WHAT THE F IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE??
I keep reading comments from some contributors on various channels, that are anti-government.
I keep hearing about protestors who claim that the government has no right to tell them to stay home during Covid 19, because they have a "constitutional right" to keep their shops open or go to work.
EXAMPLE:
I was listening to a radio call in show, where a caller raged about being told he can't open his business because of his "constitutional rights" and when the host of the show reminded the caller that "rights" aren't absolute, that you can't yell "fire" in a movie theater, carry an AK 27 through a mall, or punch your own kid on the side of the head, the caller retorted that he was not about to give up his "constitutional rights" for the sake of some geriatrics who are going to die anyways.
SAY WHAT?
This canard that the government should stay out of your business, that less government is the best way to go, is SO OLD it is laughable.
This lack of responsibility is what has led to the crisis we have in the U.S. now where Trump says testing is up to the States, and State governors are being ridiculed for stay-at-home orders, while the death toll climbs.
What these folks are really saying, is I don't want government interfering in what I consider important, but please interfere when I want something done my way.
Outlaw abortion, close abortion clinics, isn't this government interference?
Collect my garbage, bring me my mail, police my streets, isn't that government interference?
Keep government out of my healthcare, because I don't want health care for all, because dontcha know, that is socialism.
YET every other civilized country in the world has some form of health care for all, delivering better health care, at a lower per capita cost than what we have in the good ole U.S. of A.
AND don't even try to deflect or argue semantics, it is A FACT. When you have thousands of people in a civilized nation going broke because of medical bills, you know something is wrong.
WE have laws to protect our property and lives, who wrote those laws? GOVERNMENT!
And yet the same people who cry to the high heavens about getting government out of our lives, love it when that same government engages in gerrymandering, voter suppression, closing of voting booths (primarily in black districts), and purges voter rolls - because the simple idea of anyone who can produce a birth certificate or proof of citizenship can not get a federal ID card because THAT is government interference?????
Almost everyone who has ever argued with me on the subject of government involvement into our lives keeps citing the Constitution, yet - here is the irony - WHO WROTE THE CONSTITUTION? I am guessing some government types.
Pragmatic politics focused on the public interest for those uncomfortable with America's two-party system and its way of doing politics. Considering the interface of politics with psychology, cognitive biology, social behavior, morality and history.
Etiquette
DP Etiquette
First rule: Don't be a jackass.
Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Interviews With a Few of the President's Supporters
The human condition in politics
“. . . . the typical citizen drops down to a lower level of mental performance as soon as he enters the political field. He argues and analyzes in a way which he would readily recognize as infantile within the sphere of his real interests. . . . cherished ideas and judgments we bring to politics are stereotypes and simplifications with little room for adjustment as the facts change. . . . . the real environment is altogether too big, too complex, and too fleeting for direct acquaintance. We are not equipped to deal with so much subtlety, so much variety, so many permutations and combinations. Although we have to act in that environment, we have to reconstruct it on a simpler model before we can manage it.” -- Democracy For Realists: Why Elections do not Produce Responsive Governments, Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels, 2016This 13-minute interview with a series of the president's supporters shows the level of reasoning that a small sample appears to operate with. Not all of the president's supporters think like this, but at least some, maybe most, clearly do. This mindset looks to be much more ideological and tribal than fact-based and rational.
How can one enter into a rational dialogue with people like this? How does one respond to a person who flat out rejects facts and sound reasoning in favor of dark free speech and tribe loyalty?
Monday, April 20, 2020
FTLDS: Fact, Truth & Logic Deficit Syndrome
Trust me I’m a deranged crackpot and I have FTLDS
As we all know, we are experiencing an epidemic of FTLDS among the American people. One example is the president relying on a young promoter of reality-detached, socially divisive, crackpot conspiracies and lies. The New York Times writes that a couple of days ago the president retweeted 11 of the liar’s tweets:
“The tweets by Mr. Kirk, 26, who runs Turning Point USA, a conservative student group, hit just the right marks for the president. One tweet accused the World Health Organization of covering up the coronavirus outbreak, and upbraided Democrats for opposing the president’s decision to cut the group’s funding. Another claimed Democrats were appeasing Beijing and not doing enough to help Americans left jobless by the pandemic. A few covered some of the president’s longstanding grievances, such as the conviction of Roger Stone and claims of voter fraud. A well-worn conspiracy theory about Hunter Biden’s dealings with China even made an appearance. ..... In fact, Mr. Trump first introduced his more than 77 million Twitter followers to the phrase “China Virus” in a retweet of a post by Mr. Kirk on March 10 that linked two Trumpian obsessions: China and the border wall. “Now more than ever, we need the wall. With China Virus spreading across the globe, the U.S. stands a chance if we can control our borders,” Mr. Kirk wrote.”The far right conservative student group earned an unacceptably low fact accuracy rating, which I define as a Mixed or lower rating.
That the president of the USA has turned to a radical right crackpot conspiracy theorist and incoherent liar for socially divisive talking points is evidence of how bad the FTLDS epidemic has become. Fact, truth and sound reasoning[1] have been infected and destroyed by this virulent social pestilence. The damage it can cause is potentially catastrophic.
Unfortunately, there is no treatment or vaccine on the horizon because federal law free speech bars any meaningful attempts to treat the cause of the disease (lies, deceit, dark free speech) or at least reduce its severity. Lies and crackpot conspiracies cannot be taxed or impeded in any way and thus unvaccinated Americans are vulnerable to this heinous scourge.
Footnote:
1. Technically, humans do not use formal logic in their normal thinking. Instead they apply reasoning. Reasoning consists mostly of biased unconscious thinking and sometimes some usually biased conscious thinking. For politics, reasoning is usually more illogical than logical. Thus, the president's young new political strategist comments that building the wall on the Mexican border will control the pandemic is not an application of logic. He is applying biased reasoning to arrive at illogical and false beliefs and statements.
News and Truthiness...
I was looking at some old correspondence between me and my
beloved uncle, who passed away about 5 years ago. I sure miss him. One of his question to me was: “Why is the
truth not required when reporting the news?”
Here was my answer:
(Tap or click on pages to enlarge)
So let me ask you the same question(s):
-Why is actual truth not required when reporting news?
-Do any of my answers especially hit home with you and/or
can you add some more reasons to the list?
-Wouldn’t you always rather hear the actual truth, rather
than spin?
Thanks for posting and recommending.
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