Back in the 80’s when cable television was starting to grow kids were thought to say “All I know is what I see on M TV.” That was their exposure to the world. They knew all about rock music but that was it.
Today, adults are in a similar situation to that of the M TV kids of the 80s. These adults are today’s sound bite conservatives. It is realistic to say that all they know is what they hear on Fox News. Conservative thought is far more engaging than what is passed back and forth on televisions. In the world of conservative sound bites, we have capitalism and capitalism is good. Being for capitalism makes a sound bite conservative feel righteous. A sound bite conservative dismisses anyone who is critical of corporations or the rich as a socialist or a liberal.
The problem here is that in the United States, we don’t have capitalism anymore. What sound bite conservatives call capitalism is corrupt capitalism and not capitalism at all. Under true capitalism government insures a fair playing field. In the U.S. today, resources are allocated largely through central economic planning. Corporations have converted government into a tool for creating and managing markets and diverting resources in their direction by having favorable legislation passed.
Back in the 80s there was a resurgence of conservative thought. At that time virtually every conservative sound bite applied fairly well to the economic and political landscape of that era. In this century, reality has changed.
Everything a sound bite conservative says is true but none of it applies to the world we actually live in. For sound bite conservatives, criticizing the Occupy Wall Street protestors, in their minds, is a righteous thing to do. But since capitalism here has been corrupted, criticizing the protestors makes no sense at all.