The GOP should consider that its opponents aren’t simply brainwashed
The GOP should consider that its opponents aren’t simply brainwashed
Over and over — and especially this week — prominent voices on the right argue that their problem is solely that the other side can’t think for itself.
“We recognize that an abortion has two victims: obviously, the unborn child, and the other victim is the woman who’s the birth mother, who probably got talked into abortion by a boyfriend, a friend, a mother, a grandmother, maybe a father,” Huckabee said.
This betrays a staggering misunderstanding of the issue....
If I may present another hypothesis: this isn't a misunderstanding. It's a deliberate lie, a misrepresentation of the real issue to try to hide the fact that they know how sadistic their demands are and they're not willing to be honest about it.
It's also straight up misogyny, implying that women can't think for ourselves or make our own decisions
According to my family, I've been brainwashed by "the mainstream media". When I asked what that even means, they listed all these conservative news outlets that I don't follow AT ALL. All I could do was laugh. "Where did you hear this?" I asked. You can guess at the answer. You'll probably get it on your first try.
The GOP should consider
Nope, you lost me right there. That's never going to happen.
It fits into their worldview that anyone who is left leaning is somehow not a "real" American and that they alone are the rightful stewards of the nation.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
There had been six previous statewide initiatives centered on that question since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and each of the six had been successful, including in states redder than Ohio.
As the third Republican primary debate was underway Wednesday night, Fox News’s Sean Hannity interviewed former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee about the party’s underperformance on Tuesday.
The video-sharing application, based in China, has become a boogeyman of the right (in particular, though not exclusively), including earning an extended conversation during Wednesday’s Republican primary debate.
This was in response to a question centered on the idea that TikTok is amplifying anti-Israel propaganda, a claim made both by congressional Republicans and, according to a CNN report, by the Biden administration.
As journalist Ryan Broderick noted, this misunderstands the scale and fragmentation of TikTok, a platform that isn’t “based [on] mass appeal snowballing into global virality, but about identifying niches.”
That there were immediate responses on college campuses in the wake of Hamas’s attack in Israel would suggest there were existing belief systems about the region before this alleged TikTok nefariousness came into play.
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These think pieces should consider whether or not they are teaching the enemy how to win
I think talking about it and rightfully criticizing the right outweighs the potential danger of hypothetically handing them a playbook. They’ve shown time and time again that they won’t listen to criticism, and they’ve got such an echo chamber that doubling down on this behavior is likely worth more political capital anyway. So what’s left after that is a piece that draws attention to this manipulative behavior, and adds to the body of evidence that these people do not have your best interests in mind and never will. If that convinces even a small number of fence-sitters to vote smarter, then it’s worth it.
I read an article that said that when you tell people that their opinion is wrong and explain to them how they are wrong they will tend to double down in their wrongness rather than change their opinions.
However, as little as I think of the average Republican, I believe that there could be outliers who are capable of rational thought and opinion change and I would prefer not to give those exceptional Republicans the opportunity to help revise playbooks that could lead to the further destruction of Western democracy.
The "brainwashed" thought is a problem for many, mostly at the fringes of a given subject. They believe something so strongly that it seems like it is self evident fact, so how come 51%+ of the country either disagrees or doesn't care? And social media bubbles, news media political differentiation, and the rural/urban divide make it worse because everyone they know, agrees with them too.
So everyone else couldn't possibly be looking at the same objective facts and disagreeing in good faith...they must be...brainwashed?
Not sure why you got downvoted. It's a good point
LOL you just owned yourself
Both sides should avoid this trap. Lazy and stupid and makes for bad faith debates absent of substance. There are plenty of people on both the left and the right who don't think for themselves. but whether a person regurgitates a talking point, or comes up with an original idea, has no bearing on the merit of that talking point or idea.
Both sides have valid issues in complaints. Both sides have crappy issues and complaints. Neither side is perfect. Both sides need to realize that they themselves are not perfect.
I will not yield an inch further away from safe, accessible, affordable, legal abortions for all women for any reason at any time. We have no common ground to argue.
This is the correct stance. This is not a both sides issue. Anyone who doesn't support the right to safe, accessible, affordable, and legal abortions is a giant piece of shit and isn't even remotely near the morally correct position.
We already compromised with Roe and the zealots kept pushing. We should be done compromising with people that want to bring society backwards.
Nor should you. I hope people aren't interpreting my comment as suggesting anything other than this. I was not talking about any issue at all, I was simply talking about logical fallacies both sides get into when arguing their respective positions.
BoTh SiDeS aRe ThE sAmE!!!
Like nearly every single "both sides" argument in all of online history, this one fulfills one of these two roles:
- Detract from something good about Democrats
- Deflect from something shitty about Republicans
You'll nearly never see a "both sides" argument in the wild that does one of these things:
- Detract from something good about Republicans
- Deflect from something shitty about Democrats
You may draw your own conclusions from that, gentle reader.
Edit: Removed the hyperbole.
Clever, and not invalid. But it also ignores the point I was making.
I'm NOT trying to minimize the shitty things GOP has done recently. The Karl Rove strategy of pandering to religious social conservatives has caused more pain for this country than can be put into words. Just like McCain legitimizing Sarah Palin (although he redeemed himself with Obamacare), legitimizing the 'Evangelical' political position is damn near unforgiveable. And as a single strategy that has done more to tear our country apart than anything DNC's done. So please don't think I'm excusing the GOP's sins.
What I AM saying, is that whatever their sins may be, they don't always get it wrong all the time. Nobody does. Democrats don't always get it right all the time. Nobody does.
And thus it's dangerous for anyone (on either side) to fall into the logical trap of 'I'm a good person, a smart person, I've decided this is right. Therefore, everyone who thinks it's wrong must be a dumb person or a bad person'.
I believe every American should judge each argument on its own merits, regardless of its source. And if the result is always that blue is right and red is wrong, so be it-- but that should NEVER lead to complacency where blue is always assumed to be right and red is always assumed to be wrong (or vice versa) with analysis or debate deemed unnecessary.
That is a VERY dangerous slippery slope that has, historically, led to some very dark places.
The only thing worse than a right winger is those who minimize the damage wrought by right wingers.