Saturday, June 26, 2010

Conservatives Say The Dumbest Things

I had a chat with a conservative friend ( come on- like you don't have at least one right- wing troglodyte as a friend or relative) during a backyard BBQ session about the Gulf Oil Spill. I mentioned that Nigeria has had unchecked oil spills for decades now and the Niger Delta is an ecological disaster. That must have triggered the dittohead Pavlovian Response, because suddenly I was bombarded with right- wing talking points and what passes as wisdom in conservative circles. Hold your nose:
1) " The Gulf Oil Spill is no big deal. It's natural and it will be cleaned- up naturally in about a hundred years."
2) " Lots of oil tankers were sunk in World War Two and the coast survived."
3) " Nigeria? Who cares? God has forgotten Africa."
The weird thing is this is a guy who would give you the shirt off of his back if you needed it. He voluntarily went to help sand bag a levy when a river threatened to flood a town. Perhaps being conservative means not being able to emphasize with people you are not immediately in contact with.
I don't get it.
Did any of your right- wing family members or aquaintences say something dumb lately? Share with the rest of us!

6 comments:

Robert Boyle said...

I doubt God has forgotten anything. Omniscience is sort of like that. :oP

comrade x said...

I think he meant it as a way to dismiss the situation in Africa, i.e. the problems are so intractable there is no point in worrying about them.

Nullstellensatz said...

Did you point out that, by not worrying about Nigeria in the 90s, the brutal Abacha regime was able to come to power and flood his inbox with spam? People are more likely to pay attention to things that effect them personally.

comrade x said...

I will point that out, but FYI this is a guy who still plans to vote republican even though he is unemployed and just had his benefits cut.

00000 said...

"Mexicans join unions to throw out the white people."

Dad's wisdom. In his defense, he's worked like a dog his whole life and is just reacting to how it's hardly got him, or our family, anywhere.

And the oil is naturally under the ground, by the way, not on birds and in ecosystems. I thought I would just point out the obvious.

comrade x said...

This is from another person who is working class and really should know better:
" My boss is a billionaire and if he didn't get those tax cuts he would'nt have created my job."