Nothing but... Blind Hate?

Today is another rendition of the things I hate about living in Salt Lake! In case you aren't familiar with it, there are tons of things I both love and hate about living here in Salt Lake! Today, we're going to talk about Followers. Particularly those of the conservative bent. I talked about leaders before, and how great they are, and would like to say this: Huntsman is awesome. Huntsman going to China: totally sucks for Utah. But maybe he'll make a great President in 12 years. A Progressive Mormon Republican President? Wouldn't that be interesting?

Conservative Followers:

First, a disclaimer: This post is biased. If this post offends you, please take the time to reconsider your views before commenting. This post is discussing followers only, so if you have taken the time to deeply consider and meditate upon your views, this post is not about you. On the other hand, if you think this might be about you, pay attention! You could learn something, and become better for it. Although if that is the case... this probably wasn't about you.

One of the things that really bothers me about this great state are the Conservative Followers. Now, I'm not talking about the people who seriously care about their beliefs, and carefully look at the facts and the arguments at hand before choosing to support the conservative ideology. I can understand and respect that: my grandfather is among these, and his carefully considered arguments and discussions are worth paying attention to in my own quest for knowledge.

Instead, what I'm talking about are the people who blindly follow the ideology, because their parents do, or because the President is black, or because they want to fit in with the crowd. I'm talking about the people who are deeply opinionated, yet refuse to hear anything from a different perspective. I'm talking about the people who tune you out when you start talking about family, community, values, rights and responsibilities, and then claim to espouse those very principles.

I'm talking about people who drive Hummers because they are huge and have terrible gas mileage, because environmentalism is a load of crock so who cares? I'm talking about the people who move their children to a "safe" neighborhood to avoid the "gangs," rather than helping solve the problem.

Are these people limited to Utah? No way.

But as a state that regularly votes 70%+ in favor of the Republicans, all the while moaning about how the choices are both equally evil... Utah seems to be pretty high up on the list when it comes to this.

If it were only politics though, that'd be one thing. But it covers the spectrum, and effects every part of daily life, from the angry guy in the SUV trying to run the bicyclist over to the militant neo-nazi mom's on the mother community blogs, Salt Lake City is full of angry, blind, hateful people who follow the "conservative" ideology unveeringly, unable to see the affect their isolation and holier than thou attitude has on the world around them.

And the Suburbs are worse.