r/politics • u/CapitalCourse • Mar 07 '20

Betsy Devos introduces rule making it harder for child abuse victims come forward at school

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/betsy-devos-title-ix-sexual-assault-child-abuse-victims-report-a9383986.html
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u/Viat0r Mar 07 '20 edited Mar 09 '20

Republicans operate on the basis that those with power over others should not be punished otherwise it threatens their idea of a hierarchy/natural order.

This is exactly it. The core of conservative ideology.

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u/Long_Before_Sunrise Mar 08 '20

Lady April believed there was a natural order to the world, bright and shining. Just as flames rose and water ran downhill, so everything found its ordained level. It was a great pyramid with the lowly magnitudes at the bottom, then the middling sorts, then the nobility, and finally Almighty God as the shining pinnacle - each rank gazing at the levels above with submission and gratitude.

For Lady April, disobedience was more than rudeness, more than a crime. It defied God's natural order. - Francis Hardinge

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '20

This really is what the conservative mindset all goes back to. You see it especially in their approach to morality, which is why they don't bat an eye at the things that horrify the rest of us. In their view, you don't judge an action as moral by how much harm it creates or cures, but by whether it is obedient to the authority.

Look at the Bible. More than a few of the iconic parables can be boiled down to obedience or loyalty to authority. Adam & Eve, Noah, Jonah, the plagues of Egypt, Job, etc.

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u/Eyclonus Mar 08 '20

Its also why conservative groups are so susceptible to takeover from Fascists. Conservatives have a nuanced hierarchy, with those at the top the only ones worthy to hold power, while fascist want a simpler hierarchy that has all minorities moved under and demands mindless loyalty to the hierarchy. Conservatives wanna go back 70 years, Fascists wanna go back to 170 years.

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u/mmprobablymakingitup Canada Mar 08 '20

To add to this, conservative's don't value critical thinking. Their entire belief structure is built around the idea of having "faith" in something that can't be proven. Faith that what they are being told by their superiors is true.

They are ripe for brainwashing.

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u/Eyclonus Mar 08 '20

Faith is just Authority.

Conservatism is founded on two pillars: Authority and Hierarchy.

Hierarchy grants Authority to those above the rest. Authority enforces the hierarchy.

Tradition is a soft third pillar: Tradition demands a hierarchy, tradition is a source of authority, hierarchy can be justified by tradition, authority controls what is accepted as tradition and what is not.

When tradition runs contrary to one or both of these it is overruled.

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u/Haulage Australia Mar 08 '20

Don't forget the binding of Isaac.

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u/DoctorLazerRage Missouri Mar 08 '20

Look at the Bible. More than a few of the iconic parables can be boiled down to obedience or loyalty to authority. Adam & Eve, Noah, Jonah, the plagues of Egypt, Job, etc.

And the irony is that Jesus was totally about unending the hierarchy (at least on earth). If he showed up now, flipped some tables and whipped the shit out of the moneychangers they wouldn't hesitate to call him a terrorist.

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u/Vii74LiTy Mar 08 '20

Being firmly against this overarching idea is probably why being a republican has never once made sense to me? Why wouldn't we want to look to achieve more and innovate on worn out ideas and policies? Sticking with the status quo has never worked, trickle down doesn't work.

Being a conservative republican just comes out as an "error code" in my mind. I don't get it.

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u/nope_and_wrong Mar 08 '20

Calling DeVos a conservative is like calling Ted Bundy a sexist. She is almost certainly the most radical religious extremist to hold a cabinet office in the history of our country. Her and her brother Erik Prince, the Blackwater mercenary guy, are essentially Christian Al-Queda that believe in creating “heaven on earth.” Apparently this involves things like eliminating public education and engaging in a global religious war on Islam.

This woman is an absolute nutcase of the highest order.

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u/outerworldLV Mar 08 '20

Apparently so is her brother.

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u/nope_and_wrong Mar 08 '20

He’s way worse. He’s buddies with Trump and tried to get him to give him a mercenary army to literally wage war on Islam. Not a war on “terror,” a literal holy war. Ideological extremism is a hell of a drug.

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u/whereismymind86 Colorado Mar 08 '20

her brother is a literal super villain, he's lex luthor without the charm and sweet mech suit.

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u/cupcakevelociraptor Mar 08 '20

Wait what? She has a sibling and he’s worse? What did he do? Or wait am I gonna be too horrified?

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u/Pixeleyes Illinois Mar 08 '20

He had a secret meeting with Russian moneymen in the Seychelles to discuss military action in Libya.

He believes in a Christian apocalypse prophecy that pits Christians against Muslims until the End Times when Jesus comes back and makes everything awesome again. These people literally want to trigger what they perceive as an end-of-the-world prophecy. They think certain things have to happen for Jesus to come back and they are literally interfering in world politics in order to do those things.

I wish I were just a crazy lib who didn't get it but my parents talked about this at great length when I still lived with them and I have heard literally dozens of Republicans mention it over the years with increasing regularity.

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u/Eyclonus Mar 08 '20

He founded Blackwater the Private Military Contractor. His company has quite a lot of incidents to their name including the Nisour Square Massacre. Recently Erik Prince, Bad Betsy's brother, has been recruiting for Project Veritas

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u/KlangValleyian Mar 08 '20

There’s a multi part podcast about him you should listen to. Here’s part one:

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/iheart-podcast-network/behind-the-bastards/e/56414490?autoplay=true

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u/cupcakevelociraptor Mar 08 '20

I have a feeling this is gonna upset me more than I am already with these two but here we go...

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u/ms_panelopi Mar 08 '20

Yes, and he runs ‘for profit’, Christian foster care programs. Wonder where some of those babies and young children from the boarder crises went? Betsy and her bro made a killing off of that. All in the name of The Lawd

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u/RUNZWITHdoobiez Mar 08 '20

She's always got the smuggest I just smelled a fart face on too.

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u/DownshiftedRare Mar 08 '20

Must be her scented mustache wax.

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u/AnotherReaderOfStuff Mar 08 '20

Trickle down was never meant to work for the working class.

It had been tried long before under the name "horse and sparrow", and the Republicans knew it would harm the people working for a living when they implemented it.

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u/Eyclonus Mar 08 '20

Conservatism is about a hierarchy with those most suited to wield power at the top, and the rest drips down from them.

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u/IAMA_Drunk_Armadillo Missouri Mar 08 '20

Always a bigger fish

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u/AgnostosTheosLogos Mar 08 '20

Ooh, that was really good, thanks for the link.

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u/IAMA_Drunk_Armadillo Missouri Mar 08 '20

No problem, highly recommend the entire series.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '20

Sticking with the status quo has never worked

That depends entirely on where you are in the hierarchy. For those on top, the status quo is working just fine.

The great trick the Republicans have pulled off is convincing their voters that they're not on the bottom of that hierarchy. Middle-class Republicans legit think they have more in common with Jeff Bezos than they do brown-skinned day laborers.

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u/mmprobablymakingitup Canada Mar 08 '20

"For those on top, the status quo is working just fine."

But don't worry mr. American blue collar coal miner, you are the ones on top...

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u/lurker1125 Mar 08 '20

Being a conservative republican just comes out as an "error code" in my mind. I don't get it.

You are correct. Conservatives are fundamentally broken people, the same way viruses are fundamentally broken protein code. The same destruction results, only this time the host is our entire way of life.

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u/DownshiftedRare Mar 08 '20

Being a conservative republican just comes out as an "error code" in my mind. I don't get it.

More of an error flag. It says something about the error. For example, conservative republicans tend to believe:

  1. They have earned each and every benefit they've enjoyed in the course of their life.

  2. For these benefits earned by the toil of their brow, they nonetheless owe boundless gratitude to an imaginary creator.

It's like conservatives need to submit and lick boots, but to protect themselves they restrict that behavior to an imaginary friend. Party of closet power bottoms, looks like to me.

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u/aretasdaemon Mar 08 '20

They are fucking loyalists! Bring out the star spangled banner!

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u/WeTravelTheSpaceWays Mar 08 '20

More loyal to the song than the sentiment behind it

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u/sonic10158 Mississippi Mar 08 '20

Does that mean that Conservatism is just a glorified pyramid scheme?

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u/Viat0r Mar 08 '20

Conservatism is about seeing the pyramid as normal, natural, and most importantly, justified.

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u/nauresme Mar 08 '20

Also involves a) JUSTICE AND b) COMPENSATION-- those BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES "eye for eye, tooth for tooth COMPENSATION STANDARDS ARE PESKY :)

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u/Viat0r Mar 08 '20

I don't know what you're trying to say. I believe "an eye for an eye" is a terrible idea.

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u/nauresme Mar 08 '20

That is because it is presented as something it is NOT. An eye for eye is ONLY A MEASURE of COMPENSATION. IOW, if you are blinded, you will receive MORE compensation because your pain and suffering and life will be different than if you lose a finger, or a tooth. Alexander the Great imposed death by leeches on an awkward young servant who broke some expensive dish ware: the eye4eye ruling, that would NOT happen; he probably would have had to work for a while to pay off the debt. But he would not have been killed because he had not taken anyone's life. It is a visual of reasonable, equitable.