Non thinkers....why ?

I have acquaintances that are very kind, good , people, but they are so easily hoodwinked by propaganda and such as this. I think if we could put a finger on how to get them to think and see beneath the surface of things, they would be able to make better choices. Why do we have to get hurt in a personal way before looking at the man behind the curtain. The Wizard of Oz depicts that and I wonder how many saw the lesson. I am so saddened by hearing people so proud about being self serving. Mrs. Moose

Mindlessly following an "opinion leader" like Sean or Rush is one of the primary ways people avoid doing their own thinking. They can spout whatever Sean said last night at the water cooler and make it sound like they thought of it themselves. It's a form of laziness.

When I was young, I'm 75 now, but I was not as up to world afairs as now because I was so busy with keeping our family and home up to par. I was never lazy. I felt that other's were smarter than I and thought they would do that and raising my boys to be kind and caring was enough for me to handle. I'm stating my dumbness to help in understanding why good people do nothing. I hope no one thinks I'm a flop, because I have always been curious about people and why they do what they do. Mrs. Moose

I think you are being honest. Saying that you haven't had a chance to study the issues and really don't have an opinion right now is honest. Parroting a bunch of hateful lies spewed by Rush Limbaugh and presenting them as your own "opinion" is dishonest.

When I grew up, finally, I do have my own brain. I think it was when I read Emerson and Thoreau and saw that they thought as I do that was the beginning of my freedom. I just want to understand how to do something to help people to think for themselves. It is so important for all of us or else we will all perish. I hate to be so negative, but it hurts so know that people are depending on something outside of themselves to care for them. Mrs Moose

But what are you talking about? Is this in reference to anything?

and I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that their are two kinds of right-wingers: 1) The cynical types, who know exactly what's in it for them and who know how to manipulate the masses, and 2) People who are both fearful and ignorant and have been manipulated by those in Group 1).

For example, in the reaction to the recent police raids in the Twin Cities, you see the (mostly) calm, literate, well-reasoned responses from the center and left, pointing out the Constitutional issues and the chilling effect on dissent. From the right, you get (mostly) hysterical, insulting, irrelevant, vicious rants. The leftists keep trying to explain what the issues are, and the rightists keep going on and on about how they're going down to the demonstration to "get" the protesters. But I wonder if the rightists are subconsciously afraid that they might be next, so they loudly declare their identification with the cops and write about how they're going to "kick liberal ass." I don't think they even understand their own motivations.

The reaction to poor people is another example of that kind of magical thinking. Their unconscious line of reasoning goes, "If I hate poor people enough, maybe I can keep from slipping over the edge."

Naturally, the right-wing media encourage these delusions. The "not thinking" part goes back to America's anti-intellectualism. Being intelligent is considered "arrogant" and "out of touch." Real men don't read books--they watch Fox News. Some of the fundamentalist churches that have been taken over by right-wing politicians actually tell their people that secular media are evil and that they should read and view and listen to only the media that are produced exclusively for the religious right.

You put it better than I could. Thank you for your help. If I don't understand why good people depend on blind obedience, I will be very sad. I know that many years ago, I thought that I was dumb and other people could do the important thinking, but I know now that is not the case. I grew up with the idea that the female sex is inferior, but I still will not support a female leader, for her sex only. I'm furious whit women doing just that. Mrs. Moose

remote control television

people have problems processing thoughts and maintaining attention spans

George Carlin said he used to keep his act under 55 mins for that reason

Helping raise kids who are kind and caring, You make the world a better place.

PS: A hearty welcome to DU, wandathewitch, Mrs. Moose!

I really don't know if this is much of an answer but it seems to me that a lot of it has to do with teaching methods. We teach our children facts but not understanding. It is the notion of regurgitation without knowledge, teaching to the test, memorization and learning by route. From day one children are taught that the words that come out of the authority figure's mouth is true and all else is not. It works so well in TV commercials that they carried it over into politics too. I think you can map parallel changes in three aspects of our society dating from about the beginning of the baby boom (one year after the end of WW-II) until today (but you could stop anywhere after about 1960 and see the same thing). As we became a much more complex society we concurrently dumbed down our ability to reason and understand the workings of systems.

On Edit: Shit! I forgot to say what the three things to look at are. First is our educational system, the second is advertising - particularly TV and Radio advertising, and third is the level of the national political debate. Two, education and the public debate, degenerated and one, advertising, became very sophisticated. I think it was the application of developments in advertising (call it psychology if you like) to the other two that did it. Maybe?

This is what I have been thinking and you put it so eloquently. Thank you, thank you. It is people like you that do so much for all of us. I learned so much by taking art lessons from a woman that showed me, in a class of children, Yes I was one of just two adults. This teacher taught by self criticism. It was so revealing to me to see that I could take in and express out my own way. She taught much more than art. She showed how to think deep. I had been taking courses at the university and that led me to look for a way to refine my thinking by doing and it led me to Mrs. Conrad Braun...a direct descendant of Ralf Waldo Emerson. Ruth Emerson Jackman Braun. She took me under her wing as she knew that I understood her method of teaching. It is teachers like her that will create thinkers. I so want to give off what she gave me. It makes me so sad to see how our people with power are making our children puppets that blindly follow dictators and go against their own well being. I guess I was very fortunate to have met with the right kind of people. I really think that is the case, although I was looking to do something as I had two sons that I wanted to grow up with good , kind , thinking minds. Mrs. Moose.....PS...even as a child, I have been scolded for asking why too much. If I am a nuisance, please be gentle with me ?

you're definitely not a nuisance!

We are the Moosdogs of years back. We have been very sick, both of us. WE are back and so glad to be among the living again. How are you ? We got a response from Crew Leader. We need you all back in our lives. Did you know that before we got sick, we went to see Whysayker ? He is a nice man and his family are wonderful. We hear from him once in a blue moon. I have been going nuts on here, and speaking my thought, right & left. We are both very upset with our government. Now tell us about yourself ? How are the rest of our little life before illness. ??? LOL We are trying to find them on here. Love yas all.....Mrs. Moose

to question and the fear of change is a human trait..like Galileo's story, and that people change out of need, not desire. I know my questioning started out of a necessity to make sense of my own life, and how the society I was raised in shaped my false beliefs. I always liked the phrase "when the student is ready the teacher appears". I suppose we get to a place where we are open to exploration in our own unique ways and sometimes people don't get there at all. Finding the truth is sometimes a shock, but more often it is what I've known all along but didn't acknowledge.

It is the comfortable that do nothing and feel bored and lazy...for sure. I guess I should be happy that my life has not been comfortable, well, not too bad, but not too comfortable either. As a child I was beaten and no one cared. I kept thinking...why doesn't anyone care? I'm a little kid and can't do anything...grown people know this and do nothing. I guess that is what helped me to think more and be so adament about what I can do to stand up for what I think is right. Mrs. Moose

Lazy people will indulge as little as possible. It's much more fun to have one's mind already made up than it is to search for truth.

...there are so many astoundingly dumb wingnuts around these days whose exterior dimensions have much in common with the size, shape and weight of an early '60s Volkswagen.

You can find them at any saloon in the country -- maybe a dozen at a time, wedged together into a single shapeless wall of quivering suet, stretching from one end of the bar to the other, glued into place by a sticky, foul-smelling paste of stale sweat, spilled beer mixed with peanut shells and congealed fast food grease.

They're feeding noisily, slurping and grunting like a pack of starving mastodons, massive haunches overflowing bar stools -- rear cleavage proudly displayed because somebody said chicks dig it -- hunkered over Bud Lites and piles of beer nuts; vowing death to the vast liberal conspiracy that's killing this country; self-loathing and frustration externalized as misogyny, xenophobia, racism, anti-intellectualism and projected as fear and hatred for anything new or confusing or challenging.

They run out of this stuff in a minute or two, so now they're trying to remember even one generic pre-packaged wingnut "opinion" that they lifted from any of the thousands of testosterone-poisoned motormouth frauds who provide the sound track here in modern Dumbfuckistan.

And people still wonder how imbeciles and reactionaries and republicans and fascists can get elected to high office in this country.


wp

Most Americans don't think about politics because they have better things to do. Unless it affects them personally they could care less about who "leads" them.

As long as they have jobs, can afford the newest gizmos, and watch the Big Game without interruption, they pay scant attention to anything outside their small circle of life.

Change only happens in times of real distress to the average citizen. Such is democracy in America.