Why Do People Buy Right-Wing Nonsense on Health Reform?

via AlterNet:



Why Do People Buy Right-Wing Nonsense on Health Reform?

Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly at 5:01 AM on August 31, 2009.

There's widespread confusion, to be sure, but there's also a large group who deliberately embrace the lies they've been told.




MOTIVATED REASONING.... To paraphrase Twain, right-wing health care talking points can travel the nation, while the truth is still getting its pants on. If the most frustrating aspect of the policy debate is the willingness of reform opponents to make stuff up, the most dejecting is the willingness of gullible people to believe nonsense.

And believe it they do. Just a couple of weeks ago, an NBC News poll found that most Americans have already come to believe a wide variety of transparently false claims, all of which have been pushed aggressively by the right.

Of particular interest, though, are those who are confronted with reality, but prefer to believe lies anyway. There's widespread confusion, to be sure, but there's also a large group who deliberately embrace the lies they've been told. Newsweek's Sharon Begley, for example, recently wrote a piece scrutinizing reform myths. She found, not surprisingly, that a wide variety of right-wing allegations are without foundation in fact.

For her trouble, Begley was blasted by conservatives for, ironically enough, having "lost touch with reality." Some far-right Newsweek readers even wished her dead for daring to write a piece that debunked claims they preferred to believe were true.

In a follow-up piece, Begley considers the thinking behind this bizarre trend. She spoke to sociologist Steven Hoffman who explained, "Rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief, people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe." For the most part, he added, "people completely ignore contrary information" and are able to "develop elaborate rationalizations based on faulty information."



Of course, it's difficult to explain this to the enraged conservatives who are convinced that health care reform would destroy civilization. They like their delusions, thank you very much, and prefer that reality be kept at arm's length.

As for what to do about it, I'm open to suggestion. Ignorance seems to be spreading like a virus, which makes the discourse stupid and constructive debate nearly impossible.



http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/142313/why_do_people_buy_right-wing_nonsense_on_health_reform/

Sadly, a lot of people just can't be bothered doing even the slightest amount of research. Easier to turn on FOX and let Glenny, Billy and Hanny tell 'em what to think!

We have all kinds that come to the clinic, and you'd think they would be the ones who'd want health care the most. But they are so blinded by Obama they can't see past his skin tone. Some are religious nutcases who believe their preacher who tells them Obama is the anti-Christ. Others have ties with the KKK. A minority just simply don't trust government, and want to vote everyone out of office. At least they don't see it in a racial context.

What I have found the most effective among this group of people is to ask if they have read the bill. I show them how to read it and where to find it, ending with "I want to make up my own mind." This has been especially effective with the third group. For the others, I give a basic civics lesson as to who writes bills, ending with "Where's OUR Congressman's bill? He has publicly stated what he think needs to be changed . Where's his bill?"

It's hard to keep up with them - they're so many and so pervasive.

If one actually reads and analyzes what is being referred to as the "Public Option" as it is written into HR3200 and into the Senate HELP Committee bill, one discovers it does nothing to keep insurance companies honest. It does nothing to keep costs down. It does nothing in terms of health care or health insurance reforms.

Yet to listen to multiple posters here at DU,(the vast majority of whom haven't bothered to read the relevant sections of the bills) the so called public option as written is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

They just can't get their minds around the fact that they've been led down the primrose path and that in fact, the public option as currently written into the bills, is worthless to consumers.

When a group like PNHP publishes an analysis of the bills, they are trashed for telling the truth by some of our own left wing tea-baggers.

Some people just can't handle the truth, and when confronted with it do everything they can to discredit the truth, insult those who are telling the truth, and generally behave irrationally. It's not confined to the right, unfortunately.

what "most DUer's" want is A public option, not THAT public option. I have no doubt the House will eviscerate that one before it's over. At least, I hope so.

Especially when most people who are actively pushing for a public option aren't actively discussing the glaring deficiencies of what is currently being referred to as "the public option."

In fact, most of the people pushing for the public option seem to want to ignore just how bad the legislation is as currently written in regards to "the public option."

For instance, I don't recall groups like HCAN, Move-on, or DFA pointing out that the current legislation sucks and calling on law makers to amend it so that it functions as advertised. I haven't heard Howard Dean saying the current legislation needs to be overhauled as regards the public option.

I wonder when and if they will mention the current sad and shabby state of "the public option?"

I am just wondering. Do you think Dean is really just commenting on the need for a Public Option, period and saving his thoughts until we get something more specific? That is what I suspect. I think his strategy is the push for the concept of PUblic Option and argue strongly on its behalf, because that is what needs to be done right now. Later, we have a chance to work on the deficiencies in the bill and say we cannot have them in the bill and here's why.

To mention the "current sad and shabby state" of the public option at this point may just be self defeating. While we may be absolutely correct that it is sad and shabby, it may defeat, not enhance, our chances of getting a true public option.

cleared the three largest and most important committees before the recess and the HELP Committee Bill passed out of the HELP committee. It still needs to be merged with whatever comes out of the Finance committee and I doubt that will be any better than what came out of the HELP committee in terms of the public option.

i agree with you that it appears that Dean is promoting the theory of the public option and ignoring the reality of the public option as they currently are written into proposed law. But he doesn't ever make that clear. And I have no idea why he is doing this.

I do think that's another mistake. And I think it's misleading.

Dean already admitted (as has Baucus) that axing single payer from the start was a mistake. Now it appears to me they are committing another mistake.

Pretty soon, after enough mistakes have been made, this whole thing is going to collapse. Don't you think? I can't see how misleading people, whether actively or passively, about the Public Option works in our favor of getting a stronger public option.

Can you?

If it's not in either the Senate or the House versions, it's got almost zero chance of being in the conference version. If you read up on how conference works, it doesn't look promising. In fact, it looks to me as if the public option was always a fiction meant to massage the left into supporting Romney Care, ie what was passed and is currently failing in MA. The insurance companies love it though, since it's a big money maker for them.

Discussing this possibility is i think important and proper. It is our health care after all, and ceding our health care reform to the politically or economically powerful doesn't make much sense to me.

if there is no public option there is no point to reform health care. So that signals to me that he is still in the fight. The Senate hasn't voted yet, so I have no idea what could happen. I keep thinking in the back of my mind that Dean is pretty smart and may know something we don't know. Perhaps he feels it is bad psychology to just give up before we get to a conference committee.

Too stupid to live, that's why.

and with just as much passion defend Health Insurance Reform.

It has been proven over and over. The GOP now believe they
can say anything and get away with it because there will
be no contradiction from the Left Side of the Aisle.

People respond to how issues are framed and ideas presented not reasoned arguments.

And one of the basic rules for belonging to the RW club is faithfulness to the ideology...loyalty to meme.

is just enough of a ring of truth/possibility to make it plausible.