“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I get into conversations with my conservative brethren from time to time.  It can be…challenging.  They often have “information” no one else in the world knows.  They’ve been convinced by Conservative Catechism that this means they’re special.  “Special” in a good way…

But because they’re the only people with said “information”, it often causes non-conservatives to think of conservatives as “stupid”.  I confess, I’m guilty of it, myself.  It’s hard not to when they spout silliness and expect the rest of the world to just accept it as easily as they did – despite the obvious flaws in the logic, methodology, or reality.  The thing is, I know many intelligent people who identify as conservative.  So if my personal experience is that conservatives are reasonably intelligent, it’s not honest to dismiss them as stupid, right?

Somewhere along the way, I realized the problem is faith.  Conservatism, today, is a faith-based proposition.  Faith has no use for facts.  Still, I don’t think of faith-based people as ‘stupid’.  Gullible?  Possibly.  Deceived?  Sure.  But not stupid…

Ever since Bernie Sanders ran in 2016, the term ‘Democratic Socialism’ has become part of the day-to-day lexicon.  If you don’t know, Democratic Socialism is a poorly named economic system of regulated Capitalism.  The tenets of Democratic Socialism are VERY popular among the vast majority of Americans.  But if you say ‘Democratic Socialism’ to a conservative, they respond with “Communism.”  Sometimes it’s “Venezuela”, occasionally, references to Marx, Engels, or Lenin – the “fathers” of Communism.

Okay, so anybody can be forgiven for not understanding the details between two very different economic systems – one that works brilliantly and one that doesn’t work at all – the first time they come across the “new” term.  But it’s been YEARS since Bernie started talking about Democratic Socialism and I STILL get the same response from conservatives, “Commie!”

I want to be clear.  I’m quite aware that ‘conservatives’ as a group, are often wrong.  But that’s the group.  A movie came out in 1997 called ‘Men in Black.’  One of the main characters, K, has a quote I like, “A person is smart. People are dumb…”  So, sure…the group might be dumb but I’m never in these conversations with the group.  The exchanges are with individuals so K’s admonition doesn’t apply.

So, applying Sir Doyle’s theory, above, if the conservative position is wrong – and it is – and the person is not stupid, there’s only one possible answer: it’s a kind of surrender.  Clearly, the Conservative Catechism teaches the flock to avoid the subject of Democratic Socialism – deflect, instead, to Communism.  When one considers the “why” of such behavior, there’s only one answer that make any sense: the thought-shapers of conservatism KNOW they have no leg to stand on in an attack on Democratic Socialism, so they attack Communism, instead.

So, what you can KNOW when you hear conservatives faithfully repeating their catechism is that the richest of the rich – the people who own our national media – hate, hate, HATE Democratic Socialism – which should tell you it’s the only proper course…