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by The Alchemist,
Nov. 14, 2004
I have been pondering the gentle remarks regarding the nicety of labeling Bush supporters “stupid” recently posted by Becky R.
While I am sure Miss Manners would wholeheartedly concur with Becky’s argument that it isn’t nice, it occurs to me that during a fight for one’s life, sometimes the niceties are overlooked. However, something about her comments has been nagging at me.
The fact is that the term stupid is inaccurate to describe the Bushies I personally know. In my life, I have two close people who are staunch right-wing Repubs. One is a master chemist, the other a systems analyst for IBM. Neither of them can be termed stupid by any stretch of the definition.
What they both share is a belief in fundamental Christianity. They are heavily invested in a mythos that teaches that we must endure terrible lives here on earth (the “kingdom of Satan”) in order to reap an everlasting reward in heaven. In other words, don’t ask for your pie here, you’ll get your pie in the sky.
For the last 4 years I have been banging my head against the wall with these two. I have emailed endless reports of evidence of lying and worse committed by this so-called “Christian” administration. I have sent pics of bloody civilians, texts of soldiers testimony, et al. All with the query “How is this Christian?”
The ability of otherwise intelligent people to cling to irrational beliefs is, well, hard to believe. There is a venerable scam on the Internet, known as the NESARA scam in which thousands of people have been bilked out of millions of dollars. The interesting part is that even when told they will never get their money back, many people continue to send MORE money to these scamsters. They have been promised astonishing “pie in the sky” returns, and these visions of sparkly wealth have blotted out the truth that they are being played for suckers.
Recently, a Bush aide scornfully hung the label “reality-based community” on some members of the press (no doubt he meant the vestige of the press still interested in actual reporting. Had he been addressing Faux News, I am sure he would have used the more accurate term “Mouth of Sauron” -- but I digress). The actual quote from Suskind’s article is worth reprinting here:
“The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
This is perhaps one of the most honest assertions of the Bush junta ever caught and reported. These people believe they are the principals in a drama of truly Biblical proportions. And my Christian friends want seats in the front row. They have invested in this scam and they are unwilling to entertain arguments that they are being fed a line of shit. So they continue to invest their wealth, in this case, their votes.
But let’s be fair. While it is easy, and perhaps satisfying to label a group “stupid”, upon closer examination one would have to admit that just because a particular individual indulges in behavior that one finds odious does not justify a wholesale damnation of that person. Case in point: Thomas Jefferson. He was undoubtedly on of the most intelligent and enlightened men of his time, a central figure in the founding of America. He was also a slave-owner. Does this make him stupid? Of course not. Perhaps he was blind to this area of the morality of his time. And, unfortunately, in the “morality” of Our time, it is still OK to blow the living shit out of brown people, be they Vietnamese, Nicaraguan, or Iraqi.
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Yeah, "stupid" ain't quite the right word. I've known these people too -- Bush supporters -- so I gotta agree they're not necessarily stupid in other aspects of their lives. They're as likely as anyone else to be able to hold down a productive job, do basic or complicated math, construct a sensible sentence, drive competently, or change a flat tire. They're not retards.
But blind faith trumps any semblance of rational thought when it comes to politics. As you described, no quality or quantity of straightforward evidence can ever cause these people to question their faith in any leader who claims to be a Christian.
So when it comes to political decisions (like voting) these people might as well be retarded. They have the brains God gave them, but they refuse to use 'em.
They will see George W. Bush as a good Christian and they will thank God that Bush is their leader, even if Bush's lies lead America into half a dozen more wars, even if the death count reaches into the millions. Facts are worldly things, and these people are way, way beyond worldly things. Short of kidnapping and deprogramming, I strongly doubt that these people can be reached.
But I see no strategic advantage in pretending that these people are rational, or avoiding the plain truth that, when it comes to politics and religion, they've shut down their minds. They don't think, won't think, and that's not functionally different from "can't think."
It's the biggest problem facing America today, a far, far more serious problem than Osama bin Laden or al Qaeda.=H&HH=
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Someone told me once that the only way civilization progresses is because those in power eventually die. Sigh.
So remember, just because someone is a Nazi, doesn’t mean they aren’t a good person.
The Alchemist
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There's much more than this at Unknown News.
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