I 2nd this. If you stop me or my wife the first thing I need to see if a badge, id, and warrant. Not one or the other. 2out of three at least.

This is exactly where the 2nd amendment and the Blue Lives Matter movements collide. If both civilians and police have the legal right to arm and defend themselves with lethal force, and neither has a responsibility to show restraint or demonstrate cause, then you have created a situation where an innocent civilian and a good cop could kill each other in self defense and neither would have done anything wrong.

It always blows my mind when I see Back the Blue flags next to Gadsden flags. Who do they think is doing the treading?!

It makes sense if you remember that conservativism doesn’t actually exist, and all people claiming to be conservatives are just narcissists who pick and choose what they care about in any given situation.

Eh. Conservatism does exist but, it’s never been what it’s claimed to be. It’s all about establishing and enforcing hierarchical power structures in society by any means necessary. Almost universally, the adherents desire to have power over others, so, even if they’re not at the top, they get to be cruel towards their “lessers” and that makes them feel better about themselves. Through the lens of their philosophy, things like hypocrisy are privileges of those higher in the hierarchy with which to taunt their “lessers”.

Additionally, they do not believe in objective reality but, subjective reality that bends to their will (when it doesn’t, they deny the delta and pretend that it does). This applies to morality as well; moral correctness is relative to one’s place in the hierarchy, not their actions (ie supporting a convicted felon, rapist and pedophile is ok because he’s rich and supports hierarchy).

The reason, I think, that the belief system has been able to stick around so long (beyond the propaganda) is that its followers do gain some mental health benefits. They are able to reduce their cognitive load through deference to their rulers and reduce potential for anxiety and depression by avoiding self-reflection and embracing the Just World Fallacy.