Anonymous #1 4w

alright hold on: I don’t think most people pick up the critical thinking skills in college. coming from a current student at one of the most liberal colleges and cities in the country. Progressives won the culture war, it’s the de facto ideology for most people. Ask critical questions about policy or culture and see if they have anything insightful. Most people usually don’t, including college kids

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Anonymous #2 4w

A lot of college in the last couple of decades has taught people how to be reactionary instead of analytical or critical Students can’t read, write, do math, or think for themselves. Sure, some use the poor state of the world as an excuse to just give up, but the whole idea of “woke” is ridiculous—it’s waking up to the world. As #1 said, you have to surround yourself with different people and cultures too

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Anonymous OP 4w

I go to college here in Arkansas in the River Valley and it’s the same thing here. I will say tho, much of my time here has offered a large focus on critical and analytical thinking, but these are skills I also learned myself. Like you said #2, progressives won the battle but they lost the war. Liberalism took everything and said, “If you don’t agree, you’re a bigot, racist, and a nazi.” Progressivism is what this country needs, but liberalism has forced more-conservative thinkers into hateful—

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Anonymous OP 4w

idealists who think the represent a majority when they don’t. Charlie Kirk, for example, tried to bridge the gap at times yet set himself and the country back with some of the things he said. What happened to him was awful, and it frustrates me, but we have to embrace progressivism if we want to move forward—not liberalism. We must find common ground and start over.

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Anonymous OP 4w

yeah this is a neocon take: you’re not going to bridge the gap unless you further the culture war. best way to convert people to conservative? get them in church they fundamentally do not share a lot of your values. the only thing we agree on bipartisan-wise is cutting the foreign influence of Israel and stabilizing the economy for the younger generations. how we get there for that? we don’t agree

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Anonymous #2 4w

don’t get me wrong: the future is looking bright as the current political figures on both sides are anti-establishment, but that doesn’t change the fact that our values are so different that even if we have the same endgame, we have such vastly different ways of getting there it won’t matter. this also assumes that the incoming people who are “anti-establishment” won’t become, in themselves, an establishment which is going to capitalize on the divisiveness

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Anonymous #2 4w

I think conservatism can die out. It’s just not a healthy political ideology nor thought process. Does that mean things like God and church have to go? Absolutely not! I haven’t been a religious person for a decade now, and it’s allowed me to focus on just being HUMAN. Having to be religious to be morally just is a red herring. Liberalism seeks groupthink and conformity. Progressivism seeks meaningful change based on individualism and freedom of the people. War is a bureaucratic monstrosity

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Anonymous OP 4w

America’s problems should not involve Israel. What Israel is doing is bullshit. You don’t level an entire city under the guise of “terrorists are in there!” Do I sympathize with the Jewish people (not their government) after centuries of persecution and near-annihilation? Yes, absolutely. Being surrounded by enemy countries is not exciting. But the world has to move on. To support war in any way is foolish. “Why do people fight, acting as if it’s right?”

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Anonymous OP 4w

well I don’t know if I agree that conservatism needs to die out. the values held by conservatives and christianity have worked well for thousands of years, “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” isn’t an awful heuristic. the issue with conservatism has been the policy disregard of actual Americans (i.e. the aforementioned focus of Israel instead of domestic problems here) It’s not about being religious, it’s just that the values in Christianity lay a strong foundation for society.

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Anonymous #2 4w

The issue with individualism has been the allowance of counterproductive behavior to occur. we’ve allowed people to do what “feels good” and not what they ought to do. we need a unifying framework and identity. both liberalism and progressivism lack this to an extent. which authority controls our morality? there isn’t one and it causes infighting.

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