So if the people you vote for always screw you,

[Cyrano]

Last edited Thu Mar 9, 2017, 01:26 PM - Edit history (1)

why don't you stop voting for them?

Maybe I lack empathy for people who keep voting for Republicans.

Maybe there's some gap in my brain that prevents me from understanding those voters.

Perhaps they live in the "real world" and I'm the one who's in some freaked out place.

But I don't buy any of this. I just fail to understand people who spend their lives voting for people who are ruining their lives and their very existence. (Put more simply, voting for people who always fuck them.)

Perhaps someone out there can explain it to me. Is it Stockholm Syndrome? Is it like an abused spouse/partner whom one won't/can't escape? I don't know. And I don't get it.

Why would any sane human being keep voting for people whose "mission" is to destroy them?

[Mr. Ected]

1. Decades of hate radio and TV brainwashing

Coupled with minds predisposed to anger and hate.

Coupled with a faux political/religious connection.

Coupled with apathy and ignorance.

A lethal combination that cannot easily be reversed.

[Borchkins]

5. We will never win. . .

if we don't combat the 30 years of all-hate all the time radio and TV.

[Cyrano]

7. Yes, but. At some point, your own brain must

tell you there's something wrong with the "world" as in the fictional film "The Matrix."

[Borchkins]

13. Agreed.

[Kimchijeon]

17. Yes, this is it exactly

[nycbos]

2. Because teh gays, teh brown people, are teh blacks are scary.

"If you can convince the lowest whitman he is better the best colored man he won't notice you picking his pockets."

[Cyrano]

8. Yes, but: MLK, Barack Obama, and so on

should have gotten through to the most vile "hater" in the world. Why didn't that happen? Why didn't a majority of somewhat "decent people" "get it?"

[nycbos]

12. Because a strong, intelligent woman like Hillary Clinton is also very scary.

[Cyrano]

18. Because the Republican propaganda machine spent

30 years making up bullshit about her.

There are nuts out there who are still looking for proof that she murdered Vince Foster. They have spent three decades making up pure, unadulterated lies/fantasies/bullshit about every moment of her life.

Hillary Clinton would have won this past election in a landslide had it not been for, what she herself called, "The vast Republican Conspiracy."

Well, guess what, folks. That "conspiracy" that so many wouldn't/couldn't believe existed, built a tremendous wall of hatred toward Hillary. (An even greater wall than the nut in the Oval Office wants to build along the Mexican border.)

And to our great loss, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. We now have a totally unhinged, ignorant, dangerous moron in the White House who is still trying to figure out which part of the building is the West Wing.

[LanternWaste]

16. The modern American has little patience for the time-scale of historical change...

"Why didn't a majority of somewhat "decent people" "get it?""


The modern American has little patience for the time-scale of historical change... in which even the smallest and most benign tradition requires 350+ years to become for all practical purposes, non-existent anymore.

For example, it historically takes three to seven generations for an immigrant family to fully adopt to the new customs, traditions, mores, languages, etc of a new homeland... but conservatives, lacking a necessary patience, now demand assimilation in the space of months.

When we attempt to squeeze historical tradition and cultural mores into compressed time, we begin fooling ourselves with our own arrogance.

[FSogol]

3. Several factors

1. They are not very bright and never examine what they are taught and do no self-introspection

2. They have a perceived Christian victim-hood they are taught, which makes them feel their lifestyle/beliefs are under constant assault.

3. They have Fox News and RW talk radio reinforcing & bolstering their fears.

[Cyrano]

9. "Stockholm Syndrome" by any other name

[world wide wally]

4. As a wise sage once told me,

"I'm a Republican so I vote Republican"
I wanted to say, "you're ugly too. Do you chop off your hair and draw on your face?"

[ymetca]

6. Maybe it's because

Their minds are diseased from having to whore themselves ...

VERB

1 (of a woman) work as a prostitute.
‘she was forced to whore in order to support herself’
with object ‘I whored myself in the streets’

1.1 often as noun whoring (of a man) use the services of prostitutes.
‘he lived by night, indulging in his two hobbies, whoring and eating’

1.2 Debase oneself by doing something for unworthy motives, typically to make money.
‘he has always whored after money’

[Cyrano]

10. I really don't know if their are "cures"

But I do know that Trump and the Republicans are cutting off any medical/psychological help that is currently available to those who need help the most.

These pricks call it "pulling yourself by your own bootstraps." I call it callous, indifference to those who need help.

And anyone who buys the line of shit that Trump and the Republicans are selling, (and have always sold). are without a conscience and as bad as the worst of them.

[Caliman73]

11. Emotions have a stronger and quicker effect than logic

Have you ever been scared? Like "I am going to die" scared? Or angry, like you "can't see straight" angry?

If you ever have, one thing that you should realize, if you have any insight into your thought processes, is that your cognitive abilities go out the window during states of heightened emotional response. Your limbic system takes over and you tend to go into an autopilot of sorts. Your body's autonomic responses take over. When you recover, your recall of the event is distorted but it is ingrained that way.

This is a similar situation that has happened with many conservatives. They tend to live in a state of constant arousal. If they listen to conservative media, they are fed a steady diet of fear, of anger, and they are told exactly who is to blame for their fear and anger. Their "reality" is somewhat different than the kind of "common reality" that other people who are not in that bubble, tend to agree upon and create together. The one where the scientific method is useful for trying to define, test, and explain phenomena. The one where we acknowledge differences with respect and appreciation. Their bubble is one of constant fear and anger and they are being programmed to vote for the side that tells them they will eliminate the sources of their fear and anger. It is a very real and very psychological process.

[Cyrano]

14. If what you say is true, it's terrifying

I know that the "propaganda bubble" is out there. But at some point, any somewhat sane, somewhat aware, somewhat conscious human being would detect the "real world."

So let me say this. I remain terrified because I believe your analysis is either true, or very close to true. And if that is so, we must find some way in which to help them grasp reality. If we can't, then they and we will continue to consider each other to be mutual "enemies."

I really have no clue as to how to "cure" this.

And for those who want to go to "war" against "them," be careful what you wish for. There are no geographical boundries between us and "them" as existed during the Civil War. So are you prepared to shoot your neighbor?

And that's the conundrum. How do we Americans fix this? How do we learn to live with each other? How do we reject the poison that is being peddled by so many of those in positions of radio, TV, online, or political power?

[Caliman73]

20. I agree.

It is a complex and pretty scary situation. I have family members who seem to be otherwise, goodhearted, fairly intelligent people, but they consume this media and it colors their worldview.

One question that I always ask, to which I have NEVER received a reply is, "What is your definition of 'liberal media'?" They never answer that. I suspect that the answer is, "Anything that is not conservative media that fits into my views, is liberal", but I doubt that they would ever admit that because that just sounds crazy.

I certainly do not have the answer, but I do think that part of an answer is that we really need to focus on education, and not just informational, but really critical thinking. The ability to differentiate between sources that employ standards of journalistic and scholarly integrity, and those who do not.

[gratuitous]

15. There are powerful forces invested in keeping people scared and ignorant

These are base-level primal emotions, and it requires an equally concerted effort to encourage people not to be scared, to feel like they can take effective action on their own behalf, and break out of an authoritarian mindset that is always casting about for a hero or a savior who will take charge of their scary situation and restore them to their rightful place at the top of the heap.

Sadly, their need for constant reassurance runs smack dab into our reluctance to repeat ourselves. "I told you once, twice, a dozen times, that these assholes are lying to you!" Well, we need to tell them a whole bunch more times so that the message sinks in. You know who never gets tired of telling Trump voters and Republicans that they're under siege? The powerful forces I mentioned in the subject line. They'll feed that fear because it is never sated, and is always ready for more reinforcement. Scared people are a lot easier to manipulate. Getting them off of scared is a lot of work, and we're up against an implacable foe that profits greatly from peddling fear.

[Cyrano]

19. There's an existing diagnosis for that. "Good Germans."

And is seems that nobody has yet figured out how to "cure" this abomination.

[world wide wally]

21. But Dr. Ben is working on a brain surgery cure.

He even operated on himself...but it failed.
But hey. The Wright Brothers weren't successful on their first try either.

[Rex]

22. You cannot fix stupid.

No matter which party you find it in.