Conservative ideology thrives solely based on a wholesale butchery of the facts

Thank you for being my first opponent on this site. I wish you luck. Hopefully you post an argument. 

The resolution is written as a claim of fact (1). A claim of fact entails that something exists, be it a factual event, object, classification etc. Essentially, my opponent must prove the resolution true to win. Therefore, the Burden of Proof falls on my opponent’s case to prove the resolution true.

Conservative: “Tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions (2).”

Ideology: “A system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy (3).”

Thrives: “Flourishes, to grow vigorously (4).”

Solely: Entirely, completely. Butchery: In this sentence, it clearly means the twisting of fact, or complete denial of fact.

Fact: “Something that actually exists. (5)”

Lies and fact do not factor into adopting an ideology. As mentioned previously, an ideology is a “system of ideas and ideals.” Basically, what my opponent is theorizing is contradictory to the very definition of the word “ideology.” Even if I were to say that Republican policy ideas are based in lies, (many would consider trickle-down economics this sort of lie,) it does not address the “ideals and ideas” that adherents consider important, (i.e. we must look toward tradition and experience for a firm grasp of future decisions.) These ideas and ideals are not factual and represent the mindset of a person; not fact or fiction. The “wholesale butchery of fact” does not factor into someone looking at the past for answers to life’s questions and are not always politically biased toward conservative political parties. I, for instance, may feel strongly that the government ought to “conserve” the weakness of the federal government per a dislike of radical change of past political institutions and quite reasonably believe that the government should not ban gay marriage as it inflates the government’s size and power over the people. Even the ideas of the ideology could be justified in pure logic and fact. For example, consider someone who does not value political institutions whatsoever and wants to abolish the Military completely because it takes up too many tax-payer dollars. A conservative ideologist may be discouraged by this massive alteration because it changes an important part of our defense that we had for ages and leaves ourselves more vulnerable. This idea is not necessarily false. Instead, like any ideology, it is based off a system of values. In fact, a complete abolition of our military to reserve spending for other departments could potentially be a bad idea given our goals overseas and because we erase all our war-making power. This abolition would limit other actors’ deterrence in attacking the US and decreases our ability to respond to everything from cyberattacks to protecting our trade routes in the South China Sea. The opposition to the complete abolition of the military makes sense and is not born of deceitful twisting of fact. It is essential that people understand that an ideology is not born out of fact, but out of a personal view of how the world does work, and how it should work. When lies do not factor into an ideology, it would be impossible to attribute lies to solely explain the prevalence of conservative ideology in the world. In fact, an ideology does not dictate a political party, as plenty of people with conservative ideologies may be from left-leaning parties. Instead, people use facts and logic to justify their political ideology. So, even if we disproved of every single conservative lie, the values in a conservative ideology still exist.

Contrary to widespread belief, it seems that people do not adopt ideologies because of rational decisions or fact. There is no sole reason for why someone thinks a certain way. We can, however, get hints through a wide body of research. New York University published a paper in 2007 that thoroughly parsed through multiple theories as to why people adopt the ideology they do. Correlative factors included interpersonal relationships, the salience of political speech in a family, and desiring to have a “shared reality” with other like-minded people. In fact, as the study point out, people automatically “tune” themselves somewhat to the political ideology of others when they realize that their peers or loved ones express different political ideas. Ergo, conservative ideology is also flourishing when people adopt the worldview to mesh with others. The same paper conducted a study to determine the effect of a parent’s effect on a child’s ideology and found undeniable correlation. Essentially, the test conductors recruited undergraduates with one conservative parent and one liberal parent. They were asked to describe in a few sentences a negative or positive interaction with one of their parents. Next, they took a test to see if their ideology aligned with a system-affirming behavior (conservative,) or system-subverting (liberal,) and found that their answers mirrored the ideology of the parent they wrote about (6).Parents are hardly the only influence on their children wither. Political Science Professor Jeffrey Lyons of Boise State University conducted a study by following a group of people’s political leanings at age 18, 35, and 50. It was discovered that at times later in test subjects’ life, factors such as the political leanings of towns or spouses became more important than parents’ influence. By age 35, the politics of a county was 2 times as important in someone’s ideology, while a spouse’s opinion became 3 times as important. By age 50, the spouse’s opinion was the greatest determining factor in someone’s ideology (7).The Scientific American published an article showing that fear affects how people as well, as people of all political ideologies became more conservative after 9/11, and when conservatives were asked to pretend that they were impervious to damage and invincible, they leaned slightly to the left (8). Even the basics of wording affect someone’s political ideology:Humans are irrational creatures that are swayed by the opinions of those closest to them and by self-preservation. With ideologies constantly in flux due to social paradigms, how is it possible to determine that lies are the only reason that people have conservative ideologies per the resolution? The answer is obvious: we can’t determine one sole cause. Even if we got rid of every single conservative lie possible, the mindset of those who adopt such an ideology will not change and neither will their impact on those around them. As people become conservative, those around them do to, causing the ideology to “flourish.” Also, when frightening events occur and priorities change, we will see the emergence of more adherents to conservative ideology as well.

 

1. https://department.monm.edu/cata/mcgaan/classes/cata335/o-claims.335.html

2. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conservative

3. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/ideology

4. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thrive

5. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/fact 6.https://psych.nyu.edu/jost/Jost,%20Ledgerwood,%20&%20Hardin%20Shared%20reality,%20system%20justification%20and%20the%20relational%20basis%20of%20ideological%20beliefs.pdf

7. https://www.thecut.com/2017/04/what-shapes-your-political-beliefs-at-18-35-and-50.html       

8. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/calling-truce-political-wars/

Extend arguments. Also, there should obviously be no final round arguments. Hopefully, my opponent responds soon.

Extend arguments.