US Politics: them's indictin words

[DMC]

2 hours ago, Ormond said:

Perhaps this works in actual crowds. However, on an individual level it is harder to get an angry person to listen to new information than a fearful one. Angry people tend to not be receptive to information which contradicts their beliefs, while fearful people are more motivated to search out new information about what they are afraid of. 

I really don't think the psychology matters, at least in this line of thinking.  We're all scared, we're all angry, and we're all afraid.  At this point these are not emotions the GOP can play off of electorally.  It used to be regarding turnout rates, but 2022 showed us Dems are just as afraid and pissed off.  Perhaps more so.  And frankly, whether the voter is fearful or angry, they're still gonna vote the way they were already inclined.

[Fragile Bird]

1 hour ago, LongRider said:

Hey! Hey! NRA!

HOW MANY KIDS DID YOU KILL TODAY?!

 

repurposed anti-war chant

Sadly, the dead today were all older people, except for the shooter. And the young cop, if he doesn’t make it.

[LongRider]

15 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Sadly, the dead today were all older people, except for the shooter. And the young cop, if he doesn’t make it.

True, although they were children once.  

[Varysblackfyre321]

https://news.yahoo.com/democrats-dealt-another-blow-third-221147966.html
 

Another state rep just switched giving republicans in Louisiana a super majority.

Christ I hope we don’t start seeing US senators following suit.

[The Anti-Targ]

What're the issues they are switching over, or were they always closet Republicans?

[ThinkerX]

39 minutes ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

https://news.yahoo.com/democrats-dealt-another-blow-third-221147966.html
 

Another state rep just switched giving republicans in Louisiana a super majority.

Christ I hope we don’t start seeing US senators following suit.

The oligarchy must be preserved at all costs

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Some of the unfortunate news I read today wrt the Kentucky attack.

The Kentucky mass shooting attack was the 146th in the U.S. so far this year.

The weapon of choice once again an AR-15, which has been used repeatedly for these attacks.

Nearly 25 million Americans have at some point owned an AR-15.

Pathetic.

[Zorral]

Perhaps the most telling line in the story is this:  "What binds these lawmakers and candidates together is an acute sense that the character of the country is on the line and it could determine their own futures. “For them, every part of this conversation is personal,” Litman says."  Which the draft in the era of undeclared war on Vietnam was -- and so were the repressive laws wrt to sex, reproductive health and forced birth.

Meet the young Democrats waging war on MAGA from behind enemy lines

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/11/maga-culture-wars-young-democrats/

Quote

 

.... That’s how Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani feels. Like many others, the Democrat was first inspired to seek office in 2018 by Donald Trump’s presidency. Now, with GOP majorities in Florida pushing book bans, limits on classroom discussions of race and gender, and a six-week abortion ban, Eskamani says she often feels under siege.

“Sometimes, I joke about walking into the Death Star,” Eskamani said about entering the state capital in Tallahassee. “Each one of the communities you care about and the values you cherish are under attack.”

Eskamani has unleashed rousing broadsides on GOP anti-choice bills and has irritated Republicans with her public mockery of their anti-woke posturing. Because the state’s Democratic minority is limited in what it can accomplish, Eskamani says, she stages social media-friendly moments to “effectively communicate outside the chamber” and communicates regularly with other red-state Democrats about what works and what doesn’t. ....

 

There's also this sort of thing going on --Turnup.com. A group of Harvard students have set up a fundraising mechanism to finance registering eligible young'uns to VOTE. Last time I looked their numbers are astounding.......the youth turnup/out in Wisconsin last week was astounding! (We sent $$$).

Gads we are desperate for this kind of organization in this state, where the entire thing, whether Dem or not, is dominated by OLD WHITE$, and thus almost all guys, who sold the party off for more $$$$$$$. They gave up Scott Stringer for behaving poorly in the 1980's (and, evidently not since) and put in this utter corrupt lazy clown as mayor, Eric Adams.

[Ormond]

15 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

My assumption would be that both angry and fearful people will only really be inclined to listen to any information which reinforces their justifications for their fear / anger rather than listen to anything that seeks to demonstrate that their fear or anger is unfounded, or at least somewhat of an overreaction.

Well, according to a friend and former colleague of mine whose area of expertise is political psychology, your assumption is incorrect, at least if you are saying that anger and fear have exactly the same consequence here. Many fearful people would quite like to have information that would convince them their fears are unfounded. 

[Varysblackfyre321]

https://www.salon.com/2023/04/11/dont-say-period-now-florida-wants-to-ban-students-from-discussing-mensuration/
 

To be clear they’re starting off the ban for at least until sixth grade. In a couple months I expect a proposed ban to extend until 12th grade. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

My impression of Americans is that they must be consumed with fear. What else explains the compulsive purchase of 25 million AR-15's?

Americans have a quivering, pant pissing, intractable fear of each other apparently.

[Martell Spy]

11 minutes ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

My impression of Americans is that they must be consumed with fear. What else explains the compulsive purchase of 25 million AR-15's?

Americans have a quivering, pant pissing, intractable fear of each other apparently.

Fear is a big one, definitely. But it's not the only factor. The 2 lawyers in St. Louis that pointed a gun at protesters were definitely fearful, also racist.

It's politics, too. If you buy 5 assault rifles and post them on social media you'll definitely piss off a liberal somewhere in America. Sure you spent a bunch of money and made your family less safe, but mission accomplished at lib trolling.

The best way I've come to terms with this though is it's adults buying toys. And that conclusion made me lose a lot of respect for gun owners by the way. And I was somewhat pro gun as recently as the late 90's. It's like adults buying video game systems which I fully admit to doing. It's kind of childish, but my Xbox is unlikely to kill anyone either intentionally or by accident.

There's toxic masculinity wrapped up in it as well.

[Zorral]

3 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

My impression of Americans is that they must be consumed with fear. What else explains the compulsive purchase of 25 million AR-15's?

Americans have a quivering, pant pissing, intractable fear of each other apparently.

You don't understand this vast swathe of USians at all.

They are consumed with hatred and victimization and racism.  They LOVE guns, and They have been salivating for decades about actually using the guns the way they are supposed to be used -- to kill the Others, just for funzies if nothing else.

The rest of us, of course, are scared of Them and Their Guns. But we must do Something, right?'

One does speculate that at this point, in which the first time mature white male adults were specifically targeted -- instead of little kids, h.S. and college students, women, LGBT people, that perhaps They may start to think a bit.

 

[ThinkerX]

3 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

My impression of Americans is that they must be consumed with fear. What else explains the compulsive purchase of 25 million AR-15's?

Americans have a quivering, pant pissing, intractable fear of each other apparently.

There was a photo circulating on Facebook a few months ago, that showed a row of paramilitary types holding AR-15's. Caption read: 

'Soon, good men are going to have to do bad things to save the country.'

A large number of the comments enthusiastically supported that statement.

When countered, some of those supporters responded with insults or out and out threats, of the 'you are the problem' type posts.

[Tywin et al.]

11 minutes ago, Zorral said:

One does speculate that at this point, in which the first time mature white male adults were specifically targeted -- instead of little kids, h.S. and college students, women, LGBT people, that perhaps They may start to think a bit.

Silly rabbit, nothing changes until the rich and powerful are as vulnerable as the average person. *Whispers* That's why conservative powerbrokers don't let everyday yahoos into their events locked, loaded and unregulated.

Also, Freud got a lot wrong, but maybe not everything:

 

[Spockydog]

Hey, America. Please stop electing cretins.

 

 

[The Anti-Targ]

6 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

Fear is a big one, definitely. But it's not the only factor. The 2 lawyers in St. Louis that pointed a gun at protesters were definitely fearful, also racist.

It's politics, too. If you buy 5 assault rifles and post them on social media you'll definitely piss off a liberal somewhere in America. Sure you spent a bunch of money and made your family less safe, but mission accomplished at lib trolling.

The best way I've come to terms with this though is it's adults buying toys. And that conclusion made me lose a lot of respect for gun owners by the way. And I was somewhat pro gun as recently as the late 90's. It's like adults buying video game systems which I fully admit to doing. It's kind of childish, but my Xbox is unlikely to kill anyone either intentionally or by accident.

There's toxic masculinity wrapped up in it as well.

Was the comparison accidental or deliberate, given the largely debunked claim that video games cause violence, a claim made to divert attention away from calls for gun control?

[DMC]

8 hours ago, Ormond said:

Well, according to a friend and former colleague of mine whose area of expertise is political psychology, your assumption is incorrect, at least if you are saying that anger and fear have exactly the same consequence here.

To clarify, there are two distinct aspects of "political psychology," each themselves clearly different subfields.  The first aspect of political psychology examines decision-making of political leaders.  This, obviously, has little-to-nothing to do with voters -- but is also a crucial research area that raises interesting questions.  This deals with things like groupthink which rather clearly played a (tragic) role in LBJ's administration when it came to conducting the Vietnam War.

...Probably shouldn't mention this publicly, but one of the best scholars on this aspect is David Houghton.  He was one of my thesis advisors and I'm very grateful I got to hang out with him before he moved back to the UK at King's College (which I think is still where he's at).  His book on the Iran Hostage Crisis, in particular, is worth a read for anyone interested. 

The second type of "political psychology" is generally just an aspect of the political behavior field of research.  In this aspect, it is part and parcel of how researchers examine the political attitudes, choices, etc. of the public.  If "political behavior" is your focus of research - which was my secondary focus that I had to take a comp on - "political psychology" goes hand-in-hand with the entire field.  We are all trying to figure out the psychology of the public, or voters, or the citizenry - in terms of how it relates to politics.

1 hour ago, Spockydog said:

Hey, America. Please stop electing cretins.

You first!  

[Tywin et al.]

The real snowflakes keep snowflaking:

The funny part though:

Quote

The state legislature passed SB 775 last August in an effort to expand rights for victims of sexual assault. But state Sen. Rick Brattin (R-Harrisonvile) added an amendment banning educators from “providing sexually explicit material” to students, punishable by up to a $2,000 fine or a year in jail.

Translation, bye bye Bible. How are these people so dumb so consistently?

[mcbigski]

On 4/10/2023 at 9:23 PM, The Anti-Targ said:

My assumption would be that both angry and fearful people will only really be inclined to listen to any information which reinforces their justifications for their fear / anger rather than listen to anything that seeks to demonstrate that their fear or anger is unfounded, or at least somewhat of an overreaction.

Fear and anger.  A Jedi craves not these things. 

It's not a terrible idea to occasionally check one's own gut reaction.  Be tit for tat for a smile.  Jesus didn't have the advantage of multiple iterations of game theory challenges, but Golden Rule was an improvement over priors.  (This is not meant religiously at all, non believer myself, but turn the cheek is an advancement over eye for an eye, if there's more than a moderately few amount of potential payback cycles.)

5 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Silly rabbit, nothing changes until the rich and powerful are as vulnerable as the average person. *Whispers* That's why conservative powerbrokers don't let everyday yahoos into their events locked, loaded and unregulated.

Also, Freud got a lot wrong, but maybe not everything:

 

Lol.  Carlin had it right.  it's a big club and you ain't in it.  I referenced that one in the last year or two. 

Maybe you've taken you're fist step into a larger world.

I'm always looking for the best in a person.  But when you're weighing what billionaire owned corporate media says, consider incentives.