The scary thing is that they actually aren’t. YES, some absolutely are mind-numbingly stupid. But, as someone who grew up in a conservative area, there are incredibly smart people who end up falling for the bullshit.
You have to understand these people have grown up with a steady diet of conservative talk radio (Rush Limbaugh and other AM idiots) and Fox News. And lately it’s been amplified by social media echo chambers and weaponized by advertising tech.
You can see people with doctorates, law degrees, masters degrees, etc just shut their brains off when it comes to politics. Its wild to watch. If you start asking them questions about things and really talking to them about things like universal healthcare (you can’t call it that obviously…it causes a pavlovian response and their brain shuts off) they’ll actually agree with most of it.
Pick your ‘hot button issue’ and figure out a way to talk about it indirectly, non-confrontationally sort of with Socratic method of just asking them questions to understand their position, and they’ll almost always be way more reasonable or “liberal” than they’d ever admit otherwise.
Its interesting to watch them have these mini epiphanies then REALIZE what they are saying, then quickly change topics or 180 back with some hand-wavy “well either way I am not about Obama care or anything like it!”.
You might be tempted to say “well, then that just proves they are dumb”. I think its being brainwashed almost in a cult-like fashion and deprogramming takes time. It’s like growing up religious–even when you decide it isn’t for you. It takes time and intentional effort to get rid of the lifetime of brainwashing.
The scary thing is that they actually aren’t. YES, some absolutely are mind-numbingly stupid. But, as someone who grew up in a conservative area, there are incredibly smart people who end up falling for the bullshit.
You have to understand these people have grown up with a steady diet of conservative talk radio (Rush Limbaugh and other AM idiots) and Fox News. And lately it’s been amplified by social media echo chambers and weaponized by advertising tech.
You can see people with doctorates, law degrees, masters degrees, etc just shut their brains off when it comes to politics. Its wild to watch. If you start asking them questions about things and really talking to them about things like universal healthcare (you can’t call it that obviously…it causes a pavlovian response and their brain shuts off) they’ll actually agree with most of it.
Pick your ‘hot button issue’ and figure out a way to talk about it indirectly, non-confrontationally sort of with Socratic method of just asking them questions to understand their position, and they’ll almost always be way more reasonable or “liberal” than they’d ever admit otherwise.
Its interesting to watch them have these mini epiphanies then REALIZE what they are saying, then quickly change topics or 180 back with some hand-wavy “well either way I am not about Obama care or anything like it!”.
You might be tempted to say “well, then that just proves they are dumb”. I think its being brainwashed almost in a cult-like fashion and deprogramming takes time. It’s like growing up religious–even when you decide it isn’t for you. It takes time and intentional effort to get rid of the lifetime of brainwashing.