Keeping in mind the material covered in this lesson, describe how you understand ideology

Ideology is a concept of ideas.It’s a gathering of thoughts to help form a particular view or opinion on a particular topic. This also opens the floor for other people, who share similar or even different ideological concepts as you. Now this is where ideology gets interesting to me because ideology can also have multiple meanings depending the term you’re using it in.

How do you understand the difference between conservative and liberal ideology in US politics? What seem to be the big differences, the dividing line? Give an example to back up your arguments.

An example of that would be the debate between liberal and conservative ideology.Liberals today tend to think that government should intervene in the economy and provide a diverse spectrum of social services to ensure equality and well-being for all members of society, though the concept of liberalism has evolved through time.Such as freedom of speech, press, religion etc..Whereas conservatives frequently hold the view that government should be limited and primarily focused at the state or local level. They want very little government involvement in the economy.That would mean they would want the government too impose limitations on abortion and same-sex marriage in order to protect ‘traditional morality’.Or another way of describing it is how it was said in the article, “ Conservative ideology preaches the virtues of private initiative and self-reliance: rich and poor pretty much get what they deserve; people are poor not because of inadequate wages and lack of economic opportunity but because they are lazy, profligate, or incapable. The conservative keystone to individual rights is the enjoyment of property rights, especially the right to make a profit off other people’s labor and enjoy the privileged conditions of a favored class”(Institutions and Ideologies 52).I mean if doesn’t show how small minded and ignorant conservatives are I don’t know what does? They definitely love to blame other people for economical social problems as if 1.they aren’t part of the issue or 2.are making the situation more worse. Whereas most modern liberals think that in order to maintain low unemployment, low inflation, and rapid growth, the consistent basis must be managed by the government. They basically love the government’s ‘help’ on stopping the inequalities in the world.To be honest, I feel like liberals are easily gaslighted by the government, in the sense where I can say “I will cancel all student debt if you vote for me” and a liberal would say “ Hey! I have student debt so I’m definitely going to vote for that guy!” and months later…. guess who still has student debt? Yeahh…see my point?

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

Ideology, according to Althusser, is a perception of power. When their conditions worsened, it would make sense that individuals, as stated in the video, turned to fascism. You kind of need to have a smart mind if you want others to obey you or listen to you. You need to know what to say, when to say it, what concepts you believe, and so forth. Relating all of this to ideology, if you hold a broad belief or viewpoint and persuade others to hold the same viewpoint you do, then that would be the sense of power he refers to.An example of this would be the repressive approach which consults in fear, such as police, courts, incarceration.