This is a fascinating article that explains why the quote often attributed to PT Barnum about a sucker is born every minute is even more true in America today where the emotional rantings of Beck, Palin, Rush, et al work and intellectual debate of issues in full doesn’t. Read the whole article (this excerpt only touches the surface) to understand why we have become a nation of ‘sheeple’.
Why are so many American voters enraged by attempts to change a horribly inefficient [health care] system that leaves them with premiums they often cannot afford? Why are they manning the barricades to defend insurance companies that routinely deny claims and cancel policies?
It might be tempting to put the whole thing down to what the historian Richard Hofstadter back in the 1960s called “the paranoid style” of American politics, in which God, guns and race get mixed into a toxic stew of resentment at anything coming out of Washington. But that would be a mistake.
If people vote against their own interests, it is not because they do not understand what is in their interest or have not yet had it properly explained to them. They do it because they resent having their interests decided for them by politicians who think they know best. There is nothing voters hate more than having things explained to them as though they were idiots. As the saying goes, in politics, when you are explaining, you are losing. And that makes anything as complex or as messy as healthcare reform a very hard sell.
In his book The Political Brain, psychologist Drew Westen, an exasperated Democrat, tried to show why the Right often wins the argument even when the Left is confident that it has the facts on its side.
[...]
Right-wing politics has become a vehicle for channelling this popular anger against intellectual snobs. The result is that many of America’s poorest citizens have a deep emotional attachment to a party that serves the interests of its richest.Thomas Frank says that whatever disadvantaged Americans think they are voting for, they get something quite different.
#60, Well, then maybe you should have a Police Dept. Corporation, a Fire Dept. Corporation, and a Water Works and Sewage Corporation. And then see just how quickly all of your municipal services GO TO HELL, when some for-profit corporations take over.
You are missing the big picture here. These are all local entities, or at worst, state entities. They are not national organizations.
What works at the local level has never, not once, ever worked at the national level without cause more grief and suffering.
Besides, it’s not in the Constitution.
I will decide for myself what my self-interests are when I vote, thank you very much. That is why everyone has the opportunity to vote. Does the author think things would be better if we all sent our proxies to some organization, such as ACORN, who can determine our self interests for us?
#56 That piece of news is everywhere. Is not an exclusive nor an editorial from the Washington Examiner, dumb sheeple!
And who the hell believes a word from the WHO. Weren’t they who claimed that we needed big pharma to avoid dying a painful death from h1n1?
Poor sheeple!
GLennE you should consider looking up some facts about the Supreme Court case. They didn’t overturn a hundred years of precedent. The government didn’t even consider those to be the relevant cases as precedent for this case, and didn’t defend along those lines.
Or perhaps you can just go on acting like Alec Baldwin in Team America,”THe big corporations..they are corporatey”
Cities are corporations. If you are proposing banning cities, you have my interest. It’s much harder to be an anonymous, useless welfare slug in a town than in a city.
I got the pedal to the floor and my life is running faster. The sheep have poor foot coordination. Recall the Audi. The pedals confused the sheep. The toughest part to replace is the nut behind the wheel. Toyota thinks they have a fix. Nobody seems 100% sure. “Nov 2, 2009 … Toyota says stuck accelerator problem entirely due to floor-mat jams”. Now it’s something else or maybe the computer. The Audi was a mystery and I believe they discovered the sheep were mashing the wrong pedal. Keep flirtin’ with disaster guys. I’m going down this lonesome road, feel like I’m carrying a heavy load. You can’t tell what will go wrong next. Security problems are human problems, not technical problems. It looks like a rare problem. Throw it into neutral. The sheep would need to think fast.
Thus there is a paradox, and we must grasp both ends of the situation.
# 15 Eyelid Stuck In The Bench Vise – Again…:
Wow, thanks for telling me about myself. Gee, I didn’t know all that stuff about how I think in lies and want to harm all individuals, and how foolish of me to think about trying to help out the poor and downtrodden. Now I see the error of my ways! I must instead dedicate myself to further enriching the elite, whose grand-daddies, the robber barons, enslaved thousands and robbed tens of thousands more!
Now turn off your computers, everyone, and get to work! Mrs. Mellon needs another foot rub & Mr. Scaife needs his #7 yacht polished!
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# 21 Greg Allen:
Readers of Asimov’s Foundation series will recognize what I mean when I say Reagan was like The Mule.
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# 23 dusanmal:
“Typical liberal misconception that majority of people are stupid.”
Well, don’t forget: fully _half_ of them are below average…
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Then # 43 Traaxx burst in and stated anyone who ever voted for a “Progressive/Commie” is as guilty of the murders of millions as “Stalin/Mao/Idi Amin/Pol Pot and Hitler.”
Wow. First, let me just yell “GODWIN!!!” Then let me just stand in awe of the extreme bitterness and add a [Citation Needed], and mention that he forgot to drag in ACORN and SEIU.
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# 47 deowll:
“… My numbers say the US is on the way down as a leader of nations and economic power house.
The liberals say this _can’t_ happen[...]”
I disagree with your assertion. As a confirmed liberal myself I have seen it already starting to happen. In fact, I have known liberals who thought it was a good idea. Those are the ones I consider too far left…
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# 54 MikeN:
“…Obama himself admits that you won’t be able to keep your current plan…” [Citation Needed]
#55 pedro:
“…And you actually believe the WHO?[...]”
Them collidge boiz think ther SO smart…
#67, and how foolish of me to think about trying to help out the poor and downtrodden. Now I see the error of my ways!
No one is telling you that you can’t do that.
What we are telling you is you don’t have the right to tell us to do that.
You honestly can’t see the difference?
Yep, “Fuck you, I got mine.” is the “Conservative” position. What you guys don’t get, (Hey, denial is a symptom, too!) is that just because you “got yours” today is no guarantee that you are going to have it tomorrow.
Our owners will feed you or me to the wolves just a quick as they would any homeless person.
They don’t see any difference between you and any other crackhead. The delusion that you are any “better” is all in your head, the owners don’t see it that way. Just another chicken hanging upside down by it’s feet as the conveyor feeds you into the machinery.
#69, That’s your fear talking. Just because I don’t want to be TOLD to be charitable, doesn’t mean I am not charitable.
I give to charities all the time. I donate, on average, a full day each week to charities.
Is that not enough for you? How much of my time do you think I should donate?
I swear that American politics have it the wrong way round – the rich and priviledged are supposed to be right-wing (business men and fascists). The under-priviledged working man is left wing (labour and communists).
Yet somehow in America the low class working man typically votes right-wing Republican and sees the left-wing Democrats as “the elected privileged class” (quoting #15).
This means that the hard-working poor American ends up voting for the rich Republican businessmen rulers who screw them over rigidly – and they love them for it. Its absolutely psychotic.