Any conservative tropers?

I'd say it's more a matter of location, at least in the US. From what I can tell, conservative American policies tend to favor large scale agriculture and heavy resource industries and machinery, while liberal policies are more inclined toward consumer electronics and mass entertainment. Consequently, you can guess which states lean where, depending on their mainline economies. In terms of political mud-slinging, this would explain liberals decrying oil companies, gun producers, not to mention the carbon footprint of just about any heavy industry out there; while conservatives wail against murder simulators in particular, and new media in general.

Thing is, heavy industry and agriculture are still the backbone of any solid economy. Consequently, the respective social stances of both parties usually boil down to disputes on tax increases and redistribution - when you take into account that the money for climate change mitigation, immigrant accommodation, equal opportunity programs, family unit benefits and discounts (including gay marriage), and overall medical care (including contraception and abortion procedures) have to come from somewhere, it makes sense that red states would condemn such measures while blue states would welcome them.

To contrast, most European economies are much more centralized, leading to much less vehement opposition to progressive social measures. Out here, left and right are more descriptive of general fiscal policies and nationalist stances. For that matter, Socialism is usually considered to be more on the conservative side the further East you go. This makes the GOP remarks on the "socialist" American liberals seem rather funny (and somewhat insulting) to this commie troper.

So, conservative tropers? You'd be surprised where you can find them.

For the first paragraph, I dunno, there's also a good number of liberal politicians decrying Murder Simulators (*cough*Leland*cough*Yee*cough*), while there are a fair number of conservatives that oppose media censorship (I mean they still have some offenders in this regard *cough*Lamar*cough*Smith*cough*, but as far as I can tell, the number of offenders isn't that different through the spectrum, and if the post-protest PIPA progress is anything to go by, a large number of opponents in the senate are in fact conservative, and my conservative representative opposed SOPA when asked about it).

edited 7th Jul '14 10:11:16 AM by EarlOfSandvich

I now go by Graf von Tirol.

Is this the same Leland Yee who somehow managed to be a gun control advocate while (allegedly) secretly trafficking guns? I mean, I guess my generalizations above can accommodate some curveballs, but this is just too left-field. For the most part, though, I suppose such moral guardianship comes packaged with general policies on child safety.

For that matter, IP acts in general would be a boon to the aforementioned entertainment industry, while more aggressive SOPA-style policies can still be used to suppress corporate leaks - both sides have a stake here. Overall, though, it makes sense for conservatives at large to oppose such measures. To offer some perspective, an old commie holdover out here is that IP restrictions are much laxer (not to mention virtually unenforceable anyway), which I guess lines up more with otherwise conservative policies. I'm starting to wonder what other social and even fiscal stances we actually have in common, regional economic differences notwithstanding.

edited 7th Jul '14 12:01:30 PM by indiana404

That's interesting. In what ways is socialism considered "conservative" over there?

edited 7th Jul '14 3:36:52 PM by Robotnik

Because conservatives want to conserve values and traditions (hence the name).

And the values and traditions that were very prevalent for a long time in Eastern Europe were socialist values.

edited 7th Jul '14 3:31:58 PM by BaconManiac5000

what do you mean I didn't win, I ate more wet t-shirts than anyone else

Well, "very long time" in this case means less than 100 years. That said, Eastern Europe did, in a lot of cases, industrialize under socialism, so the influence it exerts on history is disproportionate to its relatively short span of years.

edited 7th Jul '14 3:55:57 PM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Well, I suppose for Europe that's a relatively short time, but for an American, that's almost half as long as their country has been around (e.g. me).

what do you mean I didn't win, I ate more wet t-shirts than anyone else

A lot of traditions are Newer Than They Think anyway.

Well, lessee - a lot of the social stances are similar, namely on "family values", support for traditional religion (betcha didn't expect that from a commie state), opposition to sexual minority movements, but surprisingly not abortion, and a skeptical attitude toward positive discrimination laws.

Fiscally, there is a strong support for the military and heavy industries, as well as agriculture, though with the way corruption's taken hold, most of these are just for show. Land development is prioritized over environmental concerns, though with a couple of unexpected results - entire bare mountains were artificially forested during the commie years, in order to provide lumber (with current industrial developments being criticized for disturbing the "natural" habitats).

Culturally, I have a feeling the average local socialist voter would fit in much better with the (at least socially) conservative crowd across the pond. Even in terms of entertainment, the most consistently popular films are Reagan-era type slug-fests where America Saves the Day. Heck, a lot of the new ones are shot here, with JCVD and Sly being perennial visitors. Talk about promoted fanboys.

edited 8th Jul '14 12:44:01 AM by indiana404

Hm, interesting. That's far more conservative than me, socially speaking (socially, I'm about as liberal as it's possible to get). I guess what makes me conservative is that I'm too asocial to be particularly socialist in a philosophical sense, and I support, in principle, the death penalty for murder.

edited 8th Jul '14 12:52:53 AM by Robotnik

Well, the local brand of social conservatism can still be considered an extension of economic circumstances - equality programs still require additional funds, which no one is eager to provide; on the other hand, gender equality is already a non-issue, and subsidized healthcare makes for cheap family planning. Religious circles are chock-full of state security informants, hence the party propping the church; while the death penalty isn't officially practiced for the simple reason that it's much easier to just shoot the perps on sight. Whatever social restrictions remain can be circumvented without much fuss, which is precisely why the written rules and publicly expressed attitudes don't seem to change too fast. No reason to fret over an open secret.

I guess it isn't.

edited 14th Jul '14 9:17:10 PM by indiana404

So support for the death penalty or life imprisonment isn't strictly a "right-wing" position?

Sorry for the double-post, but are there any right-libertarians who support a decent social safety net and single-payer health care and don't deny climate change?

edited 12th Aug '14 3:12:50 PM by Robotnik

I guess, but I would personally argue that makes them left Libertarians.

hashtagsarestupid

Why is it that mostly left-wing groups support Scottish independence? I'm sure you could argue that conservatives want to "conserve" the status quo, but aren't there other reasons?

^^ @Robotnik it really depends on where you look. Regarding social safty nets and single payer healthcare, you're going to have your work cut out for you (especially with the single payer). As for the climate change, I recommend asking around nuclear power proponents.I myself am fairly conservative with my views best summed up as pro-America(and her allies), pro-science, and pro-capitalism, with a healthy moral streak (for example, opposition to euthanasia and abortion)

edited 3rd Mar '15 11:28:18 PM by Sir.Orc

The world's gone mad, oh yes it's true But I care not, for I'm mad too!

I'm a right leaning independent. I'm not huge on politics, but when I'm intrigued, I side with the right (Republicans/Conservatives and such) more than the left (Democrats/Liberals) on many things.

On social issues, I'm definitely more conservative than liberal.

edited 8th Mar '15 9:43:53 PM by Teddy

Supports cartoons being cartoony!

I apologize in advance for getting off-topic.

I don't really know about that. From what I know, quite a lot of people here can't stand tumblr (and to be frank, I wouldn't blame them. Superwholocks and all).

Speaking of hugboxing, what exactly does that mean? I've heard it used a lot, but I'm not sure what people mean by that. Are they talking about being too positive or something?

On-topic: I identify more as a moderate.

Very basically, a hugbox is a place set up for people with similar interests that's supposed to be where one can discuss topics in a safe, confrontation-free environment. Usually it winds up, though, a practical demonstration of Groupthink where everyone says the same thing, usually with heavy-handed moderation of anyone who disagrees in any way whatsoever, no matter how politely they phrase the disagreement.

All your safe space are belong to Trump

Yes.

Here's one more.

People around me call me a hardcore liberal. Funny, because I've always considered myself a conservative.

Can you be conservative and support LGBT rights at the same time?

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

I'm not a conservative (in fact, I'm not affiliated to any political ideology at the moment) but yes, I think you can, especially in this day and age. See this bit from That Other Wiki article on the Same Sex Couples Act 2013 in Britain:

edited 15th May '16 8:31:39 PM by Quag15

Yes, very much so. In fact, I've seen Tea Partiers who said that same-sex marriage should be legal.

"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"

Sweeeeet.

So in addition to supporting LGBT rights (including gay marriage), I also believe in freedom in beliefs (and criticism of them), and gender equality. Good to know that those are compatible with conservatism.

I believe I'm a conservative, simply because I am not a big fan of changes for the sake of changes. I'm a strict believer of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Sadly, there ARE a lot of things that DO need change in our society. XP

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.