1. Keeping in mind the material covered in this lesson, describe how you understand ideology in YOUR OWN WORDS. 

A set of morals, principles, and ideas that shape someone’s worldview is known as ideology. Since ideology has an impact on how people choose to interact with their government, ideology and politics are frequently related. Political philosophy or social theory are not always the same as ideology. Ideology is a byproduct of society and a reflection of the values held by its members. Ideologically similar people will hold similar values and convictions. Ideologies also tend to believe that what is good for them is good for everyone else too. In other words, since we consider ourselves good people and therefore deserve to be treated well by our government, we should expect others to behave similarly towards us. We therefore have no reason to worry about the downtrodden because they will eventually get what they deserve – equality!

2. How do you understand the difference between conservative and liberal ideology in US politics? What seem to be the big differences, the dividing line? Given an example to backup your arguments.
Hint: try to identify key words (concepts) that play a big role in making someone consider themselves to be liberal or conservative. Then, explain in your own words what those keywords (concepts) mean.

Liberals support abortion. Conservatives support human life. Liberals accept the usage of drugs on a level that ranges from smoking marijuana just for medical purposes or whatever other substance you want since it’s your body. Conservatives oppose any drug’s legalization. Liberals believe that flag burning is a kind of free speech and hence a legitimate use of our first amendment rights. According to conservatives, doing so is insulting to the American flag. Liberals think that there should be greater controls or limitations on firearms.Conservatives believe that gun regulations should be loosened. The argument is that there is a significant difference between conservative and liberal viewpoints and thoughts, and that’s how you can recognize the difference since one seems like a privacy violation while the other feels like independence.

3. How do you understand Althusser’s definition of ideology? Paraphrase it in your own words. Given an example. Hint: you may have to watch the second video again, and find the few places where Althusser’s position is presented.

Ideology doesn’t really have a structure and just happens accordingly based off humans beliefs thats what I look at it as and thats how I understand his definition because since the beginning of time when humans started they based their lives off opinions and beliefs and this contributes to ideology because its not something we just learn and adapt to its something we learned and created