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It used to be that nut-jobs struggled to find fellow travelers, limited as they were by geography and the technology of communications. Back in 1996 I observed in a presentation I was giving my CEO in this new fangled thing called the World Wide Web that, "If there are five people in the world who really care deeply about extinct Bahamian land-snails, they will find each other on the web."
The Internet has created a massive echo chamber where idiots can join with other idiots and repeat idiocy to each other without any requirement to ever hear a contradictory view point. It is a garagantuan feedback loop where even the most egregious stupidity can be broadcast to millions at the speed of light. Competence and reason are no longer filters to the widespread dissemination of ideas.
2. A black president.
Let's not pretend. The election of Barack Obama was a shock to the systems of American racists and crypto-racists. But being on the wrong side of history, most knew well enough that explicit racism would get them nowhere in the objective of their blind rage; to get this president out of office. So instead they have chosen veiled alternatives such as Birthism, false accusations that he is a communist, or a Muslim, or that he is going to take away our guns. The worst of them in Congress have even actively worked to sabotage the economic recovery in an effort to deny Obama a second term.
These two factors have created a crisis that is consuming and destroying the Republican Party at a time when there is no centrist or even right of center alternative to take their place. The civil war inside the GOP burns as brightly as it did when the Tea Party was first co-opted by the fringe.
Is there any other explanation for Obama's current campaign, which never mentions anything Obama has done, but concentrates on accusing Mitt Romney of hating the poor, killing people's wives, etc.?
You responded to your own post. Talk to yourself much?
Typical commie socialist liberal Obama-loving enviro-Nazi capitalism-hating BS, whining about the loss of some slimy snails! According to something I read on the CATO Institute site that was then reposted on my cousin's best friend's dog-walker's aunt's blog, Bahamian land-snails are NOT extinct, and anyone suggesting otherwise is a dirty smelly patchouli-drenched tree-hugging Occupy hippie LIAR who wants to force all Americans to live in yurts and eat broccoli and organically-grown quinoa!!
The ideological purging of the moderates and moderate conservatives from the Republican Party.
Heck, even Reagan wouldn't win in today's Republican Party (the REAL Reagan, not the mythical figure that Tea Partiers worship).
There were ALWAYS right-wing nutjobs, by the way. McCarthyites, Birchers, the supporters of George Wallace's campaign in 1968. They were not, however, the only voices in the Republican Party...until rather recently.
This is the truth. While folks like Reagan and William F. Buckley went out of their way to purge or slap down the raving loons like the John Birchers the modern Republican Party is now owned and controlled by the extremist fringe. It's a direct result of the massively jerrymandered congressional districts and the end of the fairness doctrine in the media; that's how you saw organizations like Fox be created and start suing for their "right to lie and call it news". Fox literally did that.
To bad President Obama can't run on a campaign about all the "GOOD" he's done for the US of A. Instead it's bashing and more bashing............I think the right is just trying to keep up, but they shouldn't act like the left it's to unappealing.
The problem is that the majority of the American public is either too lazy or too stupid to think for themselves about how to vote. Everyone has their idealization of what they feel would be best for the country. Everyone thinks of himself or herself as the best possible candidate. When we vote on a candidate, we should be voting for someone who represents the ideals we best feel represents our own viewpoints. This is most evidenced by the typical saying, "If I had my way..." or "If I were running things..."
The majority of the American public can't determine for themselves what they feel is best for the country. Most Americans don't know about economics, international affairs, the multitudes of domestic issues, etc... That a candidate has to deal with on a day-to-day basis. So, in order to fulfill those needs, most Americans turn on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, or something similar and they listen to people spew talking points.
Essentially what happens is the general public fails to formalize their own thoughts and opinions of what they feel is best for the country. They simply regurgitate what they're told by the magic box that hangs on the wall. Once a group of collective thought processes moves forward in such a manner, it's not hard for it to steer right off a cliff.
Most Americans never heard of Keynesian Economics until the bailouts happened. Suddenly, Fox News does an interview with some right-wing economist on the Bill O'Reilly show, the guy mentions Keynesian Economics as this liberal, left-wing, agenda and guess what? Suddenly, everyone watching has mutated into an expert on economics and how bad Keynesian Economics is. Did they come up with that thought themselves? No. The vast majority didn't. They were simply told it was bad by an authority figure in a believable manner. They weren't given the other side, they weren't taught the basic principles of it, or anything of that nature.
People watch the "fear box" because it's so much easier to be told what to think rather than to think for oneself. They let drama, fear, a tinge of educational material, and a lot of ignorance guide the way they think. Then, you have an army of mobilized idiots screaming that our President is a "Foreign-born, socialist, Muslim/Atheist, who is hellbent on the destruction of America by taking away our guns, forcing us to get medical insurance, and will send us off to the communal farm to pick cherries for the government if we disagree."
So, the basic premise is that the majority of people are idiots who have no ability to think for themselves but are willing to pass the ideas they ripped straight from the TV as their own. It's kind of comical when you think about it.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
8,852 posts, read 10,455,696 times
Reputation: 6670
Quote:
Originally Posted by GCSTroop
The problem is that the majority of the American public is either too lazy or too stupid to think for themselves about how to vote. Everyone has their idealization of what they feel would be best for the country. Everyone thinks of himself or herself as the best possible candidate. When we vote on a candidate, we should be voting for someone who represents the ideals we best feel represents our own viewpoints. This is most evidenced by the typical saying, "If I had my way..." or "If I were running things..."
The majority of the American public can't determine for themselves what they feel is best for the country. Most Americans don't know about economics, international affairs, the multitudes of domestic issues, etc... That a candidate has to deal with on a day-to-day basis. So, in order to fulfill those needs, most Americans turn on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, or something similar and they listen to people spew talking points.
Essentially what happens is the general public fails to formalize their own thoughts and opinions of what they feel is best for the country. They simply regurgitate what they're told by the magic box that hangs on the wall. Once a group of collective thought processes moves forward in such a manner, it's not hard for it to steer right off a cliff.
Most Americans never heard of Keynesian Economics until the bailouts happened. Suddenly, Fox News does an interview with some right-wing economist on the Bill O'Reilly show, the guy mentions Keynesian Economics as this liberal, left-wing, agenda and guess what? Suddenly, everyone watching has mutated into an expert on economics and how bad Keynesian Economics is. Did they come up with that thought themselves? No. The vast majority didn't. They were simply told it was bad by an authority figure in a believable manner. They weren't given the other side, they weren't taught the basic principles of it, or anything of that nature.
People watch the "fear box" because it's so much easier to be told what to think rather than to think for oneself. They let drama, fear, a tinge of educational material, and a lot of ignorance guide the way they think. Then, you have an army of mobilized idiots screaming that our President is a "Foreign-born, socialist, Muslim/Atheist, who is hellbent on the destruction of America by taking away our guns, forcing us to get medical insurance, and will send us off to the communal farm to pick cherries for the government if we disagree."
So, the basic premise is that the majority of people are idiots who have no ability to think for themselves but are willing to pass the ideas they ripped straight from the TV as their own. It's kind of comical when you think about it.
Interesting idea... it‘s like information has become so cheap and plentiful now, but what most folks actually consume is just sorta the ‘pre-processed‘ intellectual equivalent of "fast food" (and with just about the same quality and "nutritional value")!
The Internet, talk radio, and cable news have also given us the ability to completely isolate ourselves into little ideologically-pure boxes. And it all started with the demise of the Fairness Doctrine.
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