Writing in response to a NYT article by Timothy Eagen, a correspondent said:
Sorry Tim, but you're wrong. Truth won't ever win out when half the population refuses to acknowledge it. I just spent Thanksgiving with my Alabama-living, hyper conservative Christian in-laws, and was absolutely amazed by their version of reality. Roy Moore? Those child-dating allegations have been debunked. The Clinton economic expansion? That was because of Reagan. W's recession? Clinton's fault. The Obama recovery? That was because of the GOP house. The ACA? More people have lost insurance than gained it, but the liberal media won't tell you that. Climate change? It's just cyclical; scientists are lying and/or it's God's will. Did I mention Christians are oppressed because they can't lead a mass prayer at football games? What about the uptick in violence against minorities? Well, you know Muslims throw gay people off buildings so the US isn't so bad.
There is literally no reasoning with these people. Down is up, and up is always by the grace of the GOP. Democrats are evil; the media can't be trusted* and should be investigated for perpetuating "Fake News!"; Donald Trump is extremely smart because he didn't lose the money he inherited (despite the fact that we don't know anything about his finances because he won't release his tax returns, which to them, is not suspicious).
Don't have faith that reason will win the day, because to these people, their worldview is reasonable.
*Certain exemptions apply: media that reenforces your preconceptions is fair and balanced.
We have joked in New Hampshire that our state is Portsmouth, Manchester, Durham and Alabama in between. (There are versions of this for many states from Pennsylvania to North Carolina) but we had no idea.
The detail of what these folks in Alabama are like is stunning.
And to think, we fought to keep these guys in the Union.
We have Union dead buried in cemeteries from Hampton to Holderness. And this is what they died for? To keep these people as our countrymen?
Sorry Tim, but you're wrong. Truth won't ever win out when half the population refuses to acknowledge it. I just spent Thanksgiving with my Alabama-living, hyper conservative Christian in-laws, and was absolutely amazed by their version of reality. Roy Moore? Those child-dating allegations have been debunked. The Clinton economic expansion? That was because of Reagan. W's recession? Clinton's fault. The Obama recovery? That was because of the GOP house. The ACA? More people have lost insurance than gained it, but the liberal media won't tell you that. Climate change? It's just cyclical; scientists are lying and/or it's God's will. Did I mention Christians are oppressed because they can't lead a mass prayer at football games? What about the uptick in violence against minorities? Well, you know Muslims throw gay people off buildings so the US isn't so bad.
There is literally no reasoning with these people. Down is up, and up is always by the grace of the GOP. Democrats are evil; the media can't be trusted* and should be investigated for perpetuating "Fake News!"; Donald Trump is extremely smart because he didn't lose the money he inherited (despite the fact that we don't know anything about his finances because he won't release his tax returns, which to them, is not suspicious).
Don't have faith that reason will win the day, because to these people, their worldview is reasonable.
*Certain exemptions apply: media that reenforces your preconceptions is fair and balanced.
We have joked in New Hampshire that our state is Portsmouth, Manchester, Durham and Alabama in between. (There are versions of this for many states from Pennsylvania to North Carolina) but we had no idea.
The detail of what these folks in Alabama are like is stunning.
And to think, we fought to keep these guys in the Union.
We have Union dead buried in cemeteries from Hampton to Holderness. And this is what they died for? To keep these people as our countrymen?
Those who live in the South know well: "You can't fix stupid"!!
ReplyDeleteGuess you just don't interact with these sorts enough - maybe a few more Holiday (dare I say Christmas) dinners will help further educate you as to this depressing truth.
Anon,
ReplyDeleteOf course Texas has Austin and NC has Chapel Hill/Durham/Raleigh and Georgia has Atlanta and Louisiana his New Orleans--islands of blue sanity in seas of red stupidity.
As Lincoln noted, slaves were not evenly distributed over the nation, but concentrated in the South, so the war came to the South.
In the years before the Civil War the murder rate in the South was twelve times that of the North. Let birds of a feather flock together.
When Mad Dog is made benign dictator, he will provide those refugees from the Sun Belt with full compensation for their property there, and welcome them in their new lovely domiciles in the North. Hopefully, the wacko stars and bars types living north of 40 degrees latitude will migrate to more welcoming pastures south and we can have two nations on the continent with strong borders and big walls.
Mad Dog
Mad Dog,
ReplyDeleteWhat's really disheartening is that the above mentioned numb skulls can be found throughout the lower forty eight-they just are much more prolific in the south..I think we need a field guide, much like they have for birds, a "Field Guide for Kooks and Morons" or "Nuts of North America"..indicating where one can spot them throughout the country, where the greatest concentrations are..
On this note, I think you both would enjoy "American Nations" by Colin Woodard which gives a history of each of the 11 regional cultures of the United States-how, when and by whom they were settled and provides a plausible explanation as to why some regions remain they way they are..aka-stupidly crazy...
Maud
Ms. Maud,
ReplyDeleteI have downloaded this to Kindle.
Haven't yet read it.
The problem, as you note is, unlike Slavery, the kooks and morons are distributed across the nation.
Any proposal for an amicable divorce, along the lines of Brexit (Northexit?) would mean that states like New Hampshire would still be beset by the 49.5% of K&M's.
But, if there were a country below the 40th parallel where they could have low taxes, little government (and no Medicare, Social Security) maybe there would be a mass migration of the K&M's Southward, just as poor whites and Blacks left the South and migrated north toward jobs, in Detroit, Chicago etc. in the 1930's and 1940's.
It's a mind exercise to think about how we could arrange for a solution to these entrenched and irreconcilable differences which so clearly exist and are intractable.