Fun thought experiment for your Repug family/friends

[Proud Public Servant]

Tried this one out over Thanksgiving; worked like a charm. When stuck in conversation with Repug family or friends, try this out:

They have to pick a new country to live in. Here are the rules:

1. There is no possibility of them ever returning to the US (so no picking Canada or Mexico because they dream of sneaking across the border; they can pick either of those, but not for that reason).

2. They will magically be able to speak the language of whatever country they choose, up to the same level of fluency they now have in English.

3. Their income and net worth will be adjusted to reflect relationship to that country's average (e.g., if they make twice the income of an average American, they will make twice the income of the average citizen in their new country).

Ok, make them pick. I guarantee that they will pick a country with higher taxes, greater government social spending, more regulations on business and the environment, more gun control, more gay rights, and more leftist politics than the U.S. They will NOT pick a low-tax, small-government, regulation-free, socially conservative nation. And they will hate it when you point that out. :rofl:

[jtrockville]

1. Doesn't a thought experiment require that the participants can think?

For themselves?

[immoderate]

3. Yeah, my conservative friends do not tolerate thought experiments, projections, or scenarios.

They seem to share the same learning disabilities, particularly the ability to abstract.

--imm

[Thav]

6. You could have stated your subject as:

"Yeah, my conservative friends do not tolerate thought."

[immoderate]

7. Well, dumb and ignorant don't require thought, -- but stupid does.

My conservative friends come up with stupid shit that can't just materialize from nowhere. There is effort involved.

Consider that with the advent of artificial intelligence simultaneously came artificial stupidity. Same with regular intelligence. Somebody will gather up the stupid.

--imm

[starroute]

2. The "twice the income of the average citizen" may skew it

I applaud your ability to discomfit your conservative friends, but there's a bit of a curveball in your premises.

In poor nations with high income equality, twice the average income is still poor.

If you specified that the person would be making whatever the typical income is for someone in their current profession, you might get more takers for places other than France or Sweden.

[Proud Public Servant]

4. Fair enough

But you probably still wouldn't, unless you hang out with CEOs or folks whose wealth comes from land. The average professional in a developing country lives much less well than the average professional in the US, unless they come from wealth to begin with.

[Lint Head]

5. Billionaires can live anywhere. Not that your Repub family are billionaires.

I think that is the disconnect for right wingers. Billionaires are continental travelers and residents. Right wing nuts do not have a clue about the real lifestyles of mega rich folks. As a musician I have been around some extremely wealthy people and their thought processes are totally and cynically connected to their money. Even when they don't care how much something costs they use that idea to communicate that they are so rich they don't care.

I will never understand how people can be so supportive of rich pricks who don't really give a rats ass about people that are not as wealthy as they are.

[Obamanaut]

8. Why not have conversations that do not include politics or religion, two subjects

that tend to get people's dander up.

It is possible.