it is.
I'm not that clear on which part of my statement you're actually disagreeing with here? Most of this strikes me as roughly true but not in contention with any of what I said (except in tone anyway).
Well, it's a constructive and soft "completely disagree." Not necessarily a combative one.
There's a tendency to focus on the trope of the low IQ disgruntled republican that's more fear based and just following along and doesn't really understand what they believe in.
Maybe this is true of older generations that grew up under a more right wing establishment order......
But I think this stereotype is more descriptive of the left today and for my generation.
I find more left wing people that don't really understand what they believe or why they believe it and are just going along with it becuase of friends and family and becuase they don't want to get in trouble or rock the bottom.... And they really don't want to explain themselves or defend their opinion or talk about politics becuase they don't really understand the ideology and don't want to accidently say something that's agaisnt the establishment order and get in trouble with their own party by saying some accidental blasphemy.
It's very reminiscent of republicans from generations past.
Isn’t there a big disconnect between the stuff you’re complaining about as if it was some leftist dystopia and the garbage policies and handling of the administrations enabled by the “conservatives”? On the one hand we have HR firing a google engineer, on the other we have tariffs, Epstein files, questionable cabinet appointments, etc.
I also wouldn’t put Kirk and Peterson as some bastion of conservative thought. The YT algorithm pitched me Shapiro and Peterson probably 10 years ago and it didn’t take me long to realize they just didn’t have anything particularly interesting to say. Fast forward to today and they’re not looking particularly hot either, either struggling with their own issues or realizing they’re not actually in the inner circle of the coalition they thought they were part of.
My guess is the actual sophisticated conservative thinkers are a lot more mellow and their views are not particularly unsavory, or at the very least they have the intellectual honesty to admit that some issues are not black and white, but they don’t produce the right quotes or sound bites.
Ultimately I’m judging conservatives by what they’re enabling and how long they spend pretending to support certain things until it starts affecting them, and it’s not looking good so far.
No, not at all. Biden cabinet appointments were worse, absolutely disgusting and shameful. Democrats were completely in control of the epstein case for an equal or greater amount of time, this is great to show there is corruption in our government and that Isreali influence is a problem.
Stripping tarrifs is one of the worst things the old guard war mongering globalist Republicans ever did. Tarrifs are a left wing thing that the democrats supported and every country in the world employs pretty aggressive tarrifs to protect it's people and national interests.
There is no reality where I would prefer another term of Biden or Kamala, it's not even close.
Or would I want a Bush style republican, that might even be worse.
My only regret is that trump is not being aggressive enough. He's being weak and old and cowardly and is way too cautious.
The disconnect is you not understanding that a huge demographic of younger republicans are traditional western liberal nationalists and our idea of "conservatism" isn't Ronald Reagan. It's the 1990's and early 2000's
Im an Iraq/afgan combat veteran that grew up on South Park and Eminem, and Chappelle's show.
We are anti establishment people that hate the sub human war mongering swamp creatures in our government.
Fuck Bush, Fuck Dick Cheney, Fuck John Mcain, Fuck the Clinton's, Fuck Benjamin Netanyahu and the Zionists and their forever wars.
I love and support gay people and transsexuals but I think that a bunch of the T activists are a radical minority of narcissistic freaks that want attention and want to upset people and just want to push things as far as they possibly can, and the left is too cowardly to adress this very simple issue that has gotten far out of hand.
I think the left, as far as political figures goes, is filled with a bunch of disgustingly ineffectual and incompetent and cowardly losers that disgust me and make my skin crawl like Tim Walz, I can't believe he was almost vice president or even worse that the weird cackling bimbo was almost our first female president, the only person I respected and would have voted for was Bernie Sanders.
..............
Now some statements for the record.
Rosie O'Donnell is in fact a fat pig. She is an obnoxious bully that has made an entire career out of being a loud mouth bully and a fat pig, that is her whole identity.
The night I met my wife, she was giving me "come fuck me eyes" all night...... you know, I just walked up and started kissing her, I could do whatever I wanted, I grabbed her by the pussy, it was pretty awesome. 10/10 experience, would recommend that technique, it works pretty great.
From what we learned about the swing states after the election, Jeb Bush would have smashed Hillary and easily become president. I Will forever be grateful to Trump for stopping another fucking Bush or Clinton from being in the Whitehouse.
So yes, I'm pretty happy. Trumps a bit of a disappointment but he's a lot better than any of the other dog shit options we've been pressented with and I thank God that none of the other options won in 16 or 24.
This was a very well thought out synopsis.
I would say so, it's a broad spectrum of people who are conservative.
The vast majority of average people don't discuss or think about politics, especially in a structural and philosophical way that this sub often does. This sub is far more intellectual than the average person who has not even critically analyzed their own beliefs, much less thought about governance on a fundamental level.
Nowhere on Reddit is representative of reality.
Intellectual is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence friend, I mean I post here after all.
I mean take a random sampling of five people in here and five people in a random bar and the difference would be stark. I doubt a street-picked conservative even knows what the 10th Amendment means.
Yes. I think this sub is representative of conservatives. We represent a wide spectrum of people who are conservative.
Do you think that certain "types" of conservatives are either over- or under-represented as compared to real life?
I don't really try to analyze the types of conservatives. I typically come here to answer honest questions for people asking. I don't look at it as a community
Not at all, reddit as whole tends to lean liberal, even this sub.
I’m assuming you mean from the conservative side? I can see this with most of those labeled center-right. But otherwise, can you explain further, in what ways do they lean liberal?
Even your most ardent conservatives on this sub are more liberal than the real world average. Something like only 40-50% of republicans and 75-80 percent of democrats approve of same sex marriage. If you judged by this sub you’d think those numbers are like 75 and 98% respectively.
Pick basically any issue and this sub has a more left/liberal lean than the conservative voters at large. If nothing else this subreddit self selects for young male participants just like all over Reddit and the younger you are the more reliably predictable your leftward partisan lean is against the median: a conservative Reddit user is going to just straight up be more liberal than a conservative over the age of say 40 or 50 who statistically isn’t on this platform (although granted I’m one of them).
Point taken. I guess it depends on the area you live. Generally the conservatives I meet around me are more like many on this board in that they are a mixed bag. They have some conservative issues they feel very strongly about & lean on & maybe also have some views that are more liberal leaning (though for context of my use of the word liberal- I’m also a little older too, that window has shifted).
So far lgbtq, or same sex marriage in your post, has been the only specific issue brought up. About the approval numbers, I agree with the R (40-50%) number you gave. But, you can see some nuance on that in the other reply to my question, by his answer I’d say while they support it, they do not approve of it.
the sheer amount of libertarians on this subreddit is one indicator.
We’re technically socially liberal in politics eventhough personally we could be socially conservative in personal beliefs.
For example, I support equal rights for Gays and Trans eventhough I personally still believe it’s a sin and I’d def tell educate future child not to be an LGBTQ (idk if it will be successful though).
To say you support equal rights is weird; nobody opposes equal rights, just ridiculous demands for privilege. That is like saying" oh I support murder being outlawed." I mean, sure, but nobody reasonable is saying it should not be.
You think real life Conservative Americans are more conservative?
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I would think it's a pretty fair sample but it should also be taken with a grain of salt. We're on a website that hates us. It takes someone very invested in politics and debate to even bother with this sort of platform.
This is Reddit. Even conservatives here are liberal-leaning.
Can you give examples where AskC, on any issue, had a stance clearly different from the government?
I read AskC a lot, and the most I can think of is some threads where maybe half of commenters said some variant of "I don't support this particular thing, but I won't protest it either and will vote for MAGA unwaveringly". That doesn't seem like an opinion clearly different from the government.
I have seen many instances where post was asking "do you agree with the X Trump said" and then most of the commenters were saying "No" and some even saying "that has nothing to with the conservatism, the conservatism is actually [insert some soft liberal-conservative position]".
And generally, many people here overemphasize small government, individual rights, civic nationalism ("being American is actually about ideals") that betrays their liberal-conservative leaning
Here, you’ll usually get opinions from people that are chronically online. Just keep that in mind when reading answers.
It’s not, people that actively engage with politics online are weirdos and an extreme minority
Most people engage with politics in passing and it’s mostly vibes based.
To actually have a world view where you’ve analyzed and critiqued it from first principles is pretty rare but it’s probably the majority of conservatives on this sub.
Especially to the degree of coming here to actively engage with others, particularly those who may share the exact opposite opinion on most points (WHICH I SAY AS A GOOD THING FOR ALL THOSE HERE)
Yeah actively wanting your view challenged is super odd in the grand scheme of things
Definitely, but also very healthy. Aristotle had a great quote that I did my best to follow in college, and try to follow now:
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it”.
Not very
I think that a majority of questions here are designed to insult and inflame conservatives which does it's job and gets conservatives to come out and defend good values. The real world is the same when you poke the bear.
Fairly new to this sub. I have definitely noticed the questions veiled as insults (although I usually don't click on those - already see libs and conservatives fighting with each other in every other form of media, have my fill of that)
Do you think my question was intended to insult/inflame?
Not accurate in the slightest. Because the subreddit is mostly visited by liberals, they upvote anything they agree with and most conservative opinions are minimized. A good example is the "who had to apologize for being white" post from a few days ago. 99% of the comments agreed with Vance and gave personal anecdotes and sources, but the single comment which criticized Vance, appearing fifteen hours after the original post was made, was immediately upvoted to the top and all of the liberal replies agreed with and applauded the conservative for having the "right" opinion.
I hate to say it, but I agree. Many Conservatives I meet in real life, including friends and family members, often express the kinds of views that wind up getting downvoted on here. Celebrating the concentration camps, endorsing Trump for a third term, wanting to jail their political enemies, cherry picking the constitutional rights we should be "allowed" to have, paranoid anti-vaxx stuff... just wild shit that would get downvoted to hell on here.
I lost my privilege to post with a red flair on here for being excessively mean to those kinds of people, but to those peoples' credit, they sure did grab my team name and run away with it, with a good number of the normies in tow. God bless the normie Conservatives though -- God knows we need them to step up.
edit: changed verbiage to reflect my idea of proportionality. It's many, but certainly not all, and I don't want that message to get mixed. Additions in italics.
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Which concentration camps did you see conservatives celebrating?
Florida's GOP is selling merch for Alligator Alcatraz
I kind of guessed that is what you are calling a concentration camp.
A detention center that was specifically designed and built to store an otherized group away from society in inhumane conditions without trials or access to communication with the outside world?
I understand that "conentration camp" may not be your first choice of metaphor, but if you had to compare Alligator Alcatraz (et. Al) to another incarceration system from anywhere in history, what would you say is a better metaphor?
Wouldn't that only matter if people didn't read the thread in its entirety? The opinions and views of Conservatives are still there for those who really care to seek out. Anybody who just reads the top post and takes it at face value is someone who does t really care to hear what other Conservatives say.
That’s true, but if you’re browsing and only want to dedicate a minute or two to any given thread, it’s unfortunate that the first, most upvoted comment is the rare one that has the “correct” opinion.
To be fair if someone is only looking at only the top comments they were never serious about conservative responses to begin with
Does this mean the views on r/conservative are more representative?
Not necessarily. That subreddit is an echo chamber made by and for a specific type of conservative. Any dissenting views, even those that are a different flavor of conservative, are not just downvoted but deleted and banned.
Every time I see a response at all critical of the Trump admin, they are told they aren’t a real conservative and are in fact a liberal in disguise 😂
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Yeah, this is the weird thing about this sub. My anti Trump takes get the most upvotes, while my takes criticising single payer and mass migration are downvoted.
Doesn’t this sub put most posts into the mode where comments show up in random order??
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The ones that don't do this
It should but it doesn't. At best it splits the positive and negative comments into the top and bottom of a page and jumbles them up.
For example, scroll down to the bottom where the downvoted comments are and you'll see that some of the collapsed top comments are higher than the rest of the negative karma comments, although they should be lower. And you'll never see a collapsed comment on the top of a post.
The upvote/downvote system is flawed. Slashdot has a system where you get a few mod points (upvote/downvotes) at a time to use and if you do use them in a post, you can't participate. Then there is a secondary mod system where you occasionally get to be a meta-moderator and essentially moderate the moderators so if people abuse their mod points just to downvote stuff they disagree with, they get dinged for it and get fewer chances to moderate.
Here, up and down just mean "I agree" and "I don't agree" when it was intended to weed out posts that are abusive, off topic and otherwise not contributing in good faith. This makes the mod system simply weed out conservative opinion since the side is dominated by liberals.
God I hope not I don't relate with these users at all on most things. A lot of these guys got the covid shot, they don't believe in religion, they don't like Trump, they use and work in making AI better, and I'm one of the only tags in the server that says conservative not center-bullshit. We're not allowed to talk about trans or gender at all (you can see it freely in the complaint sub, why cant you say here) even though that is one of the main important issues and most visible in the real world, and everything has to be a good faith which is commie language.
No matter where you go on reddit it's still reddit.
But I don't know where else to go. Reddit was my online home and THEY invaded it
If being Anti-AI makes you a true conservative, then I should be considered Ronald Reagan incarnate :)
Why is getting a vaccine a non-conservative action? If MAGA makes you conservative, what were you before Trump? Are Republicans and conservatives who dislike Trump not allowed to be conservetive? Trump himself isn't even religious and religious belief is in perpetual decline throughout the West, which isn't at all surprising in 2025. What does AI have to do with conservatism? Make AI? Trump himself uses AI. And the trans thing isn't even a political issue of substance. It's a culture-war grievance propped up by a media apparatus to provoke outrage. It's not an important issue by any statistical metric.
Um, okay. You know there's an AskTrumpSupporters sub, right? You'd probably feel right at home.
Who? The commies?
Nonpolitical conspiracy theorist. Getting A VACCINE not a big deal, getting THIS "vaccine" is likely the mark of the beast with nanotech and changed DNA of 4/5 the world.
It didn't exist before, we didn't conserve it not existing. Plus it is a leftist invention and goes against God and our souls. It's too bad art is a left thing that's the one thing I agree with them on.
If it wasn't then it wouldn't provoke such outrage would it? I never thought badly of trans in the past. I was for gay rights. Now I don't believe they even are capable of feelings the same such as love like my side are.
Yeah
Off to check out trumpsupporters sub. The last one they had famously was banned from reddit.
You genuinely believe this?
How is AI a leftist invention? Why does Trump promote and use a leftist invention? Not sure I understand the Gpd/souls connection.
Anyways, a self-described apolitical conspiracy theorist would definitely be more at home over at AskTrumpSupporters.
Give the mods the benefit of the doubt on the gender issue. They are trying to give us a space to talk while respecting rules I doubt they agree with entirely. They have been more than fair in conversations with me about hot button issues here.
Also I agree with you the average conservative on the sub is liberal light. Here I am upset with Trump because he is too moderate
I mean yeah they're fairer than others. They've simply removed my comments sometimes, not banned me so far
This sub is pretty tame and full of neocon types. There's some good discussions here. Most of the Republicans i know are more generic standard flag bearers. I prefer my people on the far right of the LP.
People who post on here tend to be more liberal than the MAGA conservatives offline. I suspect this is because their house of cards fall apart when challenged. MAGA requires a certain level of willful ignorance.
Relative to my real-life interactions, it's missing the evangelicals and most of people who are borderline Trump cultists. It's missing the right-wing elderly. I think it's representative of the conservatives who are left over, who tend to be non-workaholic age 25-50 people. In real life, we'd describe this group as center-right, probably, somewhere around 60th percentile politically on average. The fact that some here have voted for Democrats in the past is very telling of how near center it is.
I just listened to Obama’s 2008 speech on appropriate immigration policies and was agreeing with everything he said — which would, hilariously, be characterized as far-right racist/bigot/fascist swill in 2025.
Agreed. It's weird listening to him now as his tone has changed a lot - a full-blown supporter of identity politics and racist policy. And Michelle Obama, wow - she is not now a pleasant person. I wonder if she ever was.
She just seems determined to be miserable.
In 2025, it's not really the policies people disagree with so much as the execution. The Dems in my life only really defend illegal immigrants because they don't trust that those people will be physically safe otherwise, due to how fast and loose the execution is.
If the immigration situation was handled less like a speedrun and wasn't mixed with other low-trust signals... Dems wouldn't "agree" with it, but they wouldn't necessarily label it as racist/bigot/fascist.
Conservatives would probably be less supportive of how the immigration situation is being currently handled, if the left hadn't tried to play dumb about swinging the border wide-open throughout the last administration.
They couldn't have any kind of a discussion about it with the left, and it was clear there wasn't going to be any compromise, they were just called "bigots" for noticing that it was happening. I think plenty of conservatives are fed up.
“Execution is the problem”
I highly, HIGHLY doubt that.
The validity of calling the right “Nazi Racists Fascists” has never mattered.
Even Mitt Romney, fucking Mittens, one of the most moderate R’s out there, was accused of being a racist misogynist person who wanted to put black people in chains.
I don’t think the “how” would matter or not. I’ve talked to many, many leftists who don’t think we should deport anyone, that coming in illegally doesn’t matter, illegals are good for the economy, etc etc. The complaints about the tactics are usually just a red herring. And when you dig in, the person you’re talking to will switch to defending illegals getting deported at all.
You’d still have sob stories, you’d still have D’s voting against bills like HR2, still have them pushing for mass amnesty, and generally doing every single thing possible to let in as many people as possible, legal or not.
Just remember, it’s DEFINITELY not de facto open borders, they just don’t want to secure the border, don’t want illegals kicked out, we should open the flood gates to expand legal immigration, and generally doing every single thing to get as close to open borders as possible while denying it.
This is just how people work. They're speaking with emotion.
They see footage of men wearing masks and carrying guns in unmarked vans. It triggers fear because that's what the middle east looks like. They think "THIS is what deportation looks like."
So then you ask them if they think immigrants should be deported, they consider the visuals, and they say "no, under no circumstances" because they're not actually answering a policy question. Under the hood they're answering a human rights question.
This is the same thing as when Daily Show or Kimmel walks up to Republicans and asks them what they think about Obamacare vs Affordable Care Act. Or walks up to college students and asks if we should ban Dihydrogen Monoxide (water). They're not actually answering policy questions they're just sending signals.
I've had such crazy conversations with friends where they immediately and reflexively took stances I KNOW they didn't believe in because they were talking about something completely different.
Right, so the left would still be complaining no matter how deportations took place. Because ultimately they don’t want anyone deported.
I don't believe that rationale at all. The left is overflowing with empathy. The moment a policy of theirs makes someone they've dubbed "oppressed" uncomfortable, they will fold.
Calling the execution fast and loose is a convenient excuse so that they can feel superior for not supporting it, even though all of us, including Dems, benefit from securing the border.
Why do you think that is? Such a HUGE shift in politics in a relatively short amount of time. Obama (as I recall) wasn't super progressive, but Trump 1.0 was seen as "the solution" to progressivness.
“Huge shift”
Yes, that’s called the left massively lurching leftward. Critical Theory finally built enough critical mass in academia and started pouring into the real world via Progressives.
When we say Trump is basically a 90’s D, that’s the point. The left swung massively leftward. 2008 Obama would never make it on his platform, he’d be called a Nazi Fascist bigot.
What "left," though? Because its kind of a cluster fuck being a Dem right now. I really dislike Nancy Pelosi because I adamantly disagree with people holding on until they die in Congress and insider trading. She's an elitist Democrat who wields too much power.
Half of the Dems I talk to say AOC and Bernie are the way to go, and the party isn't being progressive enough. "It'll all be fixed" if we stop letting the centrist (right-wing Dems in disguise) control the narrative. Centrists and moderates say we've gone too far, left, and we need to come back center (my personal belief) and right wing that says we are all soul sucking, Satanist commies.
Personally, I could get on board with some of Trumps policies if he weren't such a shitbag. Coming from any other person and I may have considered voting Republican in 2024.
I know it feels really gross being a Democrat right now, but Conservatives dont want me either, so... here I am...lost.
Yeah, that is the argument I am most sympathetic to. Some of his policy really does make sense, but the delivery if awful. I am hopeful that that aspect will end with Trump.
Not disagreeing at this point, but just curious. Other than Trump's personality, what makes you feel unwanted?
I just dont think Conservatism as a whole jives with some of my beliefs. I agree with 90% of what the average Conservative believes, but that 10% seems to be a sticking point with many people when I express them.
The big one is I am pro-choice to a point. I believe the medical system routinely fails pregnant women, and there should be options for people in those positions. That's generally a non-starter.
I am pro 2A, but there has to be a solution to gun violence, even if it just comes judicially. I also dont believe we can tax cut ourselves into prosperity. I am willing to pay more in taxes if they'll be utilized in a manner that benefits MY country and its citizens. Be that paying down the debt, fixing healthcare, or improving education.
I have seen other Conservatives with those views, but they are pretty rare and aren't generally welcomed at the table, in my opinion.
Your views sound similar to those of my wife. Same hang-ups, she's pro-choice and ambivalent on 2A, but she voted conservative because she didn't want our boys to be discriminated against when they got older - children usually win out.
From my perspective, abortion appears to be receding as an issue. The evangelicals always want it banned, but the party leadership seems to think they'll not be able to push it any further, and the evangelicals are seeing declining membership, so that story is probably over.
And 2A is probably just one of those things that won't change - some people feel very strongly about it; others don't.
What exactly is she worried about happening, which would ostensibly be prevented by supporting the MAGA GOP?
“What left?”
Progressives and Democrats in general.
“Weren’t such a shitbag”
Yeah, I don’t understand that mentality at all.
I don’t like Trump and I think he’s a shitbag. That also has zero bearing on whether I support the policies he’s pushing or not.
I vote to put whoever is closer to my policy positions into power. That’s it. They’re not the Pope or a religious leader, I don’t care about their personality.
And I have plenty of moderate D friends. We can go to a bar, shit talk, debate over beers and agree to disagree at the end.
I think of it like this. A stranger is driving you somewhere. You dont know this person from Adam, and you maybe dont even care for the way he's dressed, but there's a certain level of trust that he will safely drive you to your destination.
That doesn't exist for me with Donald Trump. I dont trust that he will fulfill his policies. I dont trust that he will do it in a manner that is beneficial to the country. I dont trust that he won't personally come to my home and step on my children to achieve his goals.
Some Conservatives have told me to trust that he will ultimately do what's right for the country because he wants a good legacy. I grew up with a narcissistic parent... I don't believe it. Achieving his end goal regardless of the bodies he leaves behind is the only thing that matters.
So yeah... some of his policies in probably any other candidate that was running, and we are golden. Donald Trump? Nope.
Yeah, I’ll be honest, what you described about Trump, I feel about pretty much 99% of politicians. I don’t trust any of them further than I can throw them. Which is part of why I want a smaller Fed govt.
They’re pretty much all narcissistic shitbags, Trump’s just more honest about it.
I don’t like Trump but I’ve got to give him credit, I don’t think I’ve seen a POTUS actively try to deliver on his campaign promises like he has.
And I respect that.
I think while the Democratic Party overall, especially the establishment weren't that progressive, the progressive wing was the loudest and most visible faction of the party and thus is what most non-Democrats associated with the party.
Obama turned out far more liberal than he claimed initially when he opposed gay marriage, and bunch of other stuff
During his term or afterward? I know he's pretty progressive now. And Biden turned out to be WAY more progressive than I thought he would. I just dont remember much from Obama (I was young and not in tune with politics at the time, so it could absolutely be my own ignorance).
Biden wasn’t progressive, Biden barely knew where he was.
Biden’s STAFF, handlers and people in his administration were very progressive, however. And they pushed Biden’s presidency in that direction.
People don’t realize how much the administration matters almost as much, if not more so, than the person physically in the Oval Office.
I'll give you that one. "Bidens administration" was more progressive than I expected. It was very uncomfortable to downright enraging.
2008 Obama was much different than 2012 obama. He was very unpopular by 2012 over Obama care and he was the one who first really utilized identity politics to win in 2012. Accusing mitt Romney of being a racist was way out of line and directly led to Trump
Well, if you focus on the most downvoted comments it's not bad.
No, though I think we think similarly we just examine our thoughts more.
It's somewhat representative, but you're going to miss a lot of the further-right groups here, which in these days is likely the info a lot of leftists are looking for.
I mean, something like 70% of registered Republicans believe Trump won the 2020 election. I'd argue that's a "further right" position on principle.
yeah.. the hardcore MAGA base and Groypers are def not on this subreddit.
I dislike both of them, but I’d say they should be here more often.
I would argue that many in here with the "conservative" moniker simply aren't. So no.
Definitely agree with this.
Why do you say this?
Reddit as a platform leans heavily left-wing.
I think you see a better representation on here than what you see on r/conservative. But the OP’s question was more of real world representation and I think you see a little more of that on here where people aren’t hard right or have a lot more sway in where they fall on the right with even some left perspectives.
Fair enough. I would agree with you here.
I don't know that communication with hard-left or hard-right is all that fruitful anyways.
I don't agree at all with the sentiment of what a lot of these commenters are saying.
The right wing stuff here is pretty weak and not very thoughtful or articulate or persuasive compared to real life. Conservatives in real life are even more intelligent and open minded than this sub.
That's why they don't want you to talk to us or be friends, the "right wing pipeline" and "radicalization" and all that.
I'm 35. Things have changed a lot and the leftist stereotypes of the right have not.
The right wing has been the counter culture anti establishment ideology for multiple decades at this point. Nearly my entire lifetime.
There's almost no spaces were you can be openly right wing outside of your immediate private life with people you trust, and anonymously on the internet.
Certainly not at any half decent job. The most vanilla and center right Ben Shapiro, or Charlie Kirk, or Jordan Peterson talking points or opinions would get you fired in most countries and in most professions.
That famous autistic Google engineer got fired just for saying that women and men have biological differences that generally lead to different personal interests when HR asked the group a question during training, and he was a well meaning democrat.
I worked at an extremely high paying construction company owned by a large black rock type corporation. Extremely skilled tradesmen, the best of the best. Most of them were really eccentric right wing dudes and we constantly had to do weird sexual harassment and diversity training and multiple times a year and just nod along.
I spent all of elementary and high school reading books like "It all falls apart" and learning about slavery and how evil white people are and getting automatically failed for any sentiment that was even center right..... and then things got even worse in university.
Of course my opinion is more nuanced, of course I'm more open minded, of course I have well thought out arguments.
I know everything the left believes. I've been force fed their opinion agaisnt my will, in a semi authoritarian manner, for my entire life.
Unless you are just a complete hillbilly.... Like you know, if you're any kind of successful professional at all, even a blue collar one, you have to be somewhat aware of and tolerant of the lefts opinion.
A lot of these people have never heard an intelligent conservative person state their true opinion on something in an articulate way a single time in their entire life.
That's why people like Jordan Peterson and Charlie Kirk blow up and go viral the way that they do. People are often hearing those arguments spoken out loud for the first time in their life.
The establishment wing is always going to be less open minded and less diverse in thought, becuase they can use force. That's just how it is.
And that's another issue, you can't just keep your mouth shut. They vet you like this. You have to be a commie like them or they don't want you to have money to continue living.
When you say "I know everything the left believes", who are you referring to as the "left" (media, anyone who tends to vote blue, etc)?
I agree that if were to turn on MSNBC, I'd basically know exactly how they were going to talk about any given topic. It's very predictable.
No, I mean that I am a millennial and I've been through the full indoctrination training camp my whole life that is the reason why so many people my age have been suicidal their whole life.
I sat in my desk at lunch reading books about slavery and crying instead of getting to go to recess as a third grader becuase the teacher didn't think I was taking it seriously enough.
I got immediately failed and punished on any essay I wrote that wasn't left leaning through middle school, high school, and college.....
I got my membership card, I got my T shirt, I did the whole thing.
If you are gonna sit there and pretend that the whole education establishment and basically all large companies that get government subsidies aren't overwhelmingly tilted to the left..... If you're gonna act like they don't actively punish kids and young adults for not complying with the program.... than I don't even know what to tell you.
This is why Nick Fuentes and Candace Owen's is so popular to people in my age group.
It's not becuase we like them. It's not becuase we are homophobic, or sexist, or racist, or that we want to be nazis...... this establishment has been so overbearing and domineering and punishing our whole lives. "This is what you have to think, this is what you have to say, this is what you're tone of voice and your attitude needs to be like, and if you don't comply, everybody will pretend to hate you and your life will be ruined and you'll be fired from your job....."
We've been groomed into this shit with fear since elementary school....
It's so cathartic and even therapeutic to just listen to somone like Nick Fuentes or Candace Owen's just be like "Fuck these people" and say a bunch of stuff that you're not supposed to say, even if you don't agree with it..
It's like taboo and refreshing.
Do you believe that your experiences in school were/are the norm? I don't recall seeing anything akin to what you've described during my time at school, but I do understand that 1) we probably grew up in different locations with different cultural and educational norms and 2) I could've missed it due to my own left-wing bias.
I am not sure I buy the idea conservatives are at large more persuasive, intelligent articulate at least in America, could be different in other countries as Americans as a whole are pretty simple and emotional driven politically regardless of party. Most conservatives I talk to in real life don't really articulate their points better then people here nor come off as exceptional intelligent. Though the same applies to most Liberals and Leftists too.
Then again truth is most people actually kind of suck at politics and are emotional driven using philosophy, ideology or logic to justify their beliefs or feelings rather than the other way around.
As for Left ideas dominating professional settings there is a lot of reasons for that including both a active effort by the left but also a consequence of people gear towards the right not pursuing such fields over the last several decades leading to a self fulifilling prophecy that further leaves fields dominated by one idealogy that gets more extreme over time due to lack of diversity in thought to challenge or counter balance it which makes it even harder for those on the right to be in those fields.
Not really sure how to fix without stepping on the Consistution.
Edit: As for Peterson it wasn't even really his rightwing stances that originally caused him to go viral, it was mostly because he was actually trying to talk about issues others weren't especially about men who were ignored or being grifted at that point.
There's a lot here I agree with to an extent.
Something to keep in mind, is that there's some higher order structural logic that girds Western left wingers vs Eastern left wingers...... and to a large extent, it has eroded western liberalism on the modern left. Things like objective and narrative reality and moral relativism. Eastern philosophers play dirty, becuase they don't believe in objective morality and they just believe in cuase and effect and outcome.
This has a tendancy to lead towards emotional manipulation and dishonesty for the greater good. There is a belief in reality manipulation in a very Stalin esque orwellian kind of way.
One of my biggest issues with higher IQ leftist thought leaders, is that most of them are not western liberals anymore. They are more Eastern in philosophy and they are not operating in good faith. They are not interested in constructive conversation or an exchange of beliefs or opinions.... becuase they don't believe that constructive conversing, or beliefs, or opinions actually and objectively exist at all.
They just believe in the effect, and if you will not agree with them or change your mind, than talking to you is a waste of time, and they could be talking to someone who they could influence.
It's very antithetical to traditional western intellectualism.
.................
My main gripe with your narrative is,
There's a tendency to focus on the trope of the low IQ disgruntled republican that's more fear based and just following along and doesn't really understand what they believe in.
Maybe this is true of older generations that grew up under a more right wing establishment order......
But I think this stereotype is more descriptive of the left today and for my generation.
I find more left wing people that don't really understand what they believe or why they believe it and are just going along with it becuase of friends and family and becuase they don't want to get in trouble or rock the boat.... And they really don't want to explain themselves or defend their opinion or talk about politics becuase they don't really understand the ideology and don't want to accidently say something that's agaisnt the establishment order and get in trouble with their own party by saying some accidental blasphemy.
It's very reminiscent of republicans from generations past.
I appreciate you saying it is represented on both sides, but there is a tendancy to observe the intellectual top half of the left and ignore the bottom half of the left, and conversely, to observe the bottom half of the right and ignore the top half and act as if they don't exist.
I actually do agree with a lot what you said as well especially that last part about how there's a tendency to pay attention to the intellectual top half of left and the intellectual bottle half of the right
It's a pretty big problem because you end up with a pretty poor understanding of reality or what people are going through.
I think most people start with emotions first when determine their ideology, and then logic to back up their pre-established views.
This sub has a lot more Democrat-voting Conservatives than is normal in the real world.
This strikes me as accurate. But it is also the difference between "Conservative" and "Current Republican Party" we all acknowledge that the President is not a genuine conservative, and also that he has total party capture (even if that is starting to wane for the first time).
So in the years I have spent here I think there are a wide spectrum of real conservatives and also to a lesser degree some MAGA populists.
If there are Dem voting conservatives here, I think it is because there are a lot of conservatives here that would like to see the GOP return to genuine conservative principals.
A Republican voting Democratic for that reason makes as much sense as Democrats voting for Trump so they can get a more moderate Clinton style Democrat again.
That is correct. Take 2024, no matter which candidate won. The losing side would have been forced into serious soul searching and re calibration. As it turned out, Trump won so the Left has largely had to drop "woke" like a dirty diaper. Their lesson learned that they cannot just choose an heir apparent liberal and win, and that their most progressive stances were too far.
The same thing would have happened if Harris had won and Trump had lost. There would have been serious soul searching and re calibration. They would have realized that his first victory was a stroke of luck and having lost the following two elections, America did not want Trump. That maybe his kind of leadership was a misstep for the GOP and they needed to return to a conservative.
To me the upside is that in the first Trump term, both sides went as hard as they could to their extremes. Letting reaction to reaction to reaction build. This time with one defeating the other. The defeated side is no longer reacting to the same extent. So now it just looks like one side is going to it's extremes. That will let the worst parts of the way President Trump runs the country exist on their on as opposed to a reaction to the worst ideas of the Left. That level of exposure is much more healthy for the country than the last time around.
I think this also has to do with what part of the country you are in.
Since only certain flairs can directly respond, it encourages people to label as at least 'center-right' to get that privilege.
True but they shouldn't be direct responding to these threads. It's disingenuous
I’d say more non-voting Conservatives.
I don’t think many of them voted for the Dems based on their answers on this sub.
Center right flair is code for Harris voter
How so?
I've yet to see an opinion or admission from any conservatives in this sub that align with this theory.
I’d say pretty decent, although there are a lot more conservatives on here that are former D’s. So more left leaning overall.
Combine that with the leftists often only upvoting comments they agree with, it makes us look more “liberal” than we are.
Plus as others have mentioned, it takes a certain kind of person to come here as a conservative. You’re going to get insulted, your words twisted and gotcha attempts abound.
I’m only here because occasionally good conversations actually happen with the rare folks on the left who actually come here to learn.
I’m going to start taking a more active approach in just blocking the obvious bad faith posters faster.
The flairs help a bit for calibration, but just this morning I was getting in a debate on this sub, with someone whose flair said “Center-right” who I’d classify as a woke liberal. I figured they must have some conservative views, but their overall worldview seemed to be liberal orthodoxy.
I’d instead consider “Center-right” to be someone who generally has a conservative outlook, but doesn’t always trust the Republican leadership, and maybe has a couple heterodox views (e.g. wanting to try Medicare-for-All or being in favor of increased gun control).
So I think you have to instead re-calibrate by Reddit’s standards, because a lot of the extreme leftists on other subs are so intolerant, that it makes liberals think they’re more conservative than they really are.
This sub is quite unrepresentative of Conservatives, but being Conservative is also not the same thing as being Right wing or being MAGA. Both of those categories include Conservatives but also lots of people who are not Conservatives.
This sub has a strong bias towards those who are interested in thinking about and discussing politics regularly, which is not most people. The people answering questions on here are likely much more politically tuned in and have thought a lot more about their political positions than the average person.
Why is it you are pinning labels such as "right wing" , "maga" , etc? To me that is a divisive comment.
OP mentioned MAGA and Conservatives as if they are identical, and they are not. I clarified that to make sure OP understands that. There is nothing remotely divisive about stating that MAGA, the Right, and Conservatives are not identical groups. It's just the truth.
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