Do you think freepers are just stupid?

[renie408]

I have always defended the 'average guy'. I try to cut the people who still think that Bush is great some slack. I try to think maybe they don't have the time to look past the vast MSM bias towards Bushco. But I think I am getting over that. Maybe they are just stupid. Literally less intelligent than, say....us. I just saw a poll where the majority of respondents agreed with Sen. Rick Santorum that liberals and 'the media' were helping insurgents in Iraq by disagreeing with the President. What kind of a fucking idiot would think that? It is so obviously a baseless right wing diversionary tactic as too literally be laughable. Seriously. I laughed when I read it. Then I saw the poll numbers. Who are these freaks and what is wrong with them? Is it simply that they are idiots?

[Catch22Dem]

1. Yes. Stupid and hateful. (n/t)

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. As a dear friend of mine says...stupid or evil...take your pick.

Sometimes I give the benefit of the doubt, but so much of the fraud and cheating is out in the open now that I really don't know. On the other hand, I think a whole heck of a lot of them hate to admit it because it sucks to be so very wrong. :hi:

[GoldenOldie]

4. Include Lazy.

It's easier to follow the herd than take the time to investigate and learn on your own. Reading and studying is Hard Work.

[Skittles]

3. at this point, if they still support bush inc, I would have to say yes

their intelligence is extremely limited if they are still falling for such obvious propaganda

[BattyDem]

5. To me, the definition of stupid is ...

a person who chooses to live in ignorance. In this day and age, when volumes of information are easily accessible via the Internet, there's no excuse for ignorance. So yes ... I think they're stupid.

[0007]

35. ....if one is marked by a lack of intelligence it could be called

ignorance.

[bowens43]

6. No , theyre not 'just stupid'

they're also evil and bigoted and hateful and selfish and greedy and dishonest

[Faygo Kid]

7. Many are Useful Idiots. Others are crude Fascists. Most are BushBots.

I believe there are three powerful political parties in the U.S.: Republicans (classical Republicans, an endangered species); Democrats (impotent, but many stand for the right thing), and BushBots (about 35% of the electorate, but with money and power - a new political party, one that will destroy all that America has done, and all it can do). "Fascists" is too kind. The Empire. Never again a free and honest election. Never.

[FreedomAngel82]

8. I really don't know

:shrug: My grandmother on my dad's side used to support Bush. She did all the way up to the Katrina ordeal. Than the week before Thanksgiving we were visiting her and she confessed she was now doubting him because of all his lying and was even doubting whether or not he was a Christian or not. How she came to that? :shrug: Beats me but I'm glad she has opened her eyes though. I don't know about my two aunts who supported him last time. My uncle didn't vote for anybody this last election. So I don't get it either.
My dad supported Bush last time but we voted for the same person for mayor and he knows there were no WMD's and all that (I've gotten him to be a fan of the "Daily Show" and Stephen's) so I don't know how he feels now since we don't really talk politics unless we're watching those shows.

[Ladyhawk]

49. My nuclear family will support * to the bitter end.

This I know because one is a religious bigot and the other is a greedy, Ayn-Rand-Objectivist bigot. The extended family will support * to the bitter end, also, for the same reasons.

I have a problem because I really do love my mother even though she is religiously insane, greedy (except with family) and bigoted. I have no real feeling toward my brother except disgust when I'm around him for too long. :) We didn't get along when we were growing up (he beat up on me) and if we weren't both "mature adults" we'd be at each other's throats even now. As it is, I don't like or respect him. He's cruel and greedy and I don't trust him. He's "nice" to me, but I've seen and heard how he treats the powerless (inmates and animals). I'd rather not associate with him and only contact him when it's absolutely necessary. Another problem is he's getting ready to fuck up his life by getting married for the second time and I don't want to be in the emotional fallout. His fiancee has already been married four times and I'm fairly sure she's already cheating on him, so I'm staying the hell away.

So, yeah, shrub supporters are either willfully ignorant, stupid and/or greedy...but what do you do when they are people you are supposed to love? Right now things aren't going too badly. After cutting off ties with my mother for several months, she finally learned to respect my boundaries. My brother doesn't seek out contact too often, so things are fairly stable. Still, it's not easy. :shrug:

I do think rabid * support points to personal character flaws. I have character flaws, too, but the thing about * supporters is they--like their leader--won't admit they have flaws. I know many of my flaws and work on them. At least, I hope I do. :( I'd like to think I'm more open-minded than those who would blindly follow * off a cliff like a bunch of lemmings.

[catmandu57]

9. Yes, stupid, lazy, evil deaf, dumb, and blind

At this point in time they aren't joe average, if they can't see what the hell is going on all they're doing is defending a failed agenda.

[HockeyMom]

10. Taking 4 day old embryos

and riping them "limb from limb for their body parts for stem cell research". Yep, they are educationally challenged beyond belief.

And THEY want to control science curriculum in our schools? THE EARTH IS FLAT SOCIETY.

[WinkyDink]

11. Yes, and greedy and evil and bigoted, as well.

Or what bowens43 said.

[toymachines]

12. They are a sore upon society.

A deep regressive sore.

[deutsey]

13. No, evil. n/t

[acmejack]

14. In other times some of them were colleagues and friends.

I hate to think I was that poor of a judge of character. Others are relatives, I know they are quite bright, they have the credentials to prove it. So I find it to be a complete mystery.

[Warpy]

19. Maybe they weren't that bad until they were given permission

to hate and told whom to hate. They've certainly risen to the occasion. Or is that sunk?

[AllieB]

15. I think they're mentally ill

[Peter Frank]

16. It's not a matter of intelligence...

Most of the neocons I know actually believe that they are part of a moral/political revolution. The problem is that they seem to like their thinking done for them by the leaders & propagandists of the revolt -- and these people are more than happy to feed them what they want to hear, along with all the rhetorical catch phrases.

Another problem is that the revolution has become the establishment; so the doses of vitriol coming from Rush, Sean et. al. seem strangely out of place to the uninitiated.

As the scandals of the establishment are revealed; many who were lead to believe that the GOP was morally superior are going to wake up to the idea that they really should be doing their own mental heavy lifting.

[Warpy]

17. Well, there may be a progression of flaws

First, they're lazy and want to take the easy way out. That leads to ignorance. Ignorance leads to fear of the unknown, and fear leads to hate. That they focus their hate on specific people (liberals, feminists, civil libertarians, the non religious) just shows that they dimly suspect other people haven't taken the lazy man's way out and just might know a bit more than they do. Since that's a particularly terrifying proposition, they respond with hate.

Look at what's in the White House. He's a study in dim rich white boy assisted living and I think we all know he dimly suspects most other people has a lot more on the ball than he does. That's why he reacts with glee to executions and warfare. Kill 'em off.

So no, I don't think they're stupid, as such. I know a lot of truly stupid people, retarded people with IQs well under 90, and there's not a hater in the bunch. I think it takes a certain amount of native intelligence in order to hate, something Freepers would seem to have since they're so good at projecting hatred at anyone outside the cult.

However, laziness, ignorance, and fear leading to hatred would just about cover it.

[renie408]

27. Hmmmm

I was telling somebody the other day that I had decided that people don't actually want to take the effort to be, in fact, informed. They just want to FEEL informed. But isn't an inquiring mind bent on understandig a sign of intelligence? And, on the other hand, the lack thereof could be considered a sign of a lack of intelligence?

Personally, I think hatred shows a lack of intelligence. You hate what you don't understand. The more you don't understand, the more you hate.

[PWRinNY]

18. I think they are blind

Did you ever hear the saying "My mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts." ?

I believe that's the mind set of a lot of these people. They have this HUGE blind spot where any kind of truth is concerned. They stick their heads in the sand and trust their wannabe commander-in-chief (aka chicken-in-chief) to protect them. For some reason, they think terrorist boogeymen are going to get them and their children in Podunk, USA. And for that reason, they are willing to sell, not only their rights, but the rights of ALL of us, for a little fake security. Not real, they're really no safer, but they just think they are.

They're clueless enough not to be afraid of the very government that swears to protect them. And to any of us who would dare to tell them the facts, the truth, well it's just so awful for them to hear, they become spiteful and mean. Not because they're bad people. Just because they're so scared.

[jbnow]

20. To be fair

many are sort of scared and looking for certainty where it doesn't exist.

Many were like this before 9/11, liked the us and them mentality and having some group to feel they are better than.

But 9/11 exacerbated the whole thing. Make people feel like they can be certain of nothing and then have this fake cowboy saying he's gonna take care of us. And suddenly the old testament god who'd smite the bad guys became really attractive and you know how he feels about sinners.

bush's pretense of protection, his platitudes can be very attractive. He emphasizes the us and them, the good and evil, the with us or against us and they just sucked that up.

So it's the longing for certainty, the desire to feel better by making others worse, the us and them.

It is pretty stupid but feels smart to them, it borders on evil but feels like being good, it is weak minds but makes them feel strong.

But it has been some time since I have tried to have patience or understanding toward them. Especially since the last election, they did this to us. Even if there was fraud those that voted for him tried to do this to us. It gets worse as they accept every new horror.

Their number is shrinking, some are waking up after the 9/11 hypnotism, good for them. But even if I can glimmer the basis of those who remain bush supporters I say screw them (and not in the fun way)

[FreedomAngel82]

31. The 9/11 angle doesn't make sense to me

HE let 9/11 happened and didn't do SHIT when he got lots of warnings from the FAA, France, Germany, the Clinton administration. They all warned him and his administration and they did shit. If he was a democrat they wouldn't feel this way I bet you.

[jbnow]

33. I know but he is

one of "theirs" and the type of people 9/11 and the games he plays with it would work on.

[Gregorian]

21. No. Damaged. Using the wrong formula.

Intelligence has nothing to do with it. It's, I believe, a combination of things. Conditioning.

I believe that Republicans either come from families where paternal punitive measures, and military type rigid nonemotional behaviors were utilized. Now I know kids who were liberal until they grew old enough to recognize their parent's political bent, and then mold to it. But in general, I would say that it is conditioning, whether parental or marital. And it seems to depend upon the exact relationship to those doing the conditioning. We see siblings who turn out to be opposites. Nearly the same set of circumstances that lead to polar opposites, politically.


And in the end, I find that there is some degree of damage that lends itself to following a conservative model. I say damaged because a normal person shares compassion for others, whereas a damaged person is typically self-centered.

What I see with my eyes, is so hard to describe. Ego-centric.

And then there are the ignorant. That's a whole different subject. I've had the opportunity to grow up in San Francisco, where I didn't know what a conservative was. And now I recently found myself in a logging community in Oregon. Whew, what a stinker. There is only one word I use to describe them here- rabid.

Ignorant people probably tend to be conservative. But they are also liberals.

You know, this is not a simple subject at all. And I have only my limited observations to use. I feel pretty inadequate in attempting to answer this. But boy is it obvious to me now.

Selfish is probably the key word.


Edit- I also think this is a modern phenomenon. In a time when people had to really work to survive, there were no conservatives, in the working world. Maybe in the ruling class. Life is easier. People can sit back and behave like a phoney ruling class. I think we have found conservative thinking escallating in these days of modern living, with the ease of mobility.

[PWRinNY]

22. Great observations!

I agree with everything you wrote.

[Gregorian]

23. Ha! I was just about to say that about your post.

There are some great ideas here.

And I editted my post to remove the genetics thing. As true as it might be, I have no right saying that. And it would take proof before I could accurately make the statement.

There's probably some truth in all of our claims, as well as errors.

But I can say for sure that I would much rather live in a world of compassion than conservatism.

Ah, it's complex! Darn it. :)

[PWRinNY]

26. Too funny

Thanks! :) Yes, it is complex. Ahh to get in these people's minds...

[stepnw1f]

24. They Are a Cancer

Jsut like using the wrong formula over and over, they mutate over time into something unreal. And it has spread as far as it can.

Look at the support they have... right now it's shit! They are a tiny minority. When people all wake up, these fuckers blowing wind about how Chuckle-Nuts is such a great guy, they are in serious trouble. A liar has to lie their way out of the trouble they get themselves into, because they don't have the balls to face reality.

[kevinbgoode]

25. There's nothing average or "normal" about those people

They celebrate willful ignorance because they are lazy and want everything handed to them. For example, these are the little white hetero-supremacists who believe that working "hard" means perfecting their golf game and choosing the right church to attend so they can get a promotion. As much as they scream about the poor getting welfare, they've been sucking at the public/private teat all their lives to stack the deck for themselves. Their "culture" war is about nothing more than to ensure their continued favored status, using the white God as their excuse of last resort.

As for the poll, I wouldn't put any stock in that. I live in a pretty redneck area, and every time an issue of the war comes up around here - especially in regards to the troops - everyone from a postal clerk to a random Vietnam veteran to a department store clerk has mentioned to me (without prompting) that we need to bring those soldiers HOME.

No real American would ever go on record agreeing with Rick Santorum.

[Steve A Play]

28. No more than I think the average German was stupid

back in the 1930's and 40's. Just dupes, too self absorbed in their own little 'perception managed' worlds to take the time to stop and think about the consequences of their actions.

Steven P.

[OneBlueSky]

29. not necessarily stupid . . . but certainly brainwashed . . .

some, of course, are simply amoral egotists . . . no conscience, and concerned only about themselves . . . I've met a few in my time . . .

[seabeyond]

30. i think they see mostly bad coming out of iraq

so they say that the media is liberal. what they dont get is they are just getting a very little of the bad and dont realize how much the media is hiding from the american people that is really really bad they just dont have a clue.

[Lexingtonian]

32. they're dinosaurs after the big meteor hit

They're mostly functionally obsolete groups of people, now watching The Old Way Of Life die and themselves with it.

There's also the John Stuart Mill thing- not all politically Right/conservative people are stupid, but stupid people (i.e. lacking adaptive power in a changing world) will be politically Right/conservative.

The Santorum and the media thing: that's all about magical thinking. A hallmark of popular stupidity.

[B Calm]

34. I think the majority of them are retarded. It's our duty as Americans

to educate the ones who are wilfully ignorant and put things right again. In fact, thanks to republicans, America is being scorned, looked down upon and viewed with distrust and suspicion by the entire free world. Think how the world use to look up to America as a bastion of truth. How sad for America right now and how humiliating for us. It's also our duty to repair our relationship with the rest of the world.

[saltpoint]

36. Yeah. Stupid, prideful, hateful, narrow-minded, thuggish. n/t

[zippy890]

37. ignorant is another way to put it

[blockhead]

38. yes.

[Time for change]

39. It's true that they're not very bright or educated

Despite the fact that the average Bush voter makes a lot more money than the average Kerry voter, on average they are a lot less educated:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5368161

They have other ways of making money I guess.

[Serenades]

40. I don't think

In all honesty, I don't think most people have a clue of what is going on in the world today. They HAVE NO CLUE AT ALL. People believe what they read. More specifically, people take the face value of things and don't dig deeper into the issue. They accept what they are being told or taught without trifle.

I don't think that people on this board honestly understand that they is a huge number of people who honestly believe, "We'd be in a wreck if the democrats were in control. We'd be conquered by bin Laden and wearing burkas." People REALLY believe this CRAP.

That said, I'm slow to call people stupid. I'd say they are conditioned to be non-thinkers. Intellectual laziness has sank its hooks in this society. Then again, maybe there was never a time where people were "smart and educated."

[Joe Turner]

41. Many Freepers are stupid but

all are mean, callous and narcissistic. Not the kind of people most folks like to associate with.

[wadestock]

42. NO

They are products of the "system" that has been put in place.

The scum have risen to the top.
You see it in the workplace....right where you work.

I grew up with great bosses that really believed in their employees.
That's a minority view now.

America is under a catacylismic realization of the Peter Principle.
They aren't stupid.
They are actually in the minority.
But the majority adore them
And have elected them into office.
And idolize their narrow minded view of wealth.
And will lose their country because of THEIR stupidity not to recognize that THEY had to assume the responsibility to make sure that this MINORITY of stupid people didn't take their country away from them.

[area51]

43. They are stupid / evil / arrogant. (n/t)

[earth mom]

44. Aren't they the ones who badmouth "intellectuals"?

I'd say that pretty much sums up who we're dealing with! :freak:

[Breeze54]

45. Republicans - Too Stupid to Breathe

Our Stupefied Country
It's gonna be very very difficult to win elections
if 25% of the U.S. population think the sun goes around the earth...

http://www.guerillastickers.com/Americans-%20%20Sorta%20Dim.htm

[Porcupine]

46. Nope. The US lives rich by burning from the worlds woodpile,

eating our neighbors chickens, pulling their clean laundry from the line and leaving the dirty clothes in the mud. Raiding the neighbors fruit trees. In short we take what isn't ours and push a gun in the face of anyone who objects.

We have been taking from our neighbors for so long that our great-grandfathers were stealing from our neighbors great-grandfathers back before 1900. The neighbors are a little near sighted and don't see every time we steal something but are pretty clear what's going on.

Our political debate then boils down to this. How long are we going to steal from the neighbors? The conservatives just don't see any reason why we should cut our own wood and tend our own fruit trees; that just means more work. Liberals point out that should our neighbors eventually get organized or get a gun of their own we're screwed. We should start treating the neighbors with respect. They ARE going to be there tomorrow and we cannot survive without their co-operation.

It's just easier to lie to yourself about stealing from the neighbors woodpile than going into the woodlot for yourself. "We're not BAD people; we're just a little cold this morning."

[Jade Fox]

47. The freeper I work with....

is not stupid, but gullible and kind of lazy. She believes everything she hears from Fox news because they oblige her by keeping it simple. She has no life really, as in no passions or interests. She gets all worked up over stuff she sees on TV that has nothing to do with her (I had to tell her I never wanted to hear another word about Lacy Petersen), and seems to view "morality" as the most important thing in life. She's sees herself as a moral person.

And of course when she can't understand something on the job she comes to me, the Liberal, for help.

[Charlie Brown]

50. freepers and neo-cons have no core principles

They are not conservative, not libertarian, not even religious (when it comes to helping others and setting an example). They only believe what they are told by the talking heads and Rove's spin machine.

The fact that they now support warrantless wiretapping and torture (stuff even John McCain shuns) is evidence of how far they have degressed from any reason or sense.

Freepers are a danger to themselves and others.

[mikelewis]

48. Yes