Talk to enough conservatives and you will learn that they may be well aware that there are limitations to their capabilities. They are probably willing to concede that they may be of only ordinary intelligence or physical capability. They know they (like most people) are not natural athletes, scientists, artists, warriors, humanitarians, intellects or even leaders. However, most of them are convinced that they are natural businessmen. It’s because they have “common sense”, a “work ethic”, “self-reliance”, a “sense of responsibility”, or a “healthy ambition”, or some other vague in-born, inherited personality trait that can be neither objectively defined or demonstrated. They also feel that many other people (those not in their social group or in-circle) lack this ability, which explains not only their low station in life, but why they deserve it.

But it can be objectively determined whether or not one is successful at business. Those who are, use this to justify their contempt for those who are not members of their in-group. Those who are not, come to believe that it is only the treachery and theft of those OTHER people, (the takers, looters, freeloaders, and their Liberal allies) that denies them the business success they are culturally or genetically entitled to.

To put it bluntly, the narrative is “I am prosperous because I am better than they are. And if I’m not its because those who are inferior to me are taking my rightful share.”

If this concept of “better” or “inferior” is explained genetically, we call it racism. If it is explained as simply laziness or the inability or unwillingness to adopt the necessary “common sense”, “work ethic”, “self-reliance”, “sense of responsibility”, or “healthy ambition”, then its just plain old fascism. In a way, this is worse. The racist, at least, believes the inferior race can’t help being inferior. The fascist feels morally and intellectually justified in despising his perceived opponent.

There are many human attributes which are necessary conditions for success, not the least of which is pure dumb luck. However. there is no characteristic which is a sufficient condition for that success. It is the failure to be aware of this that leads to the lack of empathy, the contempt for humanity and the smug arrogance we find so often underlies the Randian philosophy.

Paul Ryan is the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. By his own account, in college he used to hang out with his friends and drink beer while sharing his dreams of cutting Medicaid. When Ryan was 15 years old, his father died from a heart attack affected by alcoholism. Ryan and his family then received his father’s Social Security survivor’s benefits. Ryan used that money to attend college. This was not the only money that Paul Ryan received from the federal government. His family built its wealth from receiving government contracts.

Like his idol Ayn Rand (who argued against the very idea of government and the commons yet received Social Security and Medicare), Paul Ryan has combined meanness, cruelty and callousness toward the weak and the vulnerable with gross and unapologetic hypocrisy.

Republicans like Ryan — along with the millionaires and billionaires who comprise Donald Trump’s Cabinet and inner circle — literally want to take food, shelter and health care away from poor people like Christa Patton. Today’s Republicans view these Americans as useless eaters to be disposed of by means both passive and active.

It is normal to feel aghast at and disgusted by the Republican Party’s war on the poor. The more challenging and perhaps even more disturbing task is to ask why today’s conservatives feel such antipathy, disregard and hostility toward poor and other vulnerable Americans. Certainly greed and a slavish devotion to a revanchist right-wing ideology are part of the answer. But they may not be sufficient

Conservatives are more likely to exhibit social dominance and bullying behavior. This is a function of their authoritarian tendencies. The election of Donald Trump exemplifies this phenomenon.
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Social psychologists have shown that, in effect, poor people become invisible to the rich and upper classes.

The psychological dynamic known as “diffusion of responsibility,” whereby people tend to ignore those in crisis — especially if they’re perceived as being of a different social group, race, ethnicity or class — also encourages a lack of empathy and concern. It undercuts policies meant to offer direct assistance to vulnerable and marginalized individuals and communities. A perverse corollary to the “diffusion of responsibility” can also be used to legitimize punitive policies that target specific individuals and groups.
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The brain structures of conservatives and liberals are quite different. Conservatives are capable of being empathetic. Conservatives, however, focus those feelings on members of their in-group such as immediate family and community. Liberals have a different biological inclination: They are able to feel empathy for people and groups who are not part of their close social circle. What can be done?

The bad news is that conservatives’ brains cannot be modified to make them more empathetic and sympathetic toward their fellow human beings. Nor is the harmful messaging and narratives from the right-wing media about poor folks — and “the other” more generally — likely to change in the foreseeable future.

I agree with the bearded gentleman in the dark hat. I can’t blame anyone for being greedy or lacking empathy for the unfortunate. After all, we are all that way to a certain extent. But please, PUH-LEEZE, spare me the intellectual contortions and moral dishonesty required to argue that that’s the way things OUGHT to be. God does not give a flying fuck about the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie.

I happen to be financially independent myself. I live well and work little. Neither do I feel any obligation to share my wealth with the destitute. But I also recognize that whatever I have in life is, to a great extent, due just as much to sheer luck as it is to any personal virtue or any intellectual and moral superiority of my own. And I certainly don’t believe that I am entitled to use my wealth as a tool to exploit others, or in a way that it denies prosperity and opportunity to anyone else.

And I also accept that human communities should be organized in a way that they recognize this fundamental injustice and attempt to address it.

“In the absence of proper government, the strong will always take from the weak”. — Chris Hayes