Why Liberals Love, and Conservatives Hate the Prius

The Blog | Jane Smiley: Twenty-Five Years a Sucker! | The Huffington Post

Jane Smiley's article says it well. Those who value more than just money love things like the Prius. And not because it makes them feel morally superior to those who drive SUVs. It always surprises me the level of animosity some conservatives have towards "green products", or indeed any product that acknowledges any value other than a monetary one. I attribute it to a kind of fear, a fear of the unknown. The kind of discomfort that comes when you realize that there are people that have values that simply don't resonate with you. Attacking people for buying a Prius is the same as calling someone a tree-hugger, or complaining about "liberal elites". At it's core is a lack of humanist values giving rise to an anti-intellectual justification of selfishness. More superficially, it's a just a group with an inferiority complex lashing out at the "cool kids".