Why do so many people buy into the right-wing bullshit?

[begin_within]

Why do so many people drink the kool-aid? It seems like the right-wing should just be a lunatic fringe of American society, not a massive number of people.

[lateo]

1. Because the media presents it as fact.

[jobycom]

4. That's word for word exactly what I was going to post.

:scared:

[bearfan454]

10. I truly believe that Democrats are of a higher intelligence level.

Seriously. We are able to think for ourselves. We don't have to go along with something just because someone tells us to. Most of the pukes are easily manipulated people. They are brainwashed into thinking that sending all of our jobs out of the country is good, that cutting benefits to themselves is good, that giving wealthy people tax cuts helps them, and so forth and so on. In other words, they're fucking stupid.

[bearfan454]

2. They don't want to admit they have been duped.

They would rather not know the truth, but sadly, they do know it and are ashamed of themselves for being so gullible, so they just go along with the lies.

[KittyWampus]

3. 35% isn't massive. Any occassional periods of higher support comes from

very successful marketing and use of mass psychology.

The far-right understands human psychology and how to manipulate it.

The Left seems almost totally clueless or down right hostile to the notion of using symbolism to move people.

[alarcojon]

26. Love your last line

The tools the Right uses are crude, simple, and effective. Keep people in a constant state of fear and submission. Divide and conquer. Repeat the Big Lie often enough and peope will believe it. And so on.

We look at these methods and are rightfully disgusted. Yet I'm sure there are ways to use symbolism to reach many people in an honest, compassionate way. We need to find them and use them.

[salin]

31. to point three - the left actually thinks policies are more imp

than symbols, and that matching policy to rhetoric (rather than the orwellian mismatch between rightwing rhetoric vs policy) matters.

I believe that the focus on policy is important - and why, as a country, we have fared better under democratic presidents. However the use of symbols to market and better highlight those policies would be a vast improvement.

[lateo]

38. Not clueless...

Complicit.

[brainshrub]

5. They have a strict-father worldview of politics.

Read Lakeoff.

[KingFlorez]

6. A nation always has a time

Where a lot of people believe a radical fringe party

[cdb]

7. Telling them what they want to hear

not telling them how it really is. Painting a rosy picture or fear-mongering....

[henslee]

8. The daddy syndrome? Not grasping that the country so many

bought into for so long has jumped the shark and morphed into a corporate-tocracy.

[flyarm]

9. they own the media!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[Greyhound]

11. It gives them permission, even encourages them to voice their

repugnant racism, classist, crap. I'm better than you, and 'myGovernment' says so. :banghead:

[Boomer]

12. Same thing happened in Nazi Germany

Hitler undermined the German middle-class with legislation favoring big business over small business, and yet the middle-classes were his staunchest supporters.

Sound familiar?

[RagingInMiami]

13. This country is divided into two groups

Those who think for themselves and those who let others think for them.

[CTD]

14. People filter news/info for "facts" that support their existing worldview

Just like we don't see "weakness" in behaving with compassion and acceptance, they don't see "ignorance" in believing the things they choose to believe.

It's a worldview thing. Everyone does it to some extent.

It's just that, as enlightened people, we find that core 35% of die hard Republicans to be so incomprehensibly ignorant more or less because their views are just so at odds with our own worldview.

It's fun to call them ignorant (and many are VERY ignorant) but there's a bit more to it than that.

And when our candidates speak to these people in ways that barely masks their contempt for them, as Kerry did (hell, I do it too sometimes), we lose elections.

Clinton (Bill not Hil) embraced these folks and effectively pretended to speak their language. And he won. Twice.

[KharmaTrain]

22. It's "Feel Good" Stuff

A lot of the right wing rhetoric is bred in years and decades worth of stereotypes...seen and unseen that provide a basis where their lies and deceptions can operately freely and flourish.

They've learned which emotions can be played with...racism, sexism, religion, class...and found ways to create themes and memes with feel good concepts that once they "embrace" an individual, provides them with plenty of re-inforcement of these "core" convictions.

Remember, for years, these sanctimonious schmucks pretended to be truly moral and didn't have the paper trail and track record they do now in their hypocrisy. They were able to hide in decades of minority status to build up an inferiority complex that makes xtians believe they are being "persecuted" and "libruls" so strong and evil.

Sadly, this country has been exploited for what divides us, not unites us. The Repugnicans have tapped into these divisions and pretended come across as the defender of some of these "exploited" people...like those poor white 35 year old males who believe driving a Hummer is a god-given right...and how dare those Iraqis keep our oil under their sand.

:rantoff:

Peace...

[fasttense]

15. Luck. They came at the right time and were willing to tell the lies

people wanted to hear. They came when corporate media was developing and they were able to use and manipulate it to their advantage. They came at time when (despite the right wing rhetoric) the Dems got most people to trust the government and the media. Another day and age and they would have gotten nowhere because most people would NOT have trusted them.

[tularetom]

16. It's all about marginalization of groups

No matter how shitty your life is, how crummy your job is, how stupid and uneducated you are, if they can make you feel like there is somebody stupider, uglier and more disgusting than you, you suddenly feel better. Why else would so many working and lower class whites support a political philosophy that kicks them in the nuts, gives their tax dollars to wealthy people, sends their kids off to be slaughtered in some godforsaken place and leaves them to die in poverty with no social safety net or health insurance. "I might be the lowest life form on the face of the earth but by god I'm better than them (fill in name of minority here)!!"

[smirkymonkey]

23. That's it exactly!

It's really not that complicated - give them someone to feel superior to and they won't be directing their anger, frustration and hate toward their oppressors.

Most people are too lazy and cowardly to actually do anything about their situation, so having a scapegoat at least makes them feel better about it.

[EST]

37. Crudely put, but this is the more succinct description.

You have put your finger on the essence of hate in the entire world. One needs only to appeal to that fundamental nastiness in people to get all the help required to enslave the masses and exalt those willing to use such methods.
There appears, again and again, in these DU threads, a plaintive appeal to "getting our own KKKarl Rove." Such an overt gesture toward using the methods common to haters indicates a lack of faith in the fundamentals of honesty and tolerance and a surrender to the abandonment of higher moral values.

[AmandaRuth]

17. because a lot of people don't understand what the wingers are really

trying to do.

Like labor - if people understood that the conservatives truly believe that an employment contract is strictly between the employer and employee, which means no guarantees for equal pay,overtime pay, laws regulating hours worked, minimum wage, child workers, safety concerns, and if they understood how this translates to their specific lives, attitudes might be different.

Also, left leaning organizations do not talk or coordinate with each other, (as far as I know).

And the right owns the media.

[dave123williams]

18. Look; most think they're buying in to baseball, hot dogs and apple pie.

Middle America...well, there *are* some stupid people out there, but mostly they're just folks, like you and me.

They have some funny ideas that they like to hang on to; 'Republicans are better protectors' is one such canard, 'Tax Cuts are always good' (once the GOP figured out that they could bribe voters with their own money, they had it locked)...but mostly....

The GOP carefully positioned Bush as a symbol of a working class hero. A tough, hardworking guy who clears brush and is married to a librarian. A guy that you could relate to. Maybe not the brightest bulb, but a good man. A guy who sure believes in God, and isn't afraid to tell you that.

A lot of people identify with that symbolism. A lot of people voted for it.

Too bad it has nothing to do with who the man actually is.

A lot of people are having a hard time admitting they had the wool pulled over their eyes. Some already are waking up to the open greed, the willful demagoguing, the corruption. As they do, it's going to get ugly for the GOP.

Let us all remember; this fuck-stick lost one of our coolest cities, two world trade towers, a chunk of the Pentagon, and is losing his little war to spread freedom at the point of a gun.

[CrispyQ]

19. Here's one take that I think is pretty right on for most of them.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4859176

[salin]

20. three reasons

a) things are presented binary - either this OR that - no complexities thus don't have to dwell on things to sort them out for oneself.

b) things are presented as an angry us vs them - and allows me to villify "the other" - and thus not have to deal with my own flaws - lets me actually feel self-righteous with my own flaws.

c) a fear of letting go of the "ideal" of America - where public service is a value (and thus, those we elect wouldn't act in ways to intentionally hurt us) - where your vote counts and is based on the "merits" of the candidates rather than upon slick marketing and propoganda to where I am voting the exact opposite of my intentions. This, imo, is the biggest thing, but is related to point a in that to work out the cognitive dissonance (what I hear as news - before GOP spin comes to "reframe" it) vs my view of the US and the US govt would require a heck of a lot of thinking about complexities, a lot of reevaluation, and perhaps reaching some painful conclusions about people that I trust (often including more than political figures but also local leaders, ministers "representing God", etc.)

[Chi-Town Exile]

24. Good post.

[Chi-Town Exile]

21. They throw the word "God" out there

so most people believe that the RW's intentions are good because they are religious.

As I mentioned during the flame wars about ANSWER, the average American passes out every evening in front of the t.v. after a long hard day of getting the kids to school, going to jobs they hate, trying to make ends meet ... they don't have the time or the inclination to delve any deeper.

I know it is fashionable on here to say, "Fuck those people, who needs them?" The reality is, we do need them because these people vote against their own best interests all the time.

That is where we Democrats miss the boat. The DLC is so busy being scared and trying to be right-wing lite that they forget to offer these people something different that would actually IMPROVE their lives.

I seriously can't understand why the Dems are so cautious. They've lost EVERYTHING, there is nothing left to lose. Offer the country some hope, something different, stop cowering in the corner with your hands over your eyes, DLC!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man, they piss me off!!!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

25. Because it tells them what they want to know.

It's okay to be greedy.

It's okay to hate.

Nothing America does can ever be wrong.

[leeman67]

27. why? because it's easier.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

45. Yeah; "God" forbid that they should

actually have to think about anything, or worry about anything... it's far more convienient to have your head shoved up your ass...

[newportdadde]

28. Its not that many, 1/3 of half that bother to vote.

For the reasons? Greed and lack of empathy.

[0007]

29. Letting others do your thinking is easy, and this administration

knows it!

[dretceterini]

35. Notice how many right wingers

also buy into religion and faith as having all the answers, so they don't have to think?

[TheCowsCameHome]

30. Being brain-dead wasn't illegal the last time I checked

[WritingIsMyReligion]

46. Unfortunately... nt

[tlsmith1963]

32. I Used to Just Laugh at Them...

...but Bush & the neocons have done so many bad things, & people *still* support them? Yes some people on the other side are waking up, but what is up with the others? Have they been brainwashed into a cult? Time to deprogram!

Tammy

[B Calm]

33. Those damn liberals want to take our guns...

Thank the NRA for misinforming the toothless red necks..

[seabeyond]

34. feeds into fears, and lack. allows them to hold on to all and not share

it validates their hate

[tom_paine]

36. Because they have the most coordinated, sophisticated propaganda machine

and lie laundry as has ever existed in human history.

It has thoroughly infiltrated, bullied, and parasitized conventional media to the point where what is left of the Formerly Free Press also by and large functions as an extension of the Bush Party Loyal Sub-Media, sometimes without even knowing it.

Finally, Americans who once just a short time ago lived in the Free World with a very good Free Press are very slow to pick up on the Sovietization of the Nation.

It make take a long time before people understand that the Bushevik are merely Free-Market Bolsheviks, and akin to the Mafia.

We will see because only time will tell, but as has been known ever since "deep penetration" advertising and propaganda (they are really one and the same thing) the people who are easiest to manipulate are those unaware of being manipulated.

Everything depends on if and how fast the great mass of Americans awake.

If they don't: The New Kinder and Gentler Nazi Germany. A horrific One-Party State thatactually makes even the Bush Occupation 2005 look like "The Good Old Days".

[Hello_Kitty]

39. America (a sizeable portion anyway) loves bullies

Ruthless, cutthroat, winner-takes-all and leaves the loser in the dirt. The right wing appeals to this dynamic heavily.

[neweurope]

40. They play on base fears and base desires, that's why. It works

every time.

If you couple that trick with religion you've won.

----------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Parche]

41. right wing

Gullible....that is the reason, they are Gullible

[Cyrano]

42. People will buy camel shit,, as long as it's well packaged. That's why

Madison Avenue succeeded and is still in business.

[ComerPerro]

43. Its easy to just turn off your brain and buy into it. Plus, the truth is

bleak, dark, and depressing as hell.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

44. Because they are Pavlov's Dogs,

conditioned to believe every word the media says, conditioned to accept all things unquestioningly...

I can hear Orwell groaning in his grave now...

[omega minimo]

47. Two words

Ronald Reagan

[PowerToThePeople]

48. Low IQs. Or a self-centered attitude towards life. n/t

[SoCalDem]

49. They ARE a minority, but they have wrestled control of the media

who presents their wacky ideas as FACT...

Listen for key phrases..

People say
We all know
Everyone says
polls favor
the public thinks
the nation is
etc
etc
etc..

They present these things as a given,. and since the other side has no opportunity to refute their assertions, it becomes part of the public mythology.