According to my sister he “tells it like it is” and “isn’t politically correct”. Nothing really wrong with those values, but they aren’t a reason to elect a President. She’s just going along with her latest boyfriend. I suspect a lot of people don’t give it much thought, he was the most likely pro-gun, anti-abortion candidate, so they went with him.
The Canadian religious right is just like yours. They are uber-capitalistic, even when it hurts them, and hate taxes and government control, even when it helps them.
Walking into the local coffee shop for our weekly gathering every Saturday morning is like entering bizarro-world. My friends have pure hate in their voices when raging about everything the provincial and federal government do. Mostly because they believe every dishonest story put out by the conservative party they adore. There is nothing too moronic and far-fetched that they won’t believe, as long as it jives with how they think.
Nationalism has been on the rise around the world in recent years. I think that groups who are proponents of this, such as the alt-right, Russia, far-out conspiracy groups, etc. have very proficiently used the internet to virally spread disinformation. An example is the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook fiasco, where ppl’s personal info was used to categorize them individually to determine the specific kinds of disinformation they would be most open to, and most likely to be riled up about, and therefore, most likely to pass on or otherwise engage in activism about. And in some cases, kicking this tactic into high gear with the use of bots.
I also think that religious ppl who are well practiced at believing by faith rather than by facts, are particularly vulnerable to disinformation that, as you say, “jives with how they think”.
I was watching “The View” yesterday, and one of the ladies said something about how the Obama administration was free of scandals, at least on the scale we’re seeing now. The token conservative (Senator McCain’s daughter, actually), got very upset at this. She stated that this is exactly why the whole country voted for Trump and will vote for him again in 2020. The first lady pointed out all the scandals in Trump’s administration, how he lies every time he opens his mouth, and STILL the conservative seemed to think that Trump was still better!
Do any of you also sometimes feel like your the subject of a ‘Truman Show’ experiment?
It’s like, how can so many otherwise smart and kind people be so very very very wrong about such important things? How did I grow up here and somehow have a mind that is 180 degrees from everyone I know and love?
Maybe someday I’ll come home and there will be all the people I’ve ever interacted with, waiting for me with balloons and confetti, telling me they were all pretending to be morally and politically crazy, and I’m an amazing person for not succumbing to group-think. And maybe not.
What in the world are you talking about. Trump is ten times better in every way. How do you not know this? When was the last time you used the word “caste”?
Do any of you also sometimes feel like your the subject of a ‘Truman Show’ experiment?If you'll indulge me being a little self reflective for a moment; "The Left" did miss the boat on populism. While we were talking about collective action, we missed the cries about individual responsibility. I moved from the suburbs to a small town in High School, so I was rudely introduced to overt racism. Michael Moore saw the undercurrents of Trump support in Michigan and tried to warn us. We were too busy making fun of people using our hillbilly accents to mock them. Jonathan Haidt has done some good work on this and some others are figuring out how to apply it.
Mike is full of it up to his ears, but represents the half of the voting population that has figured out how to maintain minority rule. In my calculations, they are spending enormous resources to maintain it and are at their peak of power. Sadly, it would only take a few million more people voting to put an end to it.
“The Left” is only possibly responsible for not seeing the rise of the far right, they are not responsible for creating it. The far right is an entity that feeds itself by not allowing itself to be exposed to or influenced by anything not already within it. “The Left” did not and could not create it.
In fact, we only make it stronger by doing what we think is right: try to fight climate change and you feed them, talk about helping the disadvantaged and you feed them, mention teaching science in science class and you feed them, try to show them all immigrants aren’t criminals and you feed them. There is no fighting them, as every fact is ignored or twisted, and if there are no facts to twist, they make them up. Fighting it is only possible by educating children so they don’t join the mob.
And, sadly, I’m familiar Mike’s type. What I said above applies to him in spades: Taking to him only feeds and encourages him. If folks like him didn’t take such pride in their ignorance, they would be tolerable, but they relish every moment they wallow in it.
I think that we must educate, not only children, in the ways of rationality, but also the adults who have not yet been completely infected by the radical rightists, trumpists, and conspiracy nut-wings.
I understand that confronting Mike, on the utter ridiculousness of his radical rightist mindset, will only serve to reinforce his audaciously erroneous thinking. But I am loathe to allow falsehoods to go un-opposed, especially ones that are so utterly coo-coo. I guess I fear that someone may read his wildly outlandish assertions and, seeing them un-opposed, may assume there is something to them.