1. Keeping in mind the material covered in this lesson, describe how you understand ideology in YOUR OWN WORDS. 
Ideology can best be described as political and religious views. Although, there is more that goes into it as well like other personal thoughts. It’s best to understand that it comes from views of people from a certain social class as well. The way those of a lower class want the rich to be taxed, yet the way the rich don’t want those that need more economic help than other’s to be helped. Within Ideology there is 2 different views.

The first would be Conservatives, they are the one’s that have traditionally political ideologies. They believe in that the rich and poor get what they work for. That everyone can be rich you just need to work harder for it.

The second would be Liberals, whom believe more in strong police enforcement and U.S Military interventions abroad.

For me the best way to explain my views on Ideology is there are those whom have positive views such as universal health care. While others want to keep things as big pharma and private insurance to continue to make money off those whom can’t afford health insurance.

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.
In this case the best way to explain them would be Conservatives are more for the money as Liberals are more for the people. Dividing line is they both have their own views, especially conservatives since it’s all about how they can continue to keep power and make more money. As Liberals just want to find ways to do better for others and find ways to get other resources for those in need. The best example about liberals would be in the text how it clearly explains that “Surveys show substantial majorities strongly favor- ing public funding for Social Security, nursing home care, and lower-priced prescription drugs”. In this case, for Conservatives “Conservative politicians talk about “upholding values,” but they make no effort to root out corruption in the business world or protect the environment or lend support to working families”. Conservatives look out for their own, as liberals look out for all.

3. How do you understand Althusser’s definition of ideology? Paraphrase it in your own words. Given an example. 

The best way to explain it is the rich can get away with everything since they have money. But also, how the media and public know how to distract us from seeing the bigger picture in a lot of important situations. For example, in the video when he talks about how they was a baseball game in Boston, so of course everyone is more distracted with that than with the protests going on in that moment. The unfortunate truth is how there is a whole structure as far as school, work and other things in life, which are a constant reminder that we can’ think for ourselves or don’t actually have a choice unless we are rich and powerful.

1a.) Ideology is based on our beliefs about ourselves and the society that we live in. In the word, Ideology, the word, “idea” basically means a person’s belief or opinions. Ideology focuses on our perspectives on how we view a concept or on our mental impressions. 1b.) An example of Ideology is Disney films. They give you this idea that once you fall in love is a happily ever after or that you have to depend on a man. My belief on that is the complete opposite I believe that we women should be independent and gt our own money; I’m not saying we can’t be in a relationship but it’s about being 50/50, not 100/50. I mean sometimes under the circumstances some people have to choose that path but there is nothing wrong with that I’m just saying what my beliefs are. 1c.) My understanding of ideology is how our beliefs shape the way we think. Ideologies include religions and religious denominations. Everyone has a different belief in a religious matter. Some holy scriptures people may believe in are the Torah, the Holy Bible, etc. Ideology can often be taken for granted and seen as “commonsense”. Political Ideology is talking about whether you identify as a Liberal, Conservative, Libertarian, Socialist, Anarchist, Nihilist, etc.

2.) My understanding of Conservative and liberal ideology is that liberals use facts in decisions making whereas conservatives make decisions based on emotion. Conservatives use corporatism they think lying is okay as long as they get profit whereas liberals believe that is true capitalism they believe in fair playing fields and honest business practices. Liberals are very different in their political views on how they view ideologies because they believe the government should play a big and active role in society. Conservatives’ political beliefs are different because they believe that a large government threatens individual liberty.

3.) Althusser’s definition of ideology is that ideology is a practice instead of a belief. For example, he believes that schools not only teach us the subjects we need to use further in our career and life but they also teach us the principles of how to obey.

So, we’ve encountered three different overviews of what ideology is, but let’s organize our own thinking about it. In this discussion board, think about and comment on the following questions:

1. Keeping in mind the material covered in this lesson, describe how you understand ideology in your own words.
Hint: One way to approach this is as follows
a) Describe what ideology is in a brief paragraph (in your own words).
b) Give an example illustrating what you wrote in (a).
c) Write another paragraph (or two), explaining to your reader with additional details, how you understand ideology.

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.

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.

Hint: Remember, the discussion boards are crucial for us this semester, because they reproduce our in-class conversations. Try to be thorough and write more, rather than less. I will do the same, and make sure by the time we end our discussion, we have covered the key ideas on the module.

To organize things better, I have broken up our conversation into two parts. After finishing here, head over to Discussion Board 3 – part 2 .

Before posting, watch this video, which will show you how to post your answer to this discussion board:

NOTE: Once you’ve scheduled your post to be published on at midnight on Sunday, you can still go back and edit your post until then, if you want to rewrite and/or add to your post.

As a review, follow the following steps to submit your response:

1. Click on the “+” button in the black bar at the top of the screen
2. Type a title for the post (it should include your full name)
3. Type your response
4. On the right side, click on Categories: and check “Discussion 3.1”
5. Important: On the right side, at the top: click on the date next to Publish, and enter your post date, which is this coming Sunday, at 11:59pm.
6. Click Publish and you’re done.

What will happen next is your post will automatically be published by the OpenLab system on Sunday at midnight. The goal here is for all student posts to be published at the same deadline. After that point, you can begin reading each others’ posts, and you have to comment on at least one other student’s post.

Note: please make sure that you schedule your post to be published on Sunday, midnight, not before.