Not thinkers.

Republicon so-called 'conservatives' on their knees straining to please their corporate daddy masters.

Waste of time if you ask me, the Reich Wingers are true believers, they will go to their graves thinking they are right and hating you too boot.

One cannot reason with Reich Wingers.

But it is one of those questions that has had a hold on me for a long while, similar to why and how a culture that gave the world Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Kant and Goethe also managed to produce a Hitler. It just does not compute.

Their definition of "freedom" is being "free" to be just like them.

They are programmed daily at work, at church, at school, to believe what vested interests tell them to believe.

From the Tip o' the Iceberg Department:

Vets Sue CIA Over Mind Control Tests

Odd how little, eh, coverage this gets.

PS: Hiya, Doc! Hope all is well for you and yours. Mine are A-OK,

Last edited Wed Apr 4, 2012, 09:10 PM - Edit history (1)

It wouldn't work.

PS: So glad your family is well.

PSS: I am not a doc, sorry if I gave you that impression.

We are all being conditioned to a certain extent. I recall reading some posts about how certain brain types were more susceptible to fear & anxiety and that conservative "brains" had an enlarged area that controlled those responses.
Until they figure out something to put in the water to make all of our brains grow that way they'll have to deal with us shouting there is nothing to fear but fear itself.

The primary difference is an evolutionary distinction between reason or logic and rote forms of thinking.

Remember learning multiplication tables in grade school? That is rote learning. We all have a reptilian brain, but as mammals we have layers on top of it. I am no expert, but rote learning bypasses the critical thinking part, higher layer, of the brain. One of the methods used by cults, to program people, is to keep them focused on esoteric problems, with no concrete answers, while instilling set rules and dogma.

So they lack critical thinking skills, for whatever reason, and that is what makes them so easily programmed

misplaced it. Since I just moved, maybe I will find it again when I unpack everything. Do post the links to his followups and thanks, CrispyQ!

This is a great description.

There are some liberals who are liberal by "conversion" if you will (and not by birth/upbringing), such as myself, who though growing up in the South and being raised with the authoritarian values knew that something was wrong during my social programming, and later "converted" to liberalism during college.

Maybe not so much a "conversion" as such but actually an affirmation of their actual humanistic values. For me, I still find myself occasionally hearing the voice of evangelists, hell-fire and brimstone preachers, etc....and I have to go read an article on science or evolution to pull myself out of the funk that this kind of thinking engenders.

As a side note, I was the Central Florida contact for Fundamentalists Anonymous in the 1980's. I don't know what became of them but we had a few people who were trying to extricate themselves from black and white thinking.

Just a thought to contribute. And thank you again for posting the link.

lived with one of them for many, many years.

He was a blue collar worker that ran to those horrible Union reps whenever his boss was not being fair.
And then would rage against the Unions and praised the 1% because they are the job creators.

And then would tell me to get my head out of the sand

only the boogey-man they use is government.

What's the difference between being enslaved by private/corporate masters or being enslaved by government masters?

The fringes on both sides, with their gross over-generalizations of everybody else, are a funny bunch.

In a properly functioning democracy - i.e., one that is not sold to the highest bidder - government is accountable to the people at federal, state and local levels. Private power is accountable to no one. This is a difference that seems far too complex for them to process.

At the core of everything they do is tribalism. Good buddy networking. They don't need to worry about the content of the words. Only about the results. Winning is their only religion. Staying on top, remaining dominant.

That's why they have to game anything that would require them to be fair.

The flowery part of the bush that is social Darwinism is all about unencumbered personal freedom allowing the best to rise to the top. The ugly fruit is the betters must be allowed to step on the not betters. And Libertarians will kill for the right to step on others.

nor do they believe all human beings to be equal. Fundamentalists teach that some people are 'chosen' while others deserve to be punished, and this fits nicely with the RW agenda of providing for their 'chosen few' while impoverishing everyone else. All it takes is a cross and a flag and Fox and all of their hateful friends, to convince these brainwashed people to believe that they are part of the 'chosen' club--and voila you have mindless zombies. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Have a beautiful day, nice rant made me laugh.

unfathomably inexplicable: this virulent cancer on our society defies reason and explanation.

they are just into the "corporate" type of slavery, not the "government" type? Different strokes for different folks?

You posit an EXCELLENT question BTW. What also cracks me up is that the kinds of things they usually rail about government doing do NOTHING to make us (individually) less free.

Also, it's not socialism when private enterprise is screwing you to the wall, so that makes it OK.

that the only ways they can move even further right is to re-introduce slavery and openly advocate taking away women's suffrage.

Let take a tour inside the head of such a person.

You see, corporations "earned" their money. There is (the illusion of) freedom because if you don't like their product you can choose another (in theory. practice is an entirely different matter).

The government however takes (taxes) money. You have no choice but to give it. OF course you also get something back which would seem to contradict the "taxation is theft" meme but ignore that.

People buy services/products from corporations. Thus they have an incentive to work.

But governments just give away services to anyone. Thus people have no incentive to work (again, disregard the logical problems at work here. Just accept that government services makes you lazy)

And yes if that still doesn't seem to really make sense, that's normal. BUT I have talked ot enough cons and have noticed a remarkable simularity in their arguments.

Their world view is actually quite consistent. It's just not in tune with the real world.

it is utterly at odds with the reality-based world of facts and logic, that's for sure.

but the evidence is that countries with no government usually descend into mass poverty and chaos.

Book of Romans, Chapter 13, Verses 1-6

1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

4 For he (your boss at work, your pastor in church, your husband or father (if you're a woman), your Republican politician, etc.) is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.

an infinitely malleable stage of development. A very useful tool if you wish to make people do crazy things like labor every day and then hand the proceeds of that labor over to another who does nothing.