You’re trying to rationalize bigotry, and that never goes well. You will never “make it make sense.” That’s not how it works, because it’s visibly not the brain activity they are engaged it.
Fortunately (citation needed) it is extremely simple:
All of their stated ideals are ad-hoc justifications.
The only thing that has ever mattered is ingroup loyalty.
They think that’s all you’re doing, because they think that’s all there is.
You will never get “their reasoning” because there isn’t any. They don’t understand the concept. In the conservative worldview, reasons are things you make up to maintain your conclusion. That conclusion is handed down from The Hierarchy™ and accepted or rejected based entirely on interpersonal trust. They do not evaluate claims. In this tribalist mindset, that is not what claims are for. That’s why nobody can just be wrong - either they’re fundamentally evil and irredeemably stupid, or they must be proved right by alternative facts.
In this specific case - they’ve made queer people the outgroup, so any defense or allegiance is an attack on the ingroup. The rest is whatever series of mouth noises forms an argument-shaped sentence to praise and exonerate their tribe over your tribe.
Nothing they do makes sense until you understand this. No other model has predictive utility. This is all they’re ever doing. The only exceptions are complete morons who sincerely bought some past excuses (and will inevitably be drummed out as traitors to the cause) and knowing grifters (who are far less numerous than you would hope).
You’re trying to rationalize bigotry, and that never goes well. You will never “make it make sense.” That’s not how it works, because it’s visibly not the brain activity they are engaged it.
Fortunately (citation needed) it is extremely simple:
All of their stated ideals are ad-hoc justifications.
The only thing that has ever mattered is ingroup loyalty.
They think that’s all you’re doing, because they think that’s all there is.
You will never get “their reasoning” because there isn’t any. They don’t understand the concept. In the conservative worldview, reasons are things you make up to maintain your conclusion. That conclusion is handed down from The Hierarchy™ and accepted or rejected based entirely on interpersonal trust. They do not evaluate claims. In this tribalist mindset, that is not what claims are for. That’s why nobody can just be wrong - either they’re fundamentally evil and irredeemably stupid, or they must be proved right by alternative facts.
In this specific case - they’ve made queer people the outgroup, so any defense or allegiance is an attack on the ingroup. The rest is whatever series of mouth noises forms an argument-shaped sentence to praise and exonerate their tribe over your tribe.
Nothing they do makes sense until you understand this. No other model has predictive utility. This is all they’re ever doing. The only exceptions are complete morons who sincerely bought some past excuses (and will inevitably be drummed out as traitors to the cause) and knowing grifters (who are far less numerous than you would hope).