Are ultra-conservative movements becoming more intense recently?

Thais goes a bit further than that. This is just base right-wing historical revisionism and nothing more. You'd need a really warped definition of "socialist" for that, indeed one relying only on concepts of collectivism vs individualism and nothing more. Which is flat out a wrong definition.

Well, yea. Still, words despite their absolute meaning, i.e anarchy which means with out monarchy (thus the US is technically a society under anarchy) have a relative meaning which is the one used more commonly.

This reminds me of when I discuss communism and after hours of discussion the other side is like "but there hasnt ever been a truly communist society besides caveman".

But look, what I am trying to say is that when there is an economic downturn Governments tend to favor more intervention, something which goes against the liberal principles that inspire this new wave of conservatism.

In other words, conservatives railing against socialism because some aspects of macroeconomic thought which are contemplated in socialist schools of though were used by the Nazis with out any other sort of contextualization of the situation, should be told that they are all just a bunch of liberal since what they Spouse is classical liberalism, i.e, individaul freedoms and no intervention of the government at all. A system which we all know only benefit the Bourgeois...

If anything this post should illustrate how awfully, how badly political terms are used in the United States, which I believe is do to the quite surprising propaganda machine which gives mainstream American a very distorted picture of the world...

edited 11th Mar '12 8:47:58 PM by Baff

No, Anarchy means without rulers, not without monarchy.

I always am.

edited 11th Mar '12 9:09:24 PM by setnakhte

Oh wait! your right.

Monarchy - Mono-archy - One ruler

Anarchy - Ana-archy - No ruler

Oligarchy - Oligo-archy - A few rulers

Etc. etc.

edited 11th Mar '12 9:48:06 PM by Boredman

Yeah. So, there are discernable trends in at least three global regions, each of which are independent while at the same time reinforcing each other. In Europe there has been a rising trend of anti-immigration that has often been expressed with nationalist language (ie, La Pin in France), in the US, there has been a rising trend in religious conservatism that has often been expressed in terms of certain specific cultural issues (ie gay marriage, abortion), and in the Middle East, there has also been a rising trend in religious conservatism which has been expressed in anti-western language (ie sexual decadence, etc.). Each of these can be seen as reactions against the rapid pace of social and cultural change brought on by globalization (also, the US and European varieties like to demonize the ME one, and vice versa).

I think something similar is happening in India, but I am not sure of the trends in Asia.

Don't forget Latin America, with the rise of Populist rhetoric against the "Cultural Imperialism" and "Capitalism"

edited 16th Mar '12 8:37:23 AM by Anthony_H

...and for one example, plain (so-called) "Imperialism".

@OP: I'm surprised this is even a question, what with moderate Republicans deserting in droves and all.

Cept Dale Schultz. Against the union busting and against the mining bill that stripped Wisconsin of environmental protections. Fuck yeah.

However, I would contend that the increase in conservative movements, Ultra or not, could be attributed to the hard right turn which fox news took after the election of Obama. They basically did constant advertising for the Tea Party, hyping big conventions and then doing all day coverage of them, then complaining that other stations wouldn't cover the event.

I do get the feeling that the Republicans have far more people famed for being loonies and extremists in their midst - Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Rush Limbaugh etc. than Democrats. I find it noteworthy that the best the defenders of Limbaugh could do was say Bill Maher was just as offensive - hardly in the same fame league!

Are there really no folks on the left who make you Face Palm just as much? C'mon, it's the Internet age, the librul media can't hide 'em all! :)

Except that problem isn't unique to America and moderate conservatives are deserting in droves all over the world. The spectre of Fascism and Communism are stalking Europe like two giant stalky things

Like Jack the Ripper.

After the financial crisis is over people will fall back in with the Conservatives. There's a lot of Left Wing changes that feel wrong to different people.

edited 17th Mar '12 7:01:42 AM by Journeyman

In places like Germany and the United Kingdom, liberals and conservatives (and the definitions aren't that different from the U.S. definitions, except that European conservatives tend to sequester their fascists instead of embracing them) are in coalition. In Germany, in fact, the liberals and conservatives are normally in coalition with each other.

So no, moderate conservatism isn't dead 'round the world. David Cameron comes to mind as an example, at least now that he's in power.

This is true, considering he's in a coalition government with our Liberal Democrats. If a policy compromise can be reached between a centre-right party and a moderate-left party, then, for the most part, moderate conservatism isn't truly dead.

The point is though, most of the electorate are either moderate, centrists, or politically indifferent. In our liberal democracies (esp. in Europe), political systems are designed to produce Governments with a modicum of moderacy. Most of their policies may not be as moderate as some would like, but they're not exactly ground-shaking things like destroying whole Departments of State.

What Europeans call "liberal" is more or less what the Americans call "libertarian". Maybe usually a bit less dogmatic, but roughly that direction.

1. Odd that you say this, since you're implying that people are leaving conservatism and/or Conservatives, while the point of my thread is that conservatism and/or Conservatives are becoming more popular these days—or at least louder.
2. What sorts of changes, and how do these changes relate to the financial crisis?

Actually, I recently stopped by a right-wing blog site and found posters making a gigantic deal of Bill Maher.

Funniest thing about this: I don't even know very well who Bill Maher is. For example, I know that Rush Limbaugh is a radio talk show host known for espousing right-wing views in inflammatory ways, but if you asked me about Maher,...uh, I think he's a TV personality? That's about all I know.

He's basically the left-wing Rush Limbaugh, but with a TV show because unlike Rush he's decent-looking. I believe he called Sarah Palin the C-Word at some point.

edited 17th Mar '12 4:45:28 PM by setnakhte

The Crisis is making the loud mouths come out in droves, making them louder, and pushing the moderate minded ones away from the party. The original idea of the TEA Party was to give the sane minded ones a place to go without jumping all the way to the Democrats. And then it got coopted by the Reps anyway.

Saying Bill Maher is a left-wing Rush Limbaugh is an insult to the left-wing. Maher doesn't have control of the Democrats or the media as much as Limbaugh does with the Republicans. Maher also has no ad sponsors after being banished to HBO for insulting the government right after 9/11.

Basically, Maher already lost his ad-sponsers for his on-air comments back in 2002 much like Limbaugh is losing them now. It's just that HBO invited Maher over to work for them.

Well, to be fair, I think that Limbaugh is less influential than O'Reilly or Glenn Beck.

He is now, but Reagan cited him as the voice of conservatism in 92.

I meant in terms of personality, not power. Power-wise he's insignificant. He's only well known because the right likes to hold him up as a straw-man of the left.

Well, yeah. He is like Limbaugh in personality, but the left does not worship Maher like the right does Limbaugh and that's a big different that should be noted.

The Left doesn't worship people to start with.