Arthur Brain
Well-known member
I wish I could say that I was surprised but these days...
Opinion: American right becoming completely untethered from reality
- Thread starter annabenedetti
- Start date
Democrat propagandists continue to call the truth a lie and slander honest, accurate, and intelligent new stories as conspiracy theories. That is because the whole democrat political system is built upon lies, corruption and deceit.
annabenedetti
like marbles on glass
Does this explain a lot... David Horowitz, mentor to Stephen Miller:
In a strategy paper Horowitz emailed Miller in December 2012, as the Republican Party was publicly reckoning with its failure to appeal to communities of color, Horowitz called for Republicans to launch a campaign of fear. He later said they “must begin every confrontation by punching progressives in the mouth.”
In a strategy paper Horowitz emailed Miller in December 2012, as the Republican Party was publicly reckoning with its failure to appeal to communities of color, Horowitz called for Republicans to launch a campaign of fear. He later said they “must begin every confrontation by punching progressives in the mouth.”
ok doser
lifeguard at the cement pond
False narratives like ...
The world is going to end in 12 years?
An unborn child is not worth protecting?
God doesn't exist?
Men can be women?
The only black lives that matter are those that can be used for political power?
ok doser
lifeguard at the cement pond
Progressives are insane, anna
Lon
Well-known member
Moderate? Probably a good place with a nation being ripped in half by partisan groups on the extremes (the extremes of both the Right AND the Left are 'untethered' as it were). Politically, I'm still right-leaning on many issues. It is a pleasant enlightenment to read you are too. Tribal? If you and I are 'in the same tribe' then I'd reckon it isn't as tribal as some would accuse. :e4e:
annabenedetti
like marbles on glass
I'd like to think that as Americans we're in the same tribe, Lon, but I'm pretty discouraged these days about the American tribe. If you were my neighbor and you needed help, I'd give it gladly, but it's an altered reality online, who knows how much of it is bot-driven, how much is armchair bluster and how much is genuine. What I'm reading from the far right is disturbingly delusional but how is it different from the past? How much by kind, how much by degree?
In the psychology of groups, the best indicator of two warring factions finding common ground is when they have to unite to fight an enemy greater than them, who's a threat to them both. In the micro, that's why domestic violence calls can be so dangerous - the chance that the abused partner will join with the abuser against the responding cop. In the macro, that's why right and left (in general) came together behind Bush after 9/11. It didn't last long, but it was there for a time. Before the Iraq invasion, before the Patriot Act, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib.
What I see from conservatives now is (to me) so much worse than the conservatism I left. But then maybe it's because I'm naive, being relatively recently separated from conservatism I can't clearly see yet how much the underpinnings of today were in the conservatism I grew up in and lived in for so many years. How much the racism was there, the xenophobia, the nativism, the drive for religion-based political power, the disregard for the nation's underprivileged, the money poured into the military-industrial complex that could've been used for education, infrastructure, social safety nets. And the fear-based, relentless propaganda that if you didn't vote Republican the commies were going to come take your religion and your guns away from you and put you in reeducation camps. Of course it happened it other countries, I don't want to play that down in any way, I despise totalitarianism. I grew up in that time hearing the horrors of Cambodia and Viet Nam and Romania, China, USSR. I was surrounded by the idea that marxism would take away everything that was beautiful and everything that was traditional, without the awareness that the promise of what would bring that "back" was a fascist promise.
Lon
Well-known member
I read an interesting article about one college's finding regarding extremism recently (will have to look for it again). It said that the left and right are remarkably the same at the extreme ends. I'm not sure if the take-away was that media and politics made the division by spotlighting polarized issues, but that is what I took away from the report: that we have things in our minds that are very important, but that politics, in their constant fighting and siding, have made us a nation of friction. It is true: The media/news/political presence is largely designed (knowingly or not) to separate us and polarize. A lot of 'real' tv is gauged to show us the worst of 'them.' I believe I'm very resistant and resilient to most of it, but mostly because I won't watch it or read it. Sometimes I get grief for it, but I'm convinced I have to be in charge of my own thoughts and way of thinking and while I have to be informed to vote, I'm always looking for the big picture. By and large, I vote for anybody that is truly focused on families. In my mind, 'family' is our biggest commonality and shared value that 'can' unite a nation. -Lon
ok doser
lifeguard at the cement pond
Do you remember 15 or 20 years ago when people were predicting the end of the legacy media empires?
Television was going to make newspapers extinct. The Internet was going to make TV based MSM extinct.
They've found a business model that has allowed them to survive - one based on partisanship, based on manufactured racial strife, based on lies - often lies that they are unapologetic for when exposed.
And that's not considering the ugly metastasis that has has developed with social media, so blatantly partisan in the last election cycle.
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Vote fraud has been used by the Democrat party machine for a long long time. Yet lacking of polling places is a voter suppression conspiracy. You don't even know the issues. Why are you here? robot.
Lon
Well-known member
Often, I look at both sides. We are in a climate that is purposefully, unapologetically, partisan and polarizing. If anything, I'm expecting to see more civil unrest as fires continue to be lit and burned. The unrest is palpable. Do you think the change in office in the U.S. has much to do with current violence in Israel too? I'd think it has to, as members of the Democratic party (John Kerry) recently gave Iran information about Israel's military and movements.
annabenedetti
like marbles on glass
If you're thinking of a circular political spectrum where the extreme left and extreme right meet at totalitarianism, I could see that.
That may work for you, and I know some very apolitical people in real life who remove themselves from all of it so they can have peace of mind, but there's a certain privilege in that. They don't realize it, but it's a privilege.
Going through life not knowing what's going on outside my window isn't an option for me. I've followed news and politics since I was trading newspaper sections with my dad as a teen, but choosing what to read or who to trust these days is an ongoing challenge, to be sure. I try to avoid corporate news, and although sometimes the best option for posting an OP article will be exactly that, it doesn't mean it's where I first got the information. As for the "us" and "them," it wasn't news orgs who created the "us" and "them," it's the individuals themselves who've grouped themselves willingly into "us" and "them" - largely on social media - because that's what humans do.
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ok doser
lifeguard at the cement pond
Lon
Well-known member
Probably right. I don't fully realize exactly what you mean here.
You can say that again (though once is enough surely).
You are correct. I think, in Christ, there is a call to 'us.' Sometimes (often?) we don't let people grow. If they aren't where we think they should be, spiritually, we have conflict (denominations, cults, disfellowship, excommunicate).
annabenedetti
like marbles on glass
Just that if someone has the ability to withdraw from political news or current events, that maybe it's because their life is safe and secure and stable enough to withdraw from any negativity. Perhaps their life isn't jolted by anything unsettling that's happening in the world, because whatever it is, it's not happening to them.
ok doser
lifeguard at the cement pond
In Christ
Lon
Well-known member
Ah. As long as I've looked at the news, I've prayed, given to charity, and voted. Having removed myself: No difference. I'm not self-centered in that it isn't happening to me, actually quite a bit of it already has. It is rather not wanting to dwell there. -Lon
Lon
Well-known member
Par for the prophetic course, nothing new there.