Member of Congress Among 5 Reportedly Shot at Baseball Field

[henryp]

Let me get this straight.  A disturbing number of otherwise decent people suddenly start to say and do the sorts of things in response to a common issue that disturb you, things you didn't think they would do........and you think that the problem, is with all of them....all at once, all of a sudden?  Just woke up this am, and decided they'd all be dicks, no particular reason.

What do those people keep telling you the problem is?

I don't really think the problem is with all of them.  I think the problem's root is the efficiency of rhetoric.  Between social media, 24 hour news,  a la carte news that reinforces biases, click bait, data driven political messaging, identity politics, social engineering, etc...

What they're telling me, what you're telling me, is exactly what I read on the Huffington Post, or heard a talking head on MSNBC say, or see being passed around Facebook.  There is no mystery where the information comes from.  You see it with Fox News.  You see it with Christians.  Some part of your brain recognizes that they are being manipulated in a way that has them believing stupid shit is true.   But for whatever reason, when it comes to Huffington Post, or an MSNBC panelist, or that Facebook meme being passed around, when it's time to wonder if maybe their are people on the left who might try to copy the highly effective strategies we saw from fox news or religion, you just said "nah"?

And the point is, again, if the system has become that ruthlessly efficient that it's sweeping all these people up, who's left?  But you don't think you're being manipulated, so you're really only relevant to that discussion as an example.

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Have you asked yourself why?

Why I don't know many republicans, or why reasonable people have gotten swept up in the rhetoric.  The answer to both is yes.