How the Hypocrite Leftwing Argues

[DeistPaladin]

A Theist, you are a paradigmatic example of a spoiled american,

He's also a good example of the effect of brainwashing and propaganda here in America. Those outside America should understand that to live here these days is to be subjected to a steady diet of propaganda akin to the former Soviet Union and their "Pravda".

It's not just Fox Noise but all the other mainstream sources of media as well. They're ALL owned by a few major corporations who skew our perceptions of what goes on in the outside world and what issues are important, all in favor of their interests. Unlike with Pravda, it isn't a government dictatorship but the corporations that control our information. And then there's hate-talk radio. Glen Beck still has his show. The "serious" Sunday morning talk shows are almost universally structured around the "both sides do it" meme to lend cover for the worst of conservative abuses. There are liberals like Maddow on MSNBC but even these pundits are kept carefully in line. They made a good example out of Olbermann, who's nowhere to be found these days.

If you're an American and want to know what's really going on in the world, you have to go to foreign journalism. Most "low information" voters don't have the time or inclination and so the corporate agenda is served.

People like A-Theist are the other extreme, pumped so full of hate and fear that he now lives in an alternate reality. I wish he could be dismissed but he represents a good third of our voting bloc if not more. That's why clowns like Bachmann and Santorum are serious politicians and not crackpots on a street corner selling pencils, where they surely would be in any rational soceity.

It's nothing less than embarrassing for me as an American to watch.

To paraphrase Jesus, "forgive us world, we know not what we do."

The kind that joined 2 world wars late so that you could reap the profits.

So we could make a big heroic entrance and save the day just in the nick of time, like in our movies.



Some on this board may recognize this image from Hetalia, a Japanese animation that depicts nations as anthropomorphic characters.

Just a bit of self-deprecating humor to lighten this otherwise glum post.

Time will teach you a lesson, not god or gods, but time. I hope you don't have any children, because they shouldn't pay for your idiocy.

Neither should we, the rational ones in this country.

America needs a "dumb-ass tax" to pay for the Iraq War and all the care our veterans will need with PTSD, brain injury, artificial limbs and other care. Anyone who voted for Bush in 2004 needs to pay a share of the costs of the war. Anyone who did so and voted for McCain in 2008 needs to be stripped of their voting rights for being too dumb or too brainwashed to be trusted with that power.

@Whateverist, I'll respond later tonight.

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I think it is important for more people to hear from you and others who have become disenchanted with the republican party and its extremist policies. What might really help would be to identify what it is that attracted you to the party in the first place. Anything you can say that would help me understand the mindset of a conservative would really help me to understand the other side. I can't believe they're all callous or evil people but it is hard for me to fathom what positive motives move them.

I was raised in a sheltered environment, a wealthy suburb as the son of two workaholic parents. In a way, my family represented the ideals of capitalism, or at least that's how I saw it. No one could doubt they worked their asses off for all that we had and they raised me with a similar work ethic. The ideals of Reaganomics had a strong appeal. Give to those business owners and they'll hire more people, producing more wealth. I also initially had some socially conservative ideologies but with no religious root, they were quickly abandoned.

Getting out of my sheltered home into the wider world in college was the first time some of my faith in the Invisible Hand was shaken. I made friends with all walks of life and, what do you know, poor people aren't necessarily lazy. How about that?

Going to business graduate school, in Dallas no less, was a re-indoctrination for me. I'm not saying a business education isn't also useful but at times it was a bit like going to a theology school. I learned about "perfect, rational markets" that are impossible to fool, how LBOs (heavy debt, leveraged buy outs) of the 80s were good for the economy and how raising the minimum wage increases unemployment. I emerged a True Believer.

So my identity as a Republican was a sincere belief that what was good for Wall Street was also good for Main Street. The rising tide would lift all boats and prosperity would benefit all of society.

Losing my religion was a gradual process, like with any conventional faith such as Christianity. First, there was the bullying nature of Newt and other Republicans at the time. Then, there was the false prediction of how Clinton's raised taxes would kill the economy. The actual economy of the 90s flew in the face of my ideology.

I voted independent in 1996 (Ross Perot, and yes, I knew he had no chance but Bob Dole was "too old and too evil"). I voted Democrat in 2000 (Bush was "too dumb"). I officially re-registered as Democrat at some point around 2003. The move was a gradual one, one that ran over about 10 years.