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Financial markets react in a certain way that we don't like? Markets are part of a left-wing conspiracy.
-The private bank we call the Federal Reserve creates booms and busts at will. I remember when your side use to call us crazy for saying the Federal Reserve is a private entity, even if you were too young back then, it was your side that said it was a conspiracy theory.
Election didn't support your argument? Simple - election was rigged as part of a left-wing conspiracy.
-Actually according to the other side, it is the Russians now.
If it was in his interests, a man could be persuaded to believe almost anything.
"The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory." - Thomas Jefferson
People believe what they want to believe. They don't arrive at their conclusions purely from their own unbiased insight and reflection. They consciously make an effort to search out those things which support what they wish the world to be.
Basically, no one wants to believe something which, if they believed it, would be a kind of punishment.
Imagine for a moment you were a homosexual. How could you possibly be religious? Or at least, how could you believe that homosexuals are going to hell? You can't.
This principle applies to everything in the world around us. Our minds have a natural inclination to look for those things which benefit us, and then we latch onto it.
But let us remember, this isn't a conservative problem, or a liberal problem. This is a human problem.
And regardless of what we might like to believe, scientists are not unbiased(nor are those who are paying for their research and their salaries). There are always major disagreements within the scientific community about almost-everything. Especially anything termed a "soft-science"(think psychology).
Most of what people believe to be facts, are really just opinions. And "data" is almost-always being manipulated to fit the desired result.
This is why you can have multiple studies, each having almost-completely opposite results.
One year they're telling you butter is bad, the next year it is good, then the next year it is bad again, and so-on and so-forth.
I have great faith in the "hard sciences", but the vast-majority of so-called science is not in the hard sciences.
So when a proud liberal stands up and says "Trump said all Mexicans are rapists" or "Trump wants to ban ALL Muslims"...Do we call that liberal "Willfully ignorant"? Or just a liar? Help me out here...
Quote:
Originally Posted by bklynkenny
I think problems arise when individuals here try to promote banning all Muslims and people confuse that with what Trump is saying.
And see, here's a perfect example of the willful ignorance that I'm talking about. Perfect example. Trump DID say he wants to ban all Muslims, and you people who are chanting his name in your sleep don't even know it. Because you are willfully ignorant of the facts.
Quote:
The real estate mogul-turned-presidential candidate shakes up the race when he announces that he wants to bar foreign Muslims from entering the country following the shooting in San Bernardino, California. “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” his campaign says in a release.
That is "banning all Muslims." If any of you can read the sentence "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" and explain how that is not a ban on all Muslims, please have at it.
Now. When given a chance to say he changed his mind or misspoke, Trump doubled down instead.
Quote:
“No,” Trump responds to laughter and applause. “Look, we have to stop with political correctness. We have to get down to creating a country that’s not going to have the kind of problems that we’ve had with people flying planes into the World Trade Centers, with the — with the shootings in California, with all the problems all over the world. … We have to find out what’s going on.”
Given another chance a couple of months later, the man who always says what he means and means what he says started to walk it back -
Quote:
Trump begins to stress the “temporary nature” of his ban, leading some to wonder whether he’s reconsidering. “It’s a temporary ban. It hasn’t been called for yet, nobody’s done it,” he says on Fox News Radio. “This is just a suggestion until we find out what’s going on.”
Now it's a temporary ban, but in the candidate's own words, still a ban. Then, 6 months after he first called for the ban that Trumpheads insist he never called for, he repeated it.
Quote:
Trump delivers a speech reacting to the massacre in Orlando, Florida, in which he appears to reiterate his proposed Muslim ban. “I called for a ban after San Bernardino and was met with great scorn and anger. But now … many are saying that I was right to do so. And although the pause is temporary, we must find out what is going on. We have to do it,” he said. “It will be lifted, this ban, when and as a nation we’re in a position to properly and perfectly screen these people coming into our country.”
Again - still a ban, and again the candidate himself acknowledging that he had specifically called for a ban.
So as I say, this is the willful ignorance of Trumpheads. This information is out there - and is very widely known - but the people who support the candidate DO NOT KNOW IT. And this is a perfect example of why the rest of us do not respect Trumpheads, why we think you are willfully ignorant, and why we routinely accuse you of not knowing what you're talking about.
I am a Liberal and a Democrat and, thankfully, am not without sin. Some times I think I am a liberal to make up for the damages I have done. Other times I simply cannot force myself to believe the Conservative or any other Religion. I do not believe in Economics as presented by the Priests of Mammon or in the nonsense of some stone age sky god created by a drug tripping mystic.
That's not what conservatives believe. Instead of channeling hillary be honest instead. I am never amazed by the garbage the loony left spews. They can't discuss policy because their chosen ones policies are failures so instead make things up about the other sides beliefs.
If we followed conservative principles we would not have had a housing boom/bust. It's the big government liberals who try to run our lives when no ones rights have been violated, not conservatives.
It's very simple: they have bought into a culture that denies data-driven evidence and assumes everything not fitting with their argument to be a conspiracy against them.
Media reporting something that doesn't fit with our world view? Media is part of a left-wing conspiracy.
Some data showing something that doesn't fit our argument? Data is fake or part of a left-wing conspiracy.
Court case comes out in a way that we don't like? Courts are all part of the left-wing conspiracy.
Scientific studies conflicting with your agenda? Science is part of a left-wing conspiracy.
Financial markets react in a certain way that we don't like? Markets are part of a left-wing conspiracy.
Election didn't support your argument? Simple - election was rigged as part of a left-wing conspiracy.
So where does this land you if you keep going down this path? Aside from being stupid, this is extremely dangerous. It produces an ironic outcome wherein the individual thinks that everyone else is some puppet on a string when the reality is exactly the opposite: once you have decoupled yourself from respect for any evidence, you are ripe for manipulation in any way. And once you have no respect for evidence, there is no limit to how far you can go.
People, this is how zealotry are born.It's a derivation of what happens with religious extremists: "I'm convinced that my world view is correct, and if you anyone or thing indicates the contrary, then that just reinforces how correct my belief is."
It starts with a cultivation that all media outlets are against you, that elections are rigged, that all the data is faked. Then it moves into acceptance of more and more extremist behavior in the name of countering the conspiracy - how can it be wrong, when all the evidence to the contrary is "fake" anyway? This is how societies end up following one guy down a path of justifying some very violent, authoritarian things.
And this is exactly where today's conservatives are heading when they build a wall around their minds impenetrable by data or reasoning save for the conspiracy mongering sold to them by a fiery populist. Trump may yet be relatively innocuous; his successor who comes back to those same people and more openly justifies patriotic violence, outright purging of minorities, media censorship, and crack-downs on dissent may prove to be less so.
The mainstream media really is way to the left. That's not a conspiracy. That's reality. When over half the country believes this, how is it a conspiracy?
As a centrist, I will tell you that both sides of the political spectrum in this country are out to lunch on certain issues. For every conservative that denies climate change, I'll show you a liberal that denies what illegal immigration has done to this country. For every Conservative that denies that discrimination still exist on a wide scale in this country, I'll show you a liberal that believes it's a far greater problem than it really is.
Both sides are to blame for a great deal of the problems in this country. You're just as big of a problem as some racist hick that doesn't believe in dinosaurs.
The mainstream media really is way to the left. That's not a conspiracy. That's reality. When over half the country believes this, how is it a conspiracy?
As a centrist, I will tell you that both sides of the political spectrum in this country are out to lunch on certain issues. For every conservative that denies climate change, I'll show you a liberal that denies what illegal immigration has done to this country. For every Conservative that denies that discrimination still exist on a wide scale in this country, I'll show you a liberal that believes it's a far greater problem than it really is.
Both sides are to blame for a great deal of the problems in this country. You're just as big of a problem as some racist hick that doesn't believe in dinosaurs.
Didn't know that, did you?
On a wide scale? lmao Of course not. When one cannot discuss policy the thing to do is falsely play the race card. You may say you're a centrist, whatever that means, but you're every bit as unethical as the loony left.
All we heard from the left was how great it would be to have a black president. But that isn't racism right. And btw your absurd notion that "hicks" are racist is elitist garbage. Racism is a defect of the heart. Get off your high horse.
[quote=ambient;45819313]It's very simple: they have bought into a culture that denies data-driven evidence and assumes everything not fitting with their argument to be a conspiracy against them.
On a wide scale? lmao Of course not. When one cannot discuss policy the thing to do is falsely play the race card. You may say you're a centrist, whatever that means, but you're every bit as unethical as the loony left.
All we heard from the left was how great it would be to have a black president. But that isn't racism right. And btw your absurd notion that "hicks" are racist is elitist garbage. Racism is a defect of the heart. Get off your high horse.
You're exactly what these lib-tards go after. You're uneducated and driven by emotion. Work on that
We could have easily won the White house if people like you didn't exist, but there are just enough of you to poison the party with a bunch of religious nonsense.
It starts with a cultivation that all media outlets are against you, that elections are rigged, that all the data is faked. Then it moves into acceptance of more and more extremist behavior in the name of countering the conspiracy - how can it be wrong, when all the evidence to the contrary is "fake" anyway? This is how societies end up following one guy down a path of justifying some very violent, authoritarian things.
You really need to learn how the world works before you make comments like this.
The world is made up of people. And each person has his own selfish-interests. And he is trying to further his own selfish-interests.
Let us take someone like Noam Chomsky, a hero of the left. He has no faith in the media, nor does he believe America is even a democracy.
Is he just an idiot falling for conspiracy theories?
The same thing applies to George Carlin. Who believed the media was basically just an arm of big-business, which itself was just an arm of government.
Was he just a conspiratorial idiot?
As Bernie Sanders might say, the media doesn't truly represent "the people". They are part of the "billionaire class".
What else could they be?
The media looks out for themselves, and their billionaire corporate sponsors. The men who actually comprise the media, are extremely rich men, and who are already in positions of power and influence under the status quo.
Thus they are necessarily anti-revolutionary. And they depend, for their existence, on the money coming to them from other billionaire corporations and interests.
But more importantly, the media controls the people. Almost everything that the average person sees and hears, comes through their TV's(or equivalent). Thus, whoever controls the media, controls the people.
If it comes from any source which is reasonably expected to be biased, assume it is tainted.
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