Seriously, my grandpa is “very MAGA”, as he calls himself, a “radconservative” or something. He is very open about his views on people being able to freely speak their minds without censorship, yet he gets REALLY mad when I say the following:
Swear words (even “hell”, “crap”, or “damn”)
Epstein Files should be released
Trump being on the Files apparently more times than God’s name appears in the book about Himself: the Bible.
Even mentioning the word “gay” or saying something about a gay couple
Trans people
Seriously, I have cousins who are grown adults, maybe mid-20s who would absolutely FREAK if I said the word “trans”. They will actually panic and say “Oh, um, maybe let’s not talk about that…” and then nervously laugh like it’s a super taboo subject.
This is NOT the 1950s.
Wilhoit’s Law:
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
And their firm belief that they, being super special sparkly people, of course belong in the first group.
But the thing is, even the ‘in group’ has tiers, because they believe that if there isn’t Order and Structure with Everyone Knowing Their Place and Great and Glorious (white male) Leaders at the Top then the world will descend into chaos and civilization will be destroyed. Seriously. They actually think that.
And the way you show who’s in a higher tier? They can violate more of the rules. So your Grandpa believes he’s higher-ranking than you (because he’s older and therefore wiser) so he gets to lay down the rules and then flaunt them, while you have to obey them. This keeps Order.
Also, somewhere along the way this got mixed up with Prosperity Gospel, so they also believe that people deserve to be on a higher tier the more money they have, because they’re rich. If you deserve to be on a higher tier, then you’d be rich too, or figure out how to become rich.
(That’s also why they like Trump. He’s from a ‘rich’ family and breaks all the rules and gets away with it. Therefore he is high ranking. And the lower ranks should always unquestionably follow the higher ranks, because civilization will collapse if they don’t.)
Is this circular reasoning? Yes! But who cares because it means they get to lord it over other people while having someone tell them what to do so they don’t have to think for themselves.