I can't suggest an interview or documentary, but if you want to keep tabs on how conservatives/republicans/midwesterners etc. think, I highly recommend reading this blog:
As a conservative, I found this fascinating. For what it's worth, this isn't intended to start a flame war or act as a "gotcha"; I'm genuinely interested in hearing discussions about different perspectives on the topic.
Glenn Reynolds? Admittedly he'd call himself libertarian rather than conservative, but he's pretty much the closest thing to a latter-day WFB.
On the other hand, despite having one of the most widely-read blogs in the world you'll almost never see him on TV. Both the right-wing and the left-wing sides of the media don't like to show conservatives unless they're angry and fire-breathing. And even the most intelligent of the fire-breathing conservatives (say, Krauthammer) always come off as non-thoughtful.
I'm glad you tried to expand your bubble and understand the viewpoint of conservatism, though choosing sources like r/Conservative or Breitbart is perhaps equivalent to understanding the liberal/progressive view through Daily Kos or a Occupier. It might be representative of a certain strain of popular conservatism, but it doesn't get to much of the deep ideas or intellectual history. I'm not sure if that even matters, since I don't know what percentage of self-described conservatives really give those ideas any thought versus sticking to a "my team versus their team" mentality. But there are some serious conservative thinkers out there worth engaging.
An easy intro discussion of conservative ideas might be William F. Buckley's older interview show Firing Line, which is all on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/firinglinevideos
Disclosure: I don't consider myself conservative nor liberal.
There are many news outlets that provide high-quality conservative viewpoints. e.g. The American Conservative, Reason, Washington Examiner etc. The insightful and different viewpoints here help me understand an issue better.
Several of my friends are conservatives - and they span ethnicities, religions and economic classes. I find conversations with these folks quite insightful and fun. A bit harder to find these folks in Silicon Valley but not impossible. ps: I'm brown too :)
Had two attempts at watching that but the arguments are so bad and the views so biased I just bailed.
Maybe i'll write my open white paper,throw together some thinly veiled arguments, sprinkle some graphs and draw the conclusion that conservatives are total dickheads?
Not all you understand. Just biologically speaking. I'm not saying they are. I'm actually very pro conservative. But they are dicks right? I just want a debate in the open about some the evidence I can't be arsed to write. Maybe?
Have you talked to many conservatives? It seems you have a very polarized view. It's almost a caricature.
Our media paints the other side very negatively. I come from a very left leaning family and while I have been an offensive jerk in the past I've grown up and learned how to get along. We need more friends from the other side so we understand what they actually believe. That the other is not a monster. I'm very lucky to have family that allows me to interact with and love people of very different political leanings.
I have to repeat what I said above. What you say about conservatives does not match up with the conservatives I know and listen to.
I admit my sample may be not representative. So I can't be sure. But how many of your friends are conservatives, and how many of them have you talked to in depth about this stuff?
My dad is the conservative I can do what you describe with.
(Hopefully the following doesn't go against any politics rules...)
However he despises Trump/Trumpism and so sat out the 2016 election and voted against Trump in 2020.
So along a similar vein to what you're looking for, I'd actually like to have a civilized, respectful, discussion with a Trump supporter (not merely just a conservative), since my dad doesn't fill that role.
I don't know any conservatives. (I work in tech and live in SF). They sound like truly horrible people. I'll keep a sharp eye out for them in the future. Your link is great! Two of the authors are from Berkeley, where I went to school!
I have plenty of conservative people(one of the benefits in living in a rural area) who I love having a solid discussion with. I was specifically talking about conservative news sources.
Fiscal conservatives I totally grok(and don't disagree with some select things). However the current mainstream conservative bent seems far from that. If you have no basis in facts how can you even work towards any common ground?
At arm's length, you're also describing the average middle-class midwestern conservative, except we rely on religious organizations, there's winter here, and the harassment isn't allowed to get that bad.
Some of the best, kindest, most giving people I know are conservative. They're your firefighters, your nurses, your doctors, your mechanics, your teachers... Many, many people that are deep and complex and everything they believe is not wrong. This author would do well to acquaint himself with the side he demonizes and get to know people outside his bubble and the lens of propaganda.
As a conservative, this post is the first thing I have read on this subject, ever, that neither confirms any of my pre-existing biases nor is blatant 'the right just hates facts' garbage. Thank you for some genuine insight.
I am basing my observations off of the conservatives that I know personally, but offered evidence in the form of public social media used by millions of people because a common retort to this observation is skepticism or the claim that people like this don't exist.
I'm building discussion software that aims at promoting good faith debate. It's geared towards in-depth fact checking rather than dialog, but still might be interesting to you.
That aside, I should be able to represent the conservative point of view in an email exchange. Either way, drop me a line. My email is in my profile.
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/
Glenn Reynolds and his cadre of right leaning bloggers have a decent finger on the pulse of conservatives in general.
I try to read from as many opinions as possible from different sides. You'd be surprised how different the world is from another's eyes.
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