it's curious to read ace's latest moving-around-of-words...at a time when the markety basis for conservative ideology has been imploded by reality and the right has opted for a reality-optional approach that enables them to maintain consistency at the level of statements (realilty be damned)----all very unwittingly implosion of empire stuff, frankly----it's not terribly coincidental that you'd see attempts to impute "substance" to the rhetorical form "value" and then see people like ace repeating--unwittingly no doubt, given the reality-optional thing---the moves of any number of western european neo-fascist political groups in grouping these make-believe substantives around white christian "core values" and using them to try to draw us/them lines.
it's all of a piece with making the choice to preserve fictions about the world in place of the world and to anchor them in place with a version of conservative identity politics. because in situations like this, what comes to be at stake is a matter of identity. and there's a high-priced ideological system that's been reinforcing this whole reality-optional space for some time.
after all, there's this:
40 Percent Of Americans Still Believe In Creationism
and this:
Fox News Viewers Are The Most Misinformed: Study
which comes out of this:
Voters Say Election Full of Misleading and False Information - World Public Opinion
which outlines a pretty clear preference for fiction over reality that is specific to conservatives.