Is social conservatism more prevalent in the blind community?(self.Blind)
submitted by Number1Butterbee
I'm not sure if this is actually the case or if it's just been my experience, but I'm in my 20s and the proportion of social conservatives among other blind people in my age group seems much higher than among sighted people I've met. I live in Canada, so even if it is more prevalent it could be country-specific.
Tarnagona12 points1y ago
Can you give more context on how you define social conservatism? I want to make sure I understand your question properly before answering.
Number1Butterbee [OP]8 points1y ago
By social conservatism I mean generally opposing LGBTQ rights, abortion and immigration. I emphasized social conservatism because, particularly in my region of Canada, social and economic conservatism don't always occur together to the same degree as elsewhere including the US.
Tarnagona7 points1y ago
Thank you for the clarification. I haven’t noticed that in the blind people I interact with. Im also Canadian but in my thirties. I can say that my high school, a school for the blind, students were pretty homophobic (and hardly any awareness of other queer identities), but it was the 90s and everywhere was more homophobic, so that’s not really a good gauge of how the blind community is now.
oncenightvaler2 points1y ago
I support all of these issues, however I am sure I am conservative on other issues.
Mamamagpie8 points1y ago
Where I live I think everyone is more liberal, and the blind as subset of whole are bit more liberal.
Though I have known some disabled people that pro-life because they thought if abortion was legal when they were born, their parents would have chosen abortion.
fastfinge6 points1y ago
I also experience this as true, and not just in Canada. Please keep in mind that all of the following is based on my lived experience, blind friends, personal opinions (though I've worked hard to keep my own beliefs out of this when I'm explaining why I currently or previously believed some of these things) etc. It isn't data. YMMV. Some things to keep in mind:
1. It's far easier to convince some blind people into being against abortion, euthanasia, etc, because the "it could have been you" argument tends to hold more weight, and because some blind people tend to trust the medical system a little bit less. We've all experienced the doctor who didn't get it, or the nurse who treated us poorly, or whatever, and it's easy to expand that into "What if these people pressure you into euthanasia?" 2. Similarly, the rhetoric around transgender folks is more frightening. "If you don't yuse someone's pronouns correctly they're just looking for an excuse to send you to jail!" is the tone of much of that discussion in the conservative community. There's a segment of blind folks, who have never met a transgender person, who hear that kind of thing and think, "these evil people probably all sound like men, so I won't recognize that they believe they aren't, and then they're going to attack me!" If that's you: yes, it can be harder for us. But I've never met someone who didn't give their pronouns while introducing themselves to me, if their was any chance of confusion. When speaking to a blind person, this community seems entirely willing to take on the tiny amount of extra work to make sure we're aware of their correct pronouns, without making it awkward. 3. The blind community has only recently gotten easy access to information not provided by The State. Many talking book libraries are government funded, and that means they are reluctant to provide access to so-called radical material. For example, when homosexuality was a taboo subject, the government funded libraries didn't provide information about it or exposure to it (especially because until recently it was still against the law). While this has changed, a lot of the material in talking book libraries still tends to be targeted at Christian straight blind white men, just because that's what they were producing for the past 40 years. 4. Many blind folks still tend to listen to an above average amount of radio. It's still a medium that some blind people love, and if you look at the state of talk radio in North America, that can explain some of it. 5. Many charities for the blind are still largely funded by churches and other religious organizations. This can include non-governmental talking book libraries, summer camps, scholarships, money to purchase equipment, and so on. While the better organizations put no pressure on anyone to convert, never the less, they make sure you have a Braille bible if you want one (often the only physical Braille book a blind person might ever own), that you're exposed to the Christian message, and someone who is getting often life-enabling charity from them is going to be more willing to listen and accept the message. 6. Many blind people are part of government programs that they would consider "failed". From social assistance , to employment support programs, to accessibility laws that they don't believe have helped them, the experience that blind people have of the government isn't always a positive one. So when they hear the conservative talking points of "big government is bad!" and "social programs always fail!" and "no mor free handouts!" this message can resonate with them. When combined with the lack of information I mentioned previously, some blind folk believe that income support programs are an example of socialism, and can say from lived experience that those programs don't work for them, so obviously socialism is bad. Even as an extremely techy blind person, I would say that it's only in the past ten years that I've had access to real (not state-sponsered) information about things like communism, anarchy, etc. 7. False racial assumptions are a real problem, especially for some caucasian blind folk. If they meet someone who has a voice that "sounds white", they will assume that person *is* white. That means that the ideas they have about people of other ethnicities can get extremely twisted, because the only people they recognize as being from other ethnicities are the people who don't sound like they do. Unfortunately, due to systemic racism, some of the most successful members of racial minorities tend to have extremely mid-american white accents. This can leave blind folks with the idea that some people from other ethnicities are never successful, because even though they may have a successful boss, teacher, co-worker, or neighbor who is a different ethnicity from them, they don't realize it.
ultamentkiller6 points1y ago
I don’t think we can answer this question because we don’t have data on the political beliefs of the blind. Instead, we can offer only our perceptions. For my part, I hardly know any socially conservative blind oriole.
guitarandbooks6 points1y ago
I've noticed that in the states at least, there seems to be a large percentage of blind people that tend to be on the right, either a little or a lot, especially when it comes to social issues. there also seem to be a lot of blind people who are Christians;especially in a way that has a political elament tied to it. Neither of these occurrences make sense to me... That being said, I know blind people that are the exact opposite of that as well.
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I lived in the UK when I was younger and back then at least, that wasn't the case with most blind people I knew there. these days though, I'm not sure if that still holds true or not.
soundwarrior205 points1y ago
This is a very interesting topic one which I could expand upon with you in private messages all day. I’m in the UK I don’t know about a higher proportion of social conservatives compared to the sited community. But what I have noticed is a desire of many blind people to be what I term aggressively normal, what I mean by this is they seem to strive for the most conventional life choices and cultural taste possible. They seem to try to want to be a version of hyper normal not even sighted people would recognise. This translates as literally anything out of the ““ ordinary experience being dismissed as weird strange or unacceptable. In my experience there are blind people who seem to strive for the most bland version of conformity possible. I’ve never understood why this is and I think it would be an interesting topic of academic research.
moonpegasus195 points1y ago
It's because they belive they need to be that way to have sighted people take them seriously.
CloudyBeep2 points1y ago
Can you give some examples?
pictouguy4 points1y ago
I also live in Canada and I am not conservative anything. I could elaborate but do as not to be censored in this sub I'll keep my thoughts to myself. Your mom was giving good advice when she told you that if you won't conform it's best to keep quiet and fight another day.
mdizak3 points1y ago
The only Patrions I donate to on a monthly basis are staunchly socialist. In other words, I believe capitalism is broken, and we need to fix it.
BenandGracie3 points1y ago
I am conservative, and most blind people I come across seem to be liberal.
moonpegasus192 points1y ago
Where I live, sure, but I think it has more to do with them staying as normal as possible, plus a lot of disabled people like to hold on to familiarity like a crutch.
bradley222 points1y ago
I'm blind and personally don't vote or follow a party, so I think it might be a person by person thing.
No-Satisfaction78421 points1y ago
Nowadays I’m not sure because the only blind people I communicate with on a regular basis are friends of mine with whom I obviously share quite a bit of political overlap (hint: it isn’t conservative) but when I was a teenager going to blind retreats/workshops etc. I did notice there were a lot of people who were heavily religious. Since that often overlaps with conservative values, I wouldn’t be surprised if what you say is still true
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