OK, so I just read a Freeper thread. I have a few questions:

What in the world makes these people so blindly follow leaders? It appears that some of these people, if their posts are to be believed, would follow Bush right over the edge of a cliff.

Do they think that they have enough money to be completely independent with no help whatsoever? Even in the event of a catastrophic financial crisis (Cancer comes to mind)?

Why do they enjoy reaping the benefits of what progressives handed to them on a silver platter while putting down liberals as evil?

Do the women really want to go back to wearing skirts and being housewives and secretaries only?

Do the men really want to be married to women like that?

Do black republicans not look back at the Civil Rights movement leaders and feel ashamed?

Do conservative homosexuals look at their lovers and believe that it's OK that society will not officially recognize them? Does Jeff Gannon look like a "regular" guy to these folks?

Is it all about "our stuff" to these people?

I just do not get it. They appear to be reasonably intelligent, lower to middle class people to me...I do not understand.

sublims of the programs these people watch that simply fries their little brains.

from the mark.

I drink the water and it hasn't made me into a moran.

These people like the fascist racist bilge Rush and Rimjob serve up and go back over and over for a sustaining taste.

Not even close. I will grant you that there are a select few on FR who can put together a cogent thought. Probably about 1% of the whole of FR. The REAL conservatives with brains have long since moved on.

Their mothers gargled daily with a tall glass of mercury.

The people who follow this present ilk of politicians is falling for this concept: "What people can't, God can." They have been brainwashed into thinking The Chimp pack thinks this way too. But, of course, they don't. Many people in the South are not so nonplussed by the lack of help from D.C. because they believe God will take care of them better than the government can. As long as this lying bunch of thieves keeps telling them, "Government is bad/God is good" those who want to believe the same thing will follow.

a 40 hour work week (if you worked more you USED to be able to get overtime pay, bush took care of that) paid vacations, health care etc. you know, little things like that. THEIR guys would have them working back in sweat-shop conditions and apparently they're all for it because they keep voting for those morans.

They're stoopid! That's all it boils down to. They don't use their heads for anything besides a hatrack.

Blind faith and blind loyalty to their leaders are the common glue that holds them together as a group. If one of them starts THINKING on his own and questions their leadership they're ZOTTED and not allowed to participate with the rest of the fascists again. It's a weird place and they're VERY weird people! :silly:

NGU.

It's the same thing that makes people insist that Joss Whedon didn't screw up the movie "Serenity".

When I can explain that piece of moronic thinking, I'll have a better handle on freeper thinking. And I'll share it with the rest of the playground.

the psychology of the German people blindly following Hitler. Hopefully, we won't have to re-invent this wheel.

Even better- I'll let Thomas Jefferson tell you:

"Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depositary of the public interests. In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves. Call them, therefore, Liberals and Serviles, Jacobins and Ultras, Whigs and Tories, Republicans and Federalists, Aristocrats and Democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same parties still and pursue the same object. The last one of Aristocrats and Democrats is the true one expressing the essence of all."
--Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, 1824.

So, to obscenely shorten it... they believe people are basically bad, and require a strong figure of authority to keep order. Explains alot, doesn't it? Might even explain the authoritarian fixation on sexual repression.

That's very helpful.




Cher

And if you read "Don't Think of an Elephant" you will find that Lakoff says something very similar. Funny how things don't change.

It's much easier to fear and distrust people who don't look like you.

Angry white men vote Republican as a means to keep minorities (including women) in line.

believe in nothing as they do not THINK and use their God given brains. They are intellectually corrupt and immoral for not doing so. They believe in letting others think for them i.e. Limbaugh...Hannity....O'Reilly. These propagandists are so blatant and full of the worst hypocrisy imaginable....to think for oneself takes courage and these people who listen to the obvious partisan brainwashing are lazy and unpatriotic as well.They will see the light when it blinds them....they piss me off and I have siblings that fall in to this category. I thought I would never see the day when it affects our relationship but it has.

from Stockholm's syndrome. They believe that it's thier fault that they are living in a trailer somewhere making minimum wage. I had a big argument once with a woman who really thought women should have to struggle harder to get the same wages and privileges as men because for some reason in her mind we didn't really deserve equal treatment and wages.

I really believe it was what she had been told all her life and she never questioned it. Yet her husband, a Gulf War vet, was unemployable after he returned, from some undiagnosed disease, that the military said didn't exist, and she was struggling to support both of them.

The only thing I think I can boil it down to is that racism, homophobism, and sexism is stronger than personal interests.

:shrug:

My .02.

There is something in the personality of some people that makes them want to follow orders. Certain people are just like that.

Some Republicans are very rich, others are pulled in by the rhetoric and the claims that liberals don't really like you, they're weird, etc. It's easier to get angry at a stranger than to scrutinize one's own side of the fence and see that they are the ones really sticking it to you.

I think they get told in schools, churches and party meetings that liberals and good programs are not what brought the social results that we see. They get told a lot of flat-out lies, especially by neo-con talk and other media, which distort the crap out of everything. Go on, listen to that swill for a while and try to see if they correctly describe one law, one budget, one major event, one speech etc. I'll bet you can't do it. You can't find one case where they are true about everything. Yet that's all the media that's out there in some parts of the country. If you don't get exposed to a lot of diverse ideas, you'll just start to believe whatever else is drilled into your head.

I think some men do get off on the power trip of sexism and they have ego problems, to where they want to go back to the subjugation days. I frankly can't see why they'd want to be married to a scared little creature...but that's the controlling type for you. Maybe some of these men are also repressed homosexuals, considering the fundamentalist background, and marriage is the only way they can avoid being abused by public society.

I guess black Republican leaders are looking at only the good parts of the picture; that is, they buy the rhetoric that the only color Republicans care about is green (money). They think that if change comes about in the business community, they don't have to worry anymore about the tacit racism out there.

Maybe some Republicans are a little more cosmopolitan, don't take religion literally so much and don't really care if you're gay. This element, most likley the yuppie type, has sold the anti-gay image to rope in the fundamentalist voters. Either that, or they are all so crazy from contradicting themselves at every turn they just don't know what the hell they think, and just bleat a lot. Crank! Crank! Crank!

I guess when you feel afraid or surrounded in life, and you get to thinking that someone else is trying to take everything away from you, or you are told that these different people are responsible for taking away the supposed golden era of the past, you'll do anything to beat the strangers away from your door; you'll forever be convinced that only your own kind of people can be trusted.

There was a great article about it, and how it affects * in particular and RWers in general, in the Guardian a couple of years ago:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1033904,00.html

nt

Sexism, racism, and homophobia and fear born of ignorance. I was talking to a friend last night, who felt that politically correct language forced people into appearing--well politically correct.
New Orleans was like this huge American boil that burst bringing many things to the forefront.
For few examples: "They" meaning many unthinking generally white rwer's, really don't want their daughters to marry a black man, and still think all black men want white women. My dad still believes that most black males have large penis's (or is it penii?)These people still think all Gay men spend their time in dark park bathrooms at night, are at their best when they do hair or are interior decorators. The cannot differentiate between being Gay and pedophilia.
Women are "Men haters" or "ball busters" or "bitches" when they show assertive behavior perfectly acceptable in a male--say in business, but it could as well be in relationships
Always taking the short view, they think "tax cuts" are ALWAYS a good thing, because that big evil government just takes that money and who in hell knows where it goes. They don't connect shitty roads, underfunded police departments and other public services that taxes provide, and will not become involved enough on a local level to find out well, where ARE those taxes going?
Being fearful, they seem to need the polarization of "them against us". It seems to provide a level of comfort.
As far as black republicans, they seem feel that many of the New deal and other social programs have had a negative impact on their people, and are to be blamed for the social ills that plague the black community. They also tend to completely ignore that whole pesky civil rights thingy, or give a token nod.
Gay republicans I have no speculation about at all- except self hatred.
Just my two cents.

Life has become too complicated for many Americans... they don't have the time or education to seek the truth( two people working for Wal-Mart and Lowes).....Trusting * just takes one more thing off their backs. Many older people think that the GOP is still the party of Eisenhower, they have no idea what the neo-cons agenda is. Blind trust , flag waving and bigotry sill work fine.

I belive there are many factors.

Some of them simply don't care or think about it all that much. And your questions about women wearing skirs and being housewives... well, yes. I actually think there are a LOT of folks for whom the Leave it To Beaver life was preferable to working moms and the exhaustion many women face trying to have it all. Of course, that is a pipe dream that never really existed, but it is a secretly held desire by many women. I read recently about a survey at Harvard where women grads surprised the pollster by saying they intended to take time off from their hard-earned careers to stay home with their children. So you never really know what people are feeling in their hearts when they pull those levers.

I think GWB is a great salesman. He sold many people an agenda of clear, defined All-American goals. They liked the package. It was clean cut and cozy and Laura is just so nice and pretty and wears such clean suits. Apple pie. Who doesn't love it? So simple. They believe because they WANT to believe.

To look the truth in the face is painful, hurtful, embittering. Just not American at all.

The areas with the lowest amount of iodine in the soil are the areas of highest right-wing support. (iodine deficiency causes cretinism)

spew their idiocy and bigotry in order to sway people's thinking and encourage the bigots and idiots.

Adept Liars' Brains Are Built Differently

A new study from the University of Southern California, published in the October issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, suggests that the talent for compulsive deception is embedded in the structure of the brain itself.

People who habitually lie and cheat — pathological liars — appear to have much more white matter, which speeds communication between neurons, in the prefrontal cortex than normal people, the researchers found. They also have fewer actual neurons.

The differences affect a portion of the brain, located just behind the forehead, that enables people to feel remorse, learn moral behavior and plan complex strategies.

. . .

Lying is hard work and these brains may be better equipped to handle it, the researchers said

- - - - - - - - -

These people listen to lies and believe them, so their brains must be as different as the liars they believe.

People of faith tend to be the type who want someone else in control of their lives — that is, they want someone to take responsibility because it overwhelms them. They do not question their leaders and laws because these guide them.

But mostly, I think they're afraid to consider alternative views because to do so would be to question their faith. Entertaining the possibility that a "liberal" might have had a good idea is tantamount to questioning the existence of their god. Once they've done that, they're on their own — and that's what they fear the most.

and don't want any of the winnings going to taxes.

even though they do not have a rat's chance in hell of becoming a rich fatcat, they HOPE that someday they will win the lottery, invent a gadget, do something that will result in their having heaps of money. And they do not want the gubmint to take their imaginary money away!

They also take great solace in being ON TOP. Letting pesky groups like women, minorities, and homosexuals have an equal place at the table means there is less pie for THEM. There is an element of unrequited greed in their views.

Lastly, they are AFRAID. They fear letting the aforementioned pesky groups have equal power, because they believe that those pesky types will take THEIR imaginary money away from them and give it to people who, in their opinion, are less deserving.

The compact they make with the fatcats is that the fatcats can keep the money that they steal from the treasury, and if the foolish followers ever get any, they can keep theirs too!! They just do not realize the game is rigged, and they are not likely to get any money at all!

When I read David Brock's "Blinded by the Right," a lot of it resonated with me. He had some very bad run ins with ultra left nutjobs at UC Berkeley. He responded by rejecting everything they represented and defining himself for awhile as a conservative. I think a lot of otherwise reasonable but naive conservatives are repulsed by radical feminism, PETA, EarthFirst and what have you, and wrongly assume they represent the views of a majority of liberals and Democrats. I've seen this time and again with gay friends of mine--most don't go right wing but I do hear the rants and see the temptation to do so in their heads. But then again, none of them experienced what David Brock experienced.

Why it doesn't immediately occur to them to draw parallels with their own party's lunatic fringe is another question and I have my ideas about that, but I do see some progress in this area. Like a lot of people here I've been seeing some surprising changes of opinion and hearing amazing things spoken among the right wingers in my own family. They're beginning to see that, unlike the Democratic Party, the Republican Party's nutjobs have taken control.