THE BIG PROBLEM: Conservatives lack a Sociological Imagination

[Freeper]

geekgrrl  (1000+ posts)  Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sat Jan-15-11 11:55 AM
Original message
THE BIG PROBLEM: Conservatives lack a Sociological Imagination   Updated at 11:55 AM
   
Edited on Sat Jan-15-11 11:56 AM by geekgrrl
After two huge arguments online with people about Maine's Governor LePage's comments on the NAACP, immigration, and Sarah Palin's violent language, I feel like I want to stay off the internet completely. Instead I'm coming to the DU with a hunch. What these people miss is a sociological imagination.

I teach in my intro to sociology class about C. Wright Mills' "the sociological imagination". I find myself wishing I could teach a huge, nation-wide sociology class these days.

"The sociological imagination is the ability to recognize the relationship between large-scale social forces and the actions of individuals. It includes both the capacity to see relationships between individual biographies and historical change, and the capacity to see how social causation operates in societies." (wikipedia)

To have a sociological imagination is to put yourself in someone else's shoes-- to see the world from other people's perspectives. It's a gift, a gift that I see many people here on the DU have.

Some examples of how conservatives lack a Sociological Imagination:

** The Tuscan, Arizona shooting:
- The individualist logic: The guy must be mentally ill. His politics don't matter. The fact that there have been violent threats against politicians who support healthcare reform doesn't matter. The fact that we have public figures who use gun crosshairs to target specific politicians, and use violent language to pander to their pro-gun supporters doesn't matter. The context (political and cultural) doesn't matter. It's individual. We can chalk it up to that and criticize anyone who says otherwise as trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.
- A sociological approach: The political and cultural context matter. The violent rhetoric used by public figures creates an environment where violence is an answer to problems. Yes, the individual matters, but the individual's violent actions are shaped by outside political and cultural forces.

** Welfare dependency is a major cause of our govt/budget problems:
- The individualist logic: People should pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Only people who FAIL to find work, support their families etc. need welfare and thus they don't deserve it. People depend on public assistance too much and want to milk the system. They don't need facts and figures to back this up, because there is always the individual case of someone with a big screen TV and a wii to "prove" that people milk welfare.
- A sociological approach: Nearly everyone at some point in their lives is going to need help-- is going to need public support. When our economy is bad, more people are going to need it. People who need help are often elderly or have medical problems-- they are not failures. We all need a social support system.

** Immigration is ruining the country:
- The individualist logic: People move here to milk the system.
- The sociological approach: People move here from other countries in crisis, and they come here for a better life and more opportunities. Historically, we all have immigrant roots and our relatives moved here for the same reasons. Imagine why you might want a better life for your family, and what you would do if you lived in a country where that wasn't possible? Imagine your early immigrant relatives and how hard they struggled when they got here. What would that have been like for them?

** Special interests are corrupting politics: (LePage telling the NAACP to "kiss my butt")
- The individualist logic: We're all equal and thus there are no differences between us. Anyone who points out differences is reverse racist/sexist/homophobic. We all have equal opportunities to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, and if any one group is living in more poverty etc. it's because they choose to live that way. They're choice, not our problem.
- The sociological approach: Some groups of people still experience discrimination at many levels (institutional, individual etc.) and because of that, we need to point out these inequalities in order to understand them, address them, and fix them. Ignoring factual differences doesn't make them go away, it makes them WORSE.

And the list could go on and on...

This is why it's impossible to argue with conservatives-- their viewpoint is SO individualistic ("well I know someone who is here illegally for food stamps blah blah blah") that they miss THE BIG PICTURE and how interconnected we all are. They don't bother putting themselves in someone else's shoes or thinking from someone else's perspective. How sad, and I wonder how we can get people to change?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x206697

What a bunch of psychobabble bullshit.
Each person is an individual and responsible for what they do plain and simple. Yes other people and events may influence how a person decides to make a choice to do some action, however the individual chooses to do that action. Just wait until another lefty does something then individualism will be all the rage at DU or, they will continue to lie and say he is on the right.

The whole argument about the AZ shooting is now, the right said some things this one time, and this guy, who turns out doesn't watch tv or listen to the radio, was still influenced by the words he never heard.

[Odin's Hand]

What is it with these DUmbasses and their inability to properly spell "Tucson"?

The rest of this screed is just more bitching about how people aren't buying into the social-engineering and conditioning BS being foisted upon the U.S. citizenry.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Geekgrrl, what Conservatives are really missing is your capacity for magical thinking.

[Freeper]

Geekgrrl, what Conservatives are really missing is your capacity for magical thinking.

Well we don't use chicken wire and bricks to experiment.

[BlueStateSaint]

The OP primitive certainly has a scatological imagination.

[Randy]

DUmmie, DUmmie, DUmmie, it wouldn't make one whit of difference if the AZ shooter was a listener to Rush. Hell he could work for him and depend on him for a living for all it matters.

Sane people do NOT shoot 20 people just for the hell of it on someone else's suggestion. They just don't. Find me one person who has. You can't. Being highly over educated you should be able to figure this out on your own though.

Individual cases are fine when they point out the vast majority. Again your over-education does not mean common sense or ability to reason is your forte. If youd paid any sort of attention to anything but Sociology classes you'd have learned 1+1 does NOT = Potato.

People violating the law and sneaking across the border does not = Immigration. It equals an invasion by foreign invaders. AKA: Leeches attached to the host. (that would be you DUmmie, hummm in both cases)

Special interests are ruining this country. Soros, ACORN, NAACP, Most Unions, et al and all their PACs and political machines with their shenanigans with dead voters. Most seem to be on the left side, funny that.

Poor Geekgirl. Just one big wad of fail, again. But keep trying. Maybe someday your eyes will open and you'll realize what a loser at life you truly are in time to do something about it.

[Randy]

The OP primitive certainly has a scatological imagination.

She does love shoveling the shit doesn't she?

[Red October]

Yes, the individual matters, but the individual's violent actions are shaped by outside political and cultural forces.

This man was not shaped by any outside political or cultural force.  This has been proven, yet you continue to see links where none exist.  This whole "dialouge" has been little more then a lame smear campaign with the left pointing the finger at every conservative they don't like.  And now you're all pissy because conservatives are pointing one back at you... the one between the index and the ring.  Too bad, so sad.  If you can't handle the heat then stay the **** out of hell's kitchen.

[Evil_Conservative]

I took Sociology 101 in college..... NEVER AGAIN!  I will take a different general elective when I re-register for college.  My teacher would make the class watch the NBC nightly news and for about 30 minutes after the news, we all had to point out one thing "wrong" with society today.  It was really annoying.  Mind you, this was in 2007 when Bush was still in office, so the news was always about the war.

[olde north church]

Sociology is just another Leftist pseudo-science which fails to reach a result based outcome.

[Evil_Conservative]

Sociology is just another Leftist pseudo-science which fails to reach a result based outcome.

Yeah, and I was too young & stupid to understand that when I registered for college.  I didn't really get into politics until late 2007/early 2008.

[cavegal]

Who are these peoples parents?  For that matter who are the grandparents?

[ColonialMarine0431]

No wonder our schools turn out such idiots. We have "teachers" like this vomiting forth psychobabble. 

[true_blood]

geekgrrl  (1000+ posts)    Sat Jan-15-11 11:55 AM
Original message
THE BIG PROBLEM: Conservatives lack a Sociological Imagination   Updated at 11:55 AM
Edited on Sat Jan-15-11 11:56 AM by geekgrrl
After two huge arguments online with people about Maine's Governor LePage's comments on the NAACP, immigration, and Sarah Palin's violent language, I feel like I want to stay off the internet completely. Instead I'm coming to the DU with a hunch. What these people miss is a sociological imagination.

I just have 2 things to say.
All kinds of stupid in this post. I think I fried a few brain cells trying to make sense of it all. And secondly, liberalism is a mental disorder. That.Is.All.

[olde north church]

Yeah, and I was too young & stupid to understand that when I registered for college.  I didn't really get into politics until late 2007/early 2008.

I think it's one of those things that catches most of us in one point or another in our lives.  The smarter ones among us learn, the others become Democrats.

[Alpha Mare]

The only thing more annoying that a moonbat taking its first sociology class is one taking psych.

[JohnnyReb]

The only thing more annoying that a moonbat taking its first sociology class is one taking psych.

Moonbats are drawn to those classes like flies to piles of ..........

[delilahmused]

The problem with DUmmies is they aren't mature and independent enough to accept personal responsibility. Thus, everything becomes someone else's fault. When they can't find a specific person(s) they blame society.

Even if this jerk's actions WERE political...he was a truther with a weird fear of grammar. He probably thought Dubya sent secret messages to the 9/11 hijackers through dangling participles.

Cindie

[GOBUCKS]

Yeah, and I was too young & stupid to understand that when I registered for college.  I didn't really get into politics until late 2007/early 2008.

It isn't stupid to take Sociology 101 as an elective. It's a worthless course, but it's an exceedingly easy grade, which should always be your priority in selecting electives. Aside from what you choose as a major, nothing is more important than GPA.

[VivisMom]

My BA is in sociology, and while it's not a hard science, it is definitely interesting. If nothing else, having to read and understand Marx makes it much easier to debate moonbats.


Maybe I read this wrong, but did the OP say she taught Soc 101? Because I have never heard of the 'sociological imagination' of which she speaks. I mean, there's a lot of jargon in sociology, but this is a new one on me.

Also, we had one really moonbat sociology prof during my undergrad...and she was fired quickly once the administration found out just how moonbatty she was. I honestly wonder if she is on DU, she is their type. For the most part, my profs were definitely more liberal than I am, but none of them ever brought politics into the classroom.

[I_B_Perky]

geekgrrl  (1000+ posts)  Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sat Jan-15-11 11:55 AM
Original message
THE BIG PROBLEM: Conservatives lack a Sociological Imagination   

I have a Sociological Imagination. I imagine what kind of country we would have if all the welfare parasites and their advocates were shipped off to North Korea. 

[true_blood]

I have a Sociological Imagination. I imagine what kind of country we would have if all the welfare parasites and their advocates were shipped off to North Korea.

I imagine the Country we would have would be prosperous again.
And the welfare parasites and their advocates would be in their communist heaven they so much speak of.

[I_B_Perky]

I imagine the Country we would have would be prosperous again.
And the welfare parasites and their advocates would be in their communist heaven they so much speak of.

Couldn't you imagine the rude awakening they would have when the commissar and his buddies woke them up at 5am and told their collective asses to get out in the field and get to work? Oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth as they told him that they were Oh So Smart and they should be telling other people what to do... right up to the time the commissar had a bunch of them lined up against the wall and shot.

They certainly wouldn't have to worry about losing weight. They be trim in no time!!

 

I recall back in the early 80's reading about this leftist couple, in their early 20's, that were so pissed off at Reagan that they "defected" to the USSR. They ended up coming back to the US within a month or two. Seems they didn't want to be there and the USSR didn't want them there.

Personally I say that any fool in this country that supports marxism should be exported to North Korea or Cuba. We could even pay those countries to take them. Give those countries a couple of grand per person to take them with the understanding they can't come back.

Since they would be true believers it would be a win-win!!!

[true_blood]

Couldn't you imagine the rude awakening they would have when the commissar and his buddies woke them up at 5am and told their collective asses to get out in the field and get to work? Oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth as they told him that they were Oh So Smart and they should be telling other people what to do... right up to the time the commissar had a bunch of them lined up against the wall and shot.
They certainly wouldn't have to worry about losing weight. They be trim in no time!!
 
I recall back in the early 80's reading about this leftist couple, in their early 20's, that were so pissed off at Reagan that they "defected" to the USSR. They ended up coming back to the US within a month or two. Seems they didn't want to be there and the USSR didn't want them there. Personally I say that any fool in this country that supports marxism should be exported to North Korea or Cuba. We could even pay those countries to take them. Give those countries a couple of grand per person to take them with the understanding they can't come back. Since they would be true believers it would be a win-win!!!

How true it is. They, the DUmmies/liberals/progressives have the "freedoms" to spout their nonsense now, but let them get a taste of what it's really like,....they'd be BEGGING to come back to the greatest Country in the World.
H5!

[I_B_Perky]

How true it is. They, the DUmmies/liberals/progressives have the "freedoms" to spout their nonsense now, but let them get a taste of what it's really like,....they'd be BEGGING to come back to the greatest Country in the World.
H5!

Personally I think they wouldn't last a week in those countries before the government would throw them into a work camp for speaking truth to power!!!