Comments on: Conservative World Congress of Families –> Amsterdam https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/06/10/conservative-world-congress-of/ Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:29:45 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: Jason Thibeault https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/06/10/conservative-world-congress-of/#comment-537658 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:29:45 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/06/10/conservative-world-congress-of/#comment-537658 And yet people over here know Amsterdam as some kind of Sodom / Gomorrah. I can see how the Overton Window has been dragged all the way to the right, and I can see how the super-near-fascist-conservatives honestly think that being slightly left of center means being “far loony left”, so I can tell why they go on and on about how Obama’s a conservative. But when I see the word “conservative” in context of another country, I assume it just means being slightly right of center, usually fiscally pragmatic, and socially libertarian.

What can we do to drag that Overton Window back to a reasonable frame, where people who are only slightly left of center are no longer viewed as loons, and people who are hard-right are no longer viewed as reasonable conservatives?

]]> By: Alan Williams https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/06/10/conservative-world-congress-of/#comment-537657 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:08:38 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/06/10/conservative-world-congress-of/#comment-537657 Why the surprise? The Netherlands is one of the most conservative countries in Europe. People there use less drugs than other countries, much less than the UK and USA. People there tend to marry, and divorce less than most places, again well behind the UK and US.

They tend to view other people’s drug use and divorces as none of their business, which seems to me a conservative position. Unlike “conservatives” in other places who like to preach their principles without following them.

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