(05-29-2019 02:50 PM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(05-29-2019 02:29 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(05-05-2019 05:02 PM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(05-05-2019 04:48 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I am a conservative who opposes racism, and a lot of other isms as well. Yet sometimes it seems the left thinks they are the only ones opposing racism and all who oppose the left are racists - thus the statements about the basket of delporables, or Obama's statement (And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.}

I can see how you feel this way. I have a similar feeling that the right thinks that they are the only ones who are patriotic or that support members of our military.

I would be surprised if the feelings are truly similar. My personal experience is as follows:

Among the conservatives I know:
- There are none whom I know to be racist
- There are very few whom I know to be unpatriotic
- There are none whom I know to be anti-patriotic

Among the leftists I know:
- There are a few whom I know to be racist
- There are very many whom I know to be unpatriotic
- There are more than a few whom I know to be anti-patriotic

Thus, based on my experience, the leftist tendency to accuse conservatives of racism is much MUCH more baseless than any corresponding conservative tendency to accuse leftists of lacking patriotism.

What is your experience?

That's interesting. My experience is different.

Among the conservatives I know:
- There is a disturbingly high percentage that I would consider racist

Where do you meet these people?

(05-29-2019 02:50 PM)Rice93 Wrote:  Among the leftists I know:
- There are a none whom I know to be racist
- There are none whom I know to be unpatriotic
- There are none I know to be anti-patriotic

I hate to say it, but I'm not sure you're being honest here. Where does one meet multiple leftists and NOT find at least one who is racist, and one or more who is (at the very least) unpatriotic? I see multiple examples of each type just among the leftists that I am Facebook friends with.

(05-29-2019 02:50 PM)Rice93 Wrote:  But in my eyes, a conservative is much more likely to be racist than a leftist is to be unpatriotic.

My personal experience (a more precise term than "my eyes") is that this statement is completely false, and the exact opposite is true. In fact, I don't think I could stress enough how overwhelmingly lopsided the difference is.

To be clear, the people I interact with are, for the most part, extraordinarily highly educated and well-read, even by the standards of most Rice alumni groups. Different types of crowds might certainly be different.