Is there any logic on the right?

[spinbaby]

I just listened to a few minutes of local wingnut radio, where apparently they can contradict themselves every two minutes without their audience being the wiser. In the space of ten minutes, I heard:

A declaration of how wonderful it was that Virginia had balanced its budget by cutting public safety, transportation, and Medicaid.

A complaint about how long it takes police to respond to a call (didn't make the connection to funding public safety?).

A whine about how working people can't afford to pay even one more dollar in taxes.

A call to cut the salary of state workers by 10% (are they not working people?)

[zipplewrath]

1. No, not anymore

They have become a party of "beliefs". That is "belief" as in "faith". They do not require proof or the ability to demonstrate that what they advocate is correct. It is true because they believe it to be so. There are no contradictions nor inconsistencies because there can't be because what they believe is "true".

It is the scientific method turned on its head. In science, if what you assert does not match observations, then your assertion is wrong. In the GOP, if what you observe does not match what they assert, your observation is wrong.

To be charitable for a moment, there is alot of deductive reasoning in their approach. Deductive reasoning is powerful, but also risky. Deductive reasoning rests upon the ability to "know" all pertinent information. I am outdoors, I am getting wet, it is raining. You have to be able to eliminate other sources of water in order to accurately conclude that through deducive reasoning. It is also easy to commit the error of "micro to macro". I got a job. Everyone where I live has a job. Anyone can get a job. You are extrapolating beyond the data, taking a local observation and expanding it to the whole population.

It's not that the left isn't guilty of this on occasion. It's just that I find that on the left, if you expose where their flaw is, how it doesn't match the observed data, you'll get awareness at best, and they'll at least quite down at worst. With the right, if you point out the flaw, you get a repetion of the belief, an explanation that if you don't "get that" there is something wrong with you, and the information you are providing is obviously biased BECAUSE it doesn't match the belief.

[old mark]

2. There was, long ago, I believe, but it is long gone. They are "led"

by some seriously mentally ill people and some sociopathic manipulators, who will say anything to make money or gain power. Their followers are simple disposable tools for these people.

rec
mark

[snagglepuss]

3. No because they totally operate on an emotional level so rather than

explanations being logical they simply have to 'feel' right. For people operating on an emotional level there is no contradiction between decreased police protection and taxation because on an emotional level they don't 'feel' there to be a contradiction - both make them angry so in their minds both positions are valid.

[valerief]

4. All rhetoric, all the time. There's no there there. nt