it can’t be defeated with logic and reasoning

YouTube channel Knowing Better made a video about the Seventh Day Adventist. Basically the same conclusion.

FOX “News” has effectively divided, conditioned and massaged Republicans for decades to regurgitate the message disseminated by Rupert Murdoch through their favorite flavor talking heads (Bill O’Reilly, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and more recently Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters).

They went from ‘Russia bad’ in the 1980’s to ‘Russia good’ and ‘America had it wrong’. The viewers lack critical thought under scrutiny and regurgitate the talking points of their favorite broadcasters.

“Conservatism […] can’t be defeated with logic and reasoning”

This is the key point that a lot of people miss.

If you wholeheartedly, or at least performatively, believe that there is a “natural” hierarchy where some people are better than others, then what one might see as equality is seen as oppression by hardline conservatives.

This is why emotion is the key component of Trumpian messaging, regardless of veracity.

The key is to never play the game. Always proactivity act with questions, never “defend” and react with truth; they’re not interested in the truth.

His debate performance was stunning because he spent 75% of his time talking about how we are being invaded by an enormous wave of criminals and insane asylum escapees who are violently claiming buildings and territory. I was like excuse me? Do I need to go check my yard for invaders? I didn’t realize we were being overrun. And yes I live in a state that borders Mexico.

It’s not conservativism, conservativism has been captured by think tanks funded by oil and banking billionaires. They’re framed conservativism, gutted it, and replaced its insides with Libertarianism (and sometimes technocratic fascism), as that’s what gives them the lowest taxes, the most corporate welfare, union busting capabilities, and defends their wealth accumulation most efficiently.

They’re not good members of society, this is demonstrated in Trump’s fascism (which is based on Roy Cohn’s fascism). It seeks to destroy society, the nation, and government.

Jesus was a socialist Jew. We had one of those run for President, too, but couldn’t make it past the Democratic primary.

Jesus is a Mexican name. Check mate.

Closer to 50/50 with the electoral college.

Like the real Jesus would run as a Democrat. At least with the Devil you know where you stand! /s

And it pisses me off that people will vote for the dipshit because he’s an R, but i would vote for a half-dead horny toad on the other side.

It’s a good article. It explains rural America. It doesn’t explain the well off assholes living in Huntington Beach CA. It doesn’t explain the well off assholes living in suburban Inland SoCal. It doesn’t explain rich privileged shitheads like Musk and Thiel.

Honestly, hadn’t read this one and it’s got some seriously solid points in it.

I remember reading this and thinking it had some points. Then I remembered that despite having some of the same issues, we have vastly different responses. When I’m lied to and beaten, I don’t look to the person that did it for help.

For instance, the church being the only social space. They could have a community center or a library. Sure funds are hard to come by but what kind of political party would even consider that? The answer is probably further left than democrats but fifty years of red scare won’t let anyone accept that.

The “writing them off” part comes from their willingness to not ostracize evil people when they get something they want. We can all be bullheaded or blinded by bias from time to time but accountability and decency shouldn’t be political.

Great read. There’s 70+ million people out there choosing to vote for Trump, why? Even if the answer is complicated you can’t dismiss them all outright.

I see a decent amount of comments painting all republics with one brush. I think it’s low effort and unproductive.

Good read thanks

I feel like this is just gift wrapping being a dumb racist hick in prettier paper. They are scared of cities because their full of black people, gays, and Mexicans. They like assholes who show the same level of hate as they do - who will keep the black people, gays, and Mexicans away. And they like someone who justifies hiding behind religion so they can tell themselves that God made them this dumb and rascist. So they can delude themselves into thinking they are really the good guy.

Good read. Thanks!

That was an amazing read.

I mean it’s definitely an interesting read. I’m just not sure what to actually do with this information. The fundamental problem feels like a generally small bubble, and at times a specific disinterest in venturing outside of it. If anyone’s whole worldview is shaped entirely by their tiny rural hometown, it’s easy to understand why others with radically different backgrounds feel scary.

But at the end of the day, it doesn’t feel like a good enough reason to drag the rest of the country through rigid christofacist moral dogmas and support the industries that prop up those small towns at the expense of the planet as a whole. But as long as those people aren’t interested in venturing outside their communities and meeting other different people, im not sure how to convince them of this.

Maybe if the cost of living becomes too untenable in major cities and work from home continues in certain industries rural areas will see more growth and this will improve somewhat? Idk

The problem with that argument is that 80% of people live in cities. There are not enough rural people for them to be a majority of the Republican party.

Jason Pargin is a goddamn hero.

Low density places are always going to kind of suck on a lot of metrics. You just don’t have the people to support a lot of stuff. I’m sorry that small towns are dying but like there’s not really a reason they’d thrive.

Cities have been important since like the dawn of history. At least farms grow food. Suburban sprawl is the worst.

Cost of living needs to go down and wages up, but no one should be vying for low density.

Fun piece. I don’t know about best explanation ever.

It starts out talking about how movies idealize simple honest people from the heartlands (Star Wars, The Hunger Games, Braveheart) but then says:

the whole goddamn world revolves around them. Every TV show is about LA or New York, maybe with some Chicago or Baltimore thrown in. When they did make a show about us, we were jokes

So which is it? Does pop culture feed rural America’s sense that it is “Real America” or does it make them hillbillies?

As if explaining politics through TV and movies isn’t reductive enough, it can’t seem to keep its own story straight for ten paragraphs in row.

That was from before we knew better. We’ve seen since then that it is indeed racism and hatred that powers the Republican base. That’s why the GOP doesn’t need to have any real policy laid out anymore. They just have to promise to hurt the “right” people this time around. Any sane Republicans that existed then are voting Democrat now.

I’ve read this article when it was posted before and my impression is it does EXACTLY the thing to non-rural voters as it warns the reader about doing to rural voters. I can quote the bits if you are going to force me to read it again, but I don’t see how anyone can fail to see that.

It also doesn’t change the fact that the party who might actually make their lives better is NOT the one they are voting for.

Also - racism (and bigotry generally)

That’s an interesting point of view.

That was an amazing read. My hometown was really similar, though maybe not as desolate. Lucky there was a college town close by so we could shop at some place that wasn’t Walmart. This really does sum it up, though, the appeal of Trump out of these smaller rural communities. I like the message at the end, too. Thanks for sharing. 🙏

I would love to but the amount of ads on that article make it absolute cancer on my phone.

An add every other paragraph. It’s fucking gross. And yes. I am using addblockers.

This explains a demographic analysis without explaining anything meaningful or unique. The article could be about any post-Regan Republican campaign (such demographic analysis is used by all modern campaigns, on bith sides), so it wasn’t a satisfying article. Combined with all the pop culture references, it comes off as quite immature and an unextraordinary explanation. Mediocre.

even the idea of altruism is a lie.

Wow. You’re right. Helping others is as politicized as abortion. One of the tribes can’t even fathom uplifting their neighbors because that could be equated to socialism and it would get them kicked out of their in-group.

I rmember stephen colbert’s face lol

There’s some truth to this, but if you take the effort to break out of your media bubble, to find original sources, to read documentary evidence, indictments, transcripts.

To go the other direction and track down evidence for Trump’s accusations against others,

the guy comes off even worse.

I’m actually curious.

Are there countries (ones that have a voting system) where it isn’t all one big popularity contest?

I know they say don’t judge a book by its cover but your friend sounds like he ate glue sticks in elementary.

Have you considered that you actually found a tankie in the wild?

他會說中文嗎？

It’s honestly madness.

The former President, running a multi-million dollar campaign, with access to the best information in the world, has nothing to say but rambling “but the TV said, but the TV said!”

Just an absolute fool.

Conservatives who are capable of good quality research, and honest self-reflection barely exist because those two qualities often destroy their affiliations to modern conservativism as it stands today.

So some become neocon-neoliberal hybrids, others become economic Libertarians or Fascists in sheeps clothing, but most, are just as they seem - people who feel betrayed and shut out by the prevailing liberalisms of the day (often personified in the form of an ex-wife, ex-boss, or minority on the street), and it’s something they don’t want to investigate or research honestly.

In fact, most conservatives of this “follower” ilk, are deeply and psychologically invested in their sickness, in maintaining their “honest dogma” as it explains past traumas and the state of their lives in easy and convenient ways.

Get them together in groups and it becomes a self-reenforcing system. Self-propagating. It’s a self-sustaining set of problems and problem mindsets.

Some for conspiracy theorists, gets to be a real problem when they get a platform too.

Not= naught

FYI

The whole “small town on the edge of dying” bit. Holy shit have I experienced that firsthand.

See, what happened with a lot of these towns is that their industry became a part of their pride and culture. Where I’m from it’s coal. Trucks everywhere have a decal of a coal miner with one of two phrases. “Coal keeps the lights on.” and “6 inches from hell.”

My grandfather was a coal miner, so was his father, and his father, on both sides of my family. My father realized that the industry was dying so he left (and left us here haha). My brother did it for awhile but left it behind because of the drug problems in the mines. There was a whole underground urine market that kept things moving.

Even the poor fools who never worked in the mines go on and on about coal like it’s some kind of idol.

I would imagine the same thing happens in other places. The people fear big changes until their fear backs them into irrelevance. I’m getting older, so I can relate to that, only I vote for my kids, not to make me feel less afraid. Whatever world they grow up in won’t be one that I’d be perfectly comfortable in. It has always been that way as far back as we have been recording history. No sense in fighting where the world is going just because I don’t understand it or relate to it.

This is the right answer. Money. There’s plenty of the rest of the stuff mentioned, but cults of any sort are useful tools for the powerful. And actually, it’s not even money, it’s POWER.

Democrats are a varied group. If Republicans weren’t so bat shit crazy, it would be nearly impossible to get all the Democrats to support the same person or set of policy preferences.

I think built into the question is - how can there still be so many Republicans? The 30% - 40% of voters who support him know what he’s about. That’s a fuck ton of spiteful adults in America. Seems like Canada, UK, and others in Europe aren’t so different either. Fuck.

I’m a socialist and I’ll vote D for as long as the GOP is the other option.

It’s 100% this. Politics is treated like a sport in the USA; the only thing that matters is your side winning, and which side you root for is largely dictated by location and family history. This is encouraged by the private news media, who intentionally report on election campaigns in this manner in order to increase ratings and ad revenue. Social media only made it worse because it made a lot of abstract identity dimensions, such as political affiliation, feel stronger to people than their everyday lives.

I’d say most Americans aren’t Republicans/Democrats, just like most Americans aren’t Christians.

Registering as an independent is a stupid idea in most states, it just means you get less say in the government that rules you. So many people register just because they would rather have the ability to say, “nah not that person” in the primaries.

As for the religion part, if Americans got taxed annually like they do in other countries and had to pay the church out of their incomes or check a box that says they aren’t religious, the number of religious people listed would drop by a fuck ton. Not a single person I know would pay 4% or something to their church, many would lie and say they do, but they would take the money every time. Especially when they realized everyone else was doing it, so poof they no longer would feel bad about doing it.

I would bet we would drop to 25% after 2 years, 10% after 5, and 3% after 10, which is where it would stay. Especially if donations to church’s didn’t grant tax deductions, which they shouldnt be.

How did I get here? Oh, Fuck the party system.