why do their talking points have to be so stupid...

[Jeffersons Ghost]

A fellow veteran just told me "We're fighting them (whoever "them" are) over there so that we don't have to fight them over here. It's like they're supposedly lining up in Iraq and Afghanistan to be shot down in battle. All we're doing over there is creating new terrorists each time we accidentally kill a non-combatant.

Anyhow, thanks for letting me blow off some steam.

[happy_liberal]

1. that is one of the classics

and I just love 'they are fighting for your right to free speech' yah sure. I think it is better if they use the BIG lie that contains no logic so that they will not be forced to think during repetition.

[happy_liberal]

7. maybe they have them repeat these stupid lies so that we cannot communicate with eachother

How are you supposed to discuss anything rational with someone who actually believes that?

You have to start from the beginning, start explaining actual events...they get all confused and tune out.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

17. He said I wasn't going to change his mind

[Warpy]

2. Did you tell him that was one of the dumbest things they ever said?

Or did you just walk away shaking your head?

[Jeffersons Ghost]

5. I told him what I wrote and walked away shaking my head

[Warpy]

8. Thanks!

We can't let the mindless parroting of talking points continue. We have to speak up.

[Sparkly]

3. My favorite twist on that: "But if we leave, they'll follow us home!"

Like they don't know where the U.S. is unless they track troops' footprints or trail of breadcrumbs?

Like they wouldn't rather be here when our forces are deployed over there?

(Great, so bring the troops home via Canada, and "they" will follow them to Canada and invade there!!)

So stupid it's almost funny.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

10. yeah, let's trick them with bread-crumbs

[Angry Dragon]

4. And you are right about the non-combatants

It seems a lot of people only see two positions.

Either attack where we think a threat is
or close and lock the borders of this country.

[treestar]

6. That one is particular dumbheaded

Like they think we are killing specific terrorists - the very same people who were going to somehow make it to the US to carry out a terrorist attack.

[stray cat]

9. Stupid talking points seem to know no bounds between parties

[SecularMotion]

14. Oh, really? Please give us examples of stupid talking points from our party

[Zoeisright]

11. Because they're stupid.

They'd rather regurgitate the pap that is spoon-fed to them than think.

[unblock]

12. why do you hate america?

[NNN0LHI]

13. Because they work on stupid people so well

President Bush's Approval Ratings

[MajorChode]

15. Much of this started with Raygun

It's probably more accurate to say it restarted with Raygun if you want to go back significantly in time. Political discourse used to be at a much higher level, but Raygun was more about 15 second sound bites. He could read a script and his speech writers figured that if something took over 15 seconds to explain, the concept would be lost for those on the left side of the bell curve (Republicans' biggest constituency). This was also done out of necessity as Raygun's brain had already started to rot away soon after he was elected and he wasn't capable of much more. The concept caught on and has been popular ever since. That's why you have people like Palin and Beck who appeal to the dumbest dumb fuckers and make them think their opinions actually matter, even though they've just been handed their opinions by people who perhaps only have a couple more synapses actively firing.

[11 Bravo]

16. I tell them "Yup, and I was wounded twice defending your right to burn a flag." Shuts 'em right up.

[Blue Owl]

18. Talking points are inherently stupid

Replace critical thinking with sound bytes? What could go wrong?