Conservative Men Fear And Hate Women— Women Should Never Vote For Conservatives, Regardless Of Party

"¡Vivan las mujeres! Su fuerza y buen juicio pueden salvar el mundo."

Recently, Sabrina Haake wrote an interesting piece on Americans’ decreasing IQs. “The U.S.,” she wrote, “seems to be slumbering toward Idiocracy, a funny-not-funny satire about Americans in the year 2500 who have lost the ability to think. In the movie, Americans elect as President a dimwitted pro-wrestler— President Camacho— because he is loud and manipulative and they don’t know any better. The Trump sequel writes itself. Funny as that movie was, America’s declining cognition is serious. Americans’ logic, language, and reading comprehension levels have fallen measurably. Last year, researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Oregon reported that, while American IQs increased dramatically over the past century, cognitive abilities showed measurable decline between 2006 and 2018. Scores in three of four broad domains of intelligence fell during that period: logic, vocabulary, and visual/mathematical problem-solving.”

In 1850, unwashed kids aged 6 to 18 were crammed into a smelly one-room school house with no AC and no technology— and often no books— yet still emerged well-versed in Latin, French, humanities and trigonometry.

Today, with whiteboards, laptops, separate rooms for each grade, and teacher/student ratios historically unheard of, student comprehension levels are falling instead of rising. Last year, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, math and reading scores for 13 year-olds hit their lowest scores in decades, which isn’t explained by the Covid-19 gap of recent years.

The explanation may be found in a growing reliance on smart phones, social media and electronic devices that offer addictive and excessive visual and audio stimulation, dulling the brain’s ability to think critically and organically.

Observational studies in human learning have shown a direct link between a child’s exposure to fast-paced television in the first 3 years of life and his subsequent attentional deficits as he gets older. Excessive sensory stimulation (ESS) during childhood has been shown to increase cognitive and behavioral deficits overall. Even rising levels of ADHD among older children and college students are correlated with subjects’ early exposure to excessive electronic media.

Educators are paying attention. This year, dozens of schools across the country have taken steps to remove cellphones from the classroom.

…It seems logical that over-stimulating the human brain with loud colors and noises would, over time, reduce our capacity for nuanced and critical thinking. Just as over-reliance on crutches can cause leg muscles to atrophy, over-exposure to electronics and addictive but thoughtless social media can atrophy the learning centers of the brain. 

Smart phones aren’t the only culprit. Recent studies have also shown that high levels of noise, including exposure to high-decibel music at home or in the car, and loud, omnipresent television, also leads to cognitive impairment and oxidative stress in the brain.

It’s been reported that 100 million people are exposed to dangerous environmental noise due to traffic, personal listening devices and other sources. Noise pollution has emerged as a risk factor for depression, cognitive impairment and neurodegenerative disorders of the central nervous system leading to emotional stress, anxiety, cognitive and memory defects.

…America’s growing political divide may have more to do with education and cognition levels than policy differences. By wide margins, the mostly highly educated Congressional districts in the U.S. elect Democrats, while the least educated districts elect Republicans.

According to data compiled by Politico, Democrats control 77% of the most highly educated Congressional districts, while Republicans control 64% of the least educated districts. The rural; poor love Trump even though Democrats deliver kitchen table results that benefit them most: jobs, infrastructure, broadband, healthcare and and industry regulations so trains don;’t derail and parts don’t fly off aircraft at 16,000 feet.

Maximilien Robespierre, one of the most influential figures of the French Revolution, was known for his attacks on the monarchy and his advocacy of democratic reforms.

As he astutely observed, “The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.”

Even though Trump’s former advisors widely regard him as an undisciplined moron, he has a preternatural skill: the manipulation of ignorance.

Call it a conman’s intuition.

Women tend to have slightly higher cognition in some areas, like verbal skills, episodic memory, fluency in language and social cognition (the ability to recognize emotions in faces and understand social cues). The differences between genders isn’t great but it isn’t nothing and it certainly doesn’t justify  conservatives’ historical antipathy to women playing a role in society outside the home. We could start with one of our first “great” thinkers, Aristotle believed that women were naturally inferior to men in terms of rationality and capability, arguing that women's primary role should be in the household under male supervision. In Politics, he wrote “The relation of male to female is by nature a relation of superior to inferior and ruler to ruled.” It kept getting worse, not just for women but for society that was dominated by conservative males since then.

Another “great” thinker, St Augustine, wrote that women were subordinate to men based on Biblical interpretations and that their primary role was to support their husbands. Almost a thousand years later, Thomas Aquinas, another key theologian, argued that women were naturally subject to men, based on his readings of Biblical texts and natural law, thus restricting women's roles to the domestic sphere.

And it wasn’t just the religionists who fucked up humanity with their misogynistic perspectives. In Emile, the great Enlightenment figure of the 18th Century Jean-Jacques Rousseau, delineated distinct and traditional roles for women, emphasizing that their education and social roles should focus on being wives and mothers.” And we can’t blame it entirely on men. Queen Victoria was no supporter of women’s liberation by any stretch of the imagination. She adamantly opposed to the idea of women's suffrage and believed that allowing women to vote and participate directly in politics would disrupt social harmony and go against the natural order. In her private letters, she often expressed disdain for the feminist movement, referring to the campaigners for women's rights as "mad, wicked folly" and was concerned that such movements would undermine societal stability.

Better in the New World? Just kidding. Everywhere in history and anywhere in the world, where there are conservatives, there is misogyny. As you know from studying American history— if you didn’t have to go to the bathroom or space out for that moment— during the women's rights movements in the 19th and 20th centuries, conservatives ferociously resisted and and all changes to allow women greater participation in public and professional life. Conservatives even had— and still have— their own Uncle Toms. Take Josephine Dodge for example, She was a leader of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS), fronting an organization, supported by reactionary men, arguing the same old bullshit line— that women's suffrage would disrupt social order and the traditional family structure.  Later, Phyllis Schlafly played an even more toxic role with her vicious and deceitful— and effective— campaign against the ERA, primarily supported by… well, by what turned into the MAGA movement. She finally went to Hell in 2016 just as MAGAtry was taking over the GOP.

And of course, it wasn’t just Republicans. It was all conservatives. Woodrow Wilson was a conservative Democrat  who opposed women’s suffrage for most of his life. Still, the big political figures of misogyny were mostly Republicans: Jesse Helms, Pat Robertson, Rush Limbaugh (“feminazis”), Rick Santorum, Tucker Carlson, Republican closet queens Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell, Antonin Scalia, James Dobson, Ann Coulter, Rand Paul, Mike Pence… though many conservative Democrats, like Joe Lieberman, Joe Manchin, Bart Stupak, made common cause with Republicans against women. Henry Cuellar— a Pelosi ally and likely to be headed to prison soon— is the last Democrap in the House to be against women’s Choice.

So back to the main topic— why women should always vote against conservatives. Yesterday, Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria had a perfect example: Louisiana lawmakers insist child rape victims must carry their pregnancy to term. That shouldn’t surprise anyone, least of all any women who, after all, are better than men at social cognition. But… “In February, Louisana Representative Delisha Boyd (D) introduced legislation that proposed exceptions for rape and incest to Louisiana's abortion ban. When it became clear that the proposal would fail, Boyd narrowed her bill to allow persons 16 years old and younger to have an abortion if they were the victim of rape or incest… [T]he committee rejected Boyd's bill last week on a 7 to 4 vote. All seven Republicans on the committee voted against creating the exception for child rape victims. One legislator who voted against creating the exception, Representative Lauren Ventrella (R), said she believed ‘teenagers who had consensual sex might feign rape or incest in order to get access to abortion service.’ Another legislator in opposition, Representative Dodie Horton (R), said rape should be punished, but she ‘cannot condone killing the innocent.’ Louisiana politics has long been dominated by anti-abortion advocates. But, on this issue, the legislature is out of step with their constituents. A 2023 survey found that 77% of Louisiana voters supported an abortion exception for rape and incest. A survey this year by the Times-Picayune found a majority of Louisiana voters also support allowing abortion for any reason up to 15 weeks of pregnancy.” 

"Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground)" by Barbara Kruger

I almost forgot, as Legum and Zekeria noted, “Anti-abortion lawmakers in Louisiana are also pushing a bill that would classify abortion medication as Schedule IV drugs, the same treatment as opioids. If the bill becomes law, Louisiana would be the first state in the country to classify mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled dangerous substances… effectively illegal.”

I almost forgot something else… conservatives feel entitled to force sex on women (rape). That’s a core conservative value. Greg Olear had 3 recent examples worth looking at: Rudy Giuliani, Clarence Thomas, Señor Trumpanzee. I’ll just include a few paragraphs from Noelle Dunphy’s legal complaint against Giuliani.

6. Giuliani began abusing Ms. Dunphy almost immediately after she started working for the Defendants. He made clear that satisfying his sexual demands— which came virtually anytime, anywhere— was an absolute requirement of her employment and of his legal representation. Giuliani began requiring Ms. Dunphy to work at his home and out of hotel rooms, so that she would be at his beck and call. He drank morning, noon, and night, and was frequently intoxicated, and therefore his behavior was always unpredictable.

7. Giuliani also took Viagra constantly. While working with Ms. Dunphy, Giuliani would look to Ms. Dunphy, point to his erect penis, and tell her that he could not do any work until “you take care of this.” Thus, Ms. Dunphy worked under the constant threat that Giuliani might demand sex from her at any moment. Even when the Covid-19 pandemic halted Giuliani’s ability to physically assault her, he demanded that she disrobe during their work-related videoconferences.

8. Giuliani also abused his position as Ms. Dunphy’s lawyer to pressure her into sex. In one instance, for example, Giuliani promised Ms. Dunphy that he would give her $300,000 if she would forgo her legal rights in connection with her pending case and “fuck me like crazy.” This statement was recorded.

9. As Ms. Dunphy continued her work for Giuliani and the Giuliani Companies, the work environment became increasingly hostile. In addition to his sexual demands, Giuliani went on alcohol-drenched rants that included sexist, racist, and antisemitic remarks, which made the work environment unbearable. Many of these comments were recorded.

…86. Giuliani then pulled her head onto his penis, without asking for or obtaining any form of consent. He held her by her hair. It became clear to Ms. Dunphy that there was no way out of giving him oral sex. She did so, against her will.

87. Ms. Dunphy was shocked and saddened by what had happened. She did not want to have any sexual encounter with Giuliani, of any kind. But Ms. Dunphy felt extreme pressure to go along with Giuliani’s demands because she could not lose her promised salary or her legal representation by the uniquely qualified and connected lawyer.

88. After pressuring her into performing oral sex, Giuliani required Ms. Dunphy to accompany him to a late dinner with Giuliani’s friend and business associate Lev Parnas. Ms. Dunphy asked Giuliani for the name of the Human Resources director, because she was considering reporting what had happened. Giuliani said that he did not have a Human Resources department and bragged that no one would ever sue him because he was connected to President Trump, and he had private investigators who would punish anyone who complained.

…138. On February 23, 2019, Giuliani told Ms. Dunphy that he could “get in trouble with underage girls” if they were 16 but looked 20. This conversation was recorded. During the same conversation, Giuliani discussed work-related issues with Ms. Dunphy, including reimbursement of the hotels she booked on February 14, 2019. As his assistant, she arranged for his dry-cleaning orders.

139. On February 25, 2019, Giuliani forced Ms. Dunphy to have sexual intercourse with him for the first time. Before this, Ms. Dunphy had refused and avoided having sex with Giuliani, although he had forced her to engage in other sexual contact. But on February 25, Giuliani told Ms. Dunphy that he would not wait any longer to have sex with her.

140. Ms. Dunphy objected and told Giuliani repeatedly that she did not want to have sex. But Giuliani would not take “no” for an answer. He eventually forced her into having sexual intercourse with him. She never consented to intercourse, but she eventually stopped resisting because it was clear that he would not stop pressuring her.

The (alleged) rape took place just one month after she started working for him. So this all happened very quickly. And it got worse from there:

141. Beginning in March 2019, Giuliani became more abusive toward Ms. Dunphy. He continually pressured her into sex, was unconcerned with obtaining Ms. Dunphy’s consent, disregarded Ms. Dunphy’s boundaries as a survivor of domestic violence and behaved in a hyperaggressive manner during sexual interactions. Giuliani disregarded Ms. Dunphy’s request that his conduct stop and her pleas that physical violence, domineering behavior, and abusive language was triggering and re-traumatizing for her.

142. For example, during sex, he called her a “cunt,” a “bitch,” and “Rudy’s slut”…Indeed, Giuliani was well aware of Ms. Dunphy’s aversion to physical violence or emotionally abusive language of any kind, real or simulated, because of his work as her attorney in connection with her domestic violence case. Nevertheless, he continually talked about…violent sex, and demanded that she engage in such conduct.

Yeah… so if you’re a woman— or a man who likes and respects women, or just a decent human— don’t ever, under any circumstance, vote for a conservative, whether it’s a Republican or if it’s a conservative Democrat. If we strip away the veneer of respectability that conservatism hides behind, this toxic ideology isn’t just about policy differences; it's about power and control. Conservative ideology is a festering cesspool of misogyny, where women's rights are trampled on, where their bodies are commodified, and where their voices are stifled. It's a malignant and venomous cocktail of entitlement, ignorance, and cruelty, served with a side of patriarchal privilege. When you enter that voting booth, remember the stakes. You're not just casting a ballot; you're choosing a side in the fight for women's autonomy, dignity and equality. Are you going to stand with the warriors of progress, fighting tooth and nail for a better future? Or will you align yourself with the forces of oppression, willing to watch as women's rights are eroded and their freedoms stripped away by the likes of Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Rudy Giuliani and, speaking of rapists, Matt Gaetz? History’s going to judge us not by the words we speak, but by the actions we take.