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The aversion to reading is always a red flag for me. Reading is a pillar of human intelligence.
They’d be mad if they could understand anything that wasn’t Facebook memes and bad email chains.
I don’t find reading books appealing. But I do look up things I am curious about and read few news articles I come across. Reading a book isn’t the only way to gain knowledge but if they aren’t reading/learning about anything then that’s a problem.
Reading narratives to escape into the fictional world and skimming articles for information are both literacy (reading). There are many more kinds as well. They all count.
For me it depends, reading books is hard for me because it feels like a chore that never ends. Even if it is a thrilling story, it’s just hard for me to focus for long enough to make any progress. Might be ADHD idk. But at least I keep reading news articles and other things that are relevant, because obviously I want to stay informed about what’s happening in the world, especially when elections are around the corner.
I thought this was always obvious. His whole appeal was ‘he says it like it is’ and ‘he’s brave enough to say what we’re all thinking’.
That’s why scandals didn’t affect him, he never pretended to be virtuous like most of the other Republicans do.
A third of people in any society have authoritarian tendencies and will vote for the strong man ‘that will set everything straight’, and it’s always a failure of mainstream politicians that allows these people to get into power (either by not motivating the other 70% to vote for their project, being too divided, or by going into a coalition with that party).
Details are confusing. These people like “I’ll fix all your problems” with no actual substance, and then when their problems are not solved, they like hearing “it’s the
JewsImmigrants fault”.Solutions are not even desired by these people, just a scapegoat for all their woes.
Yeah, it’s not about solutions. It’s about punishing the ‘other’. Deflecting from the actual source of everyone’s economical backsliding (the billionaires skimming money off every part of economic activity).
So how do we turn these people against the billionaires?
He really is an accurate representative for his base: the worst scum sucking garbage alive.
They don’t like to read more than a couple of sentences.
tl;dr?
wordn’t
I know we don’t do gold here, but you have done something worthy of praise. So, I pledge to give a few dollars to your instance (lemmy.world).
Exactly
Yes.
Honestly I wonder how much reading comprehension they struggle with. Like the average reading level is 8th grade, if that iirc. I swear they drop out as soon as there are big words cuz they get pissed they can’t understand. People that lean left are clinically shown to be more* (not not) open minded, and I imagine are the ones going and googling when they don’t know or have someone right there they trust to explain.
If I had to categorize myself I would say that I am a pragmatic idealist.
I have a concept of a world where people tend to work together and generally operate in methods and manners that are mutually beneficial for the betterment of all.
That idealism is tempered by my pragmatic understanding that stupidity is praised and given friendships and social connections because no matter how many smart people there are the stupid people will always outnumber them.
And the stupid people don’t know that they are stupid.
So you cannot pretend that things will work out the way you think they will because no matter how stupid you think the people are around you they are far more stupid than that.
They will destroy you and themselves just to prove to you that being smart and capable is not enough to succeed in the world.
They will do horrendous things to you in order to prove to you that people do horrendous things to people.
And they truly in their heart of hearts and soul of souls before the Lord God Almighty believe they are doing the right thing when they do it.
My politics are left but my optimism is non-existent.
I do want to add to that very quickly that I do not believe that this stupidity is tied to IQ.
My sister has an IQ in the 160 to 180 range and she’s the dumbest motherfucker I’ve ever met in my entire life. She is sadistic and enjoys destroying happiness and joy and anything that she can get her hands on while she herself has accomplished nothing and done nothing with her life. She’s willfully and intelligently stupid, so don’t assume that just because somebody is smart that they are not stupid.
If I may? I think there is room for hope, but it depends on where you place that hope. For instance, I don’t believe that democracy will prevail in the USA for much longer - setting aside the Russian Roulette that we play every single time (more often than 4 years bc Congress), there is still that SCOTUS ruling that has already given the sitting President the power to legally assassinate their political rivals. The wheel keeps turning, and the ratchet keeps it always moving forwards towards the grand design of those who have power to implement such things.
But while there may be no more hope for that, what will come afterwards? People will still need things - so farmers will still farm, service members will still serve, scientists will still learn about the world, etc. Granted, much of that will be replaceable with automation, but e.g. the internet did not completely replace books, and this next transition too will be harsh but something will carry forward.
And since we do not know what or how etc., I adopt an attitude of “we don’t know”, rather than either pessimism or optimism. But since hope is mandatory for human existence, I also choose to have it (plus if I’m wrong, humanity will cease to exist, so who would be left to care anyway? it is definitely a win-win bet for me there:-P).
Something like half of US adults cannot read at a 6th grade level. That’s like reading for plot. That’s reading a couple paragraphs about like “Sally moved to New Jersey from Maine when she was 17. She went to college at NYU, where she met her future husband Jake. They got married and now have two children.” -> “Where did Sally meet her husband?”. A lot of people struggle with that. And we kind of expect them to keep up with politics.
Some of that is their fault. They don’t try. They don’t want to be literate. But a lot of it is a failure of our public education system. But that is largely the fault of conservatives who don’t want to fund it.
You’re also not going to find a lot of those people on a platform like this that’s mostly written, and where the norms generally a somewhat high level of diction that adheres to standard english.
Some want to listen - others merely to speak.
And the main reason they’re not happy is that they got left behind by the evil fucks they keep voting for. It’s beyond maddening.
I had an old lady get emotional over a government subsidy offered to help reduce some of her septic system expenses. It was the first time in a long time the government ever helped her she said. It felt good to help.
Then I had another old lady tell me she was going to die and it was going to be my fault and I deserved to go to hell because that same rebate program ended and there was no funding left.
One step forward one step back.
But they have flags!. So many flags!
Plus, they love the Jesus!!
The other side has LGBTQdsfapdkfopsdkf+ flags, so many colorful flags…
The difference is, I support people to have any kind of sexuality or gender or life or love that they want, I actively want them to have those rights.
But I don’t hang those flags all over my car, my yard, my clothes, my pets, etc. Maybe a few people do here and there, but I don’t feel so threatened in my values that I need to constantly reaffirm it and display it to the world. Most people feel this way, even though the majority of Americans support these rights.
This is why you see far, far more Trump propaganda than ANY kinds of special awareness flags. Which are totally different anyway. One supports an idea. One worships a man who wants to police ideas.
gasp! But muh daddy ain’t know them flags, and we fear the unknown!
Plus they rejekted teh Jeezus!! Graar!
Would you say then that the Jesus is not… ahem (bad incoming joke alert) “Optional”? (and vice versa)
Okay, I’ll see myself out.
My daughter calls them trumpy grumpies and I thought it was a good name.
my mother who works at a high-class nursery full of milfs, calls them yummy mummies and I think that’s a good name
\end tangent
I’m never happy and it didn’t turn me into a MAGA dipshit. I don’t think I’m even an asshole most of the time or at least I try not to be.
Maybe you should blame others more, especially foreigners, liberals, and education. Your problem is that you’re not blaming the right people.
I hadn’t considered projecting my self-loathing onto others…
Only then will you become a real
JediMAGA.I think you’re right. I need to pick a nationality to hate.
I’m thinking Icelanders. They don’t know how to use vowels, get free electricity from the earth, and their cops hardly murder anyone.
“There’s two things i can’t stand; people that are intolerant of other people, and the Dutch.”
How contemptible.
I’m never happy and just blamed everyone collectively, rather than specific groups. I’ve been around humans enough to know we’re all equally awful.
That’s so weird… with some exceptions, I’ve found most people to be pretty nice and friendly once you get to know them. I would never have said “we’re all equally awful”… I think I want to keep living in my world rather than yours.
That’s okay I don’t want to live in your world either
Why not? What’s the benefit of being so bitter?
An enlightened pessimist.
Reading my own thoughts while having not written them is trippy.
Don’t forget tHe BaByKiLlErS
I think the larger thing lacking is two-fold.
-
Perspective. These people lack the ability to look at the world objectively and outside themselves to see the larger picture of where they fit in the world. They are unable or unwilling to comprehend anything remotely complex.
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Empathy. They are unable or unwilling to walk a step let alone a mile in anyone’s shoes but their own.
On 1, someone pointed out to me that a lot of people who are susceptible to MAGA are people who don’t know what it is to be an expert on something.
They don’t have PhDs and MDs and JDs in their social or peer groups. They assume everyone’s knowledge of complex things is as superficial and uncertain as their own; literally they do not recognize the difference between things stated as fact versus things stated as opinion. Their day-to-day practice, as far as anything complex, is to let their emotions rule; practice makes perfect.
The thing they exercise most is their amygdala, and that’s why conservatism causes an enlargement of the amygdala.
Compassion is also frequently lacking.
Compassion is a natural result of Empathy: those who feel as if their own a bit of other people’s emotions don’t want others to be unhappy if only because that makes them feel a bit unhappy themselves.
This also applies to positive emotions, so those with higher Empathy are more likely to want others to feel good as that makes them feel good hence their notion of A Better World also includes what’s good for other people rather than purely what’s good for they themselves.
oh, number 2 is worse than you think. I picked up on a talk show on the radio the other night with a guest author who wrote, “Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion”. They’re actively teaching to avoid empathy,
In Toxic Empathy, Allie Beth Stuckey argues that empathy has become a tool of manipulation by left-wing activists who bully people into believing that they must adopt progressive positions to be loving. She explores the five most heated issues through which toxic empathy is deployed: abortion, gender, sexuality, immigration, and social justice.
This is what fills the airwaves around here of which a lot of elderly and rural citizens are inundated with daily.
-
It’s a serious culture issue. Big companies make lives worse and since th big companies own the media (except tiktok) they lie and blame the issue on something else.
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It’s the dixiecrats after we took the one thing they loved: Jim Crow and their ability to be superior to anyone who isn’t white.
We even dared to elect a black person president over them, they will NEVER forgive us for that, it went against everything they believe in.
You don’t understand, to them this is justice for our unimaginable crimes against them, we took the only thing they had in life.
Would be kinda funny to double down and elect a black woman next. Bet they would just love that.
Wait, isn’t she Indian? Did she just BECOME black?
/s
God I hope we get there…
You don’t understand them.
He was a MAN, he counted, well, when they didn’t call him a monkey.
A woman can be dismissed, anything she does will be considered impotent and meaningless, it doesn’t matter.
The south has its own logic, you can’t understand without going back 200 years in time.
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And that’s how the orange turd built a cult…but constantly whining and complaining when Obama was elected. 8 years of slowly stroking the flames, birther crap, pointing out every single minor inconvenience and a failure of the president.
My wife is Indonesian Muslim, hates Kamala for what we’re doing in Palestine and told me not to vote for her. I’m still voting for Kamala but man that was a hard conversation I never would have expected. Seems like the military owns everything these days
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Oof, that must be a weird conversation. Am Indonesian.
Any conversation touching Islam adjacent lost any nuance with the general population more often than not . Not saying your wife is one, but let’s be honest the education quality here is abysmal and at the same time we’re number 1 muslim by population. Also our “Netizen” is notorious for wrongly attacking any issue they misunderstood.
One of our top singer got berated nationwide because she wore a skirt with a random arabic text in it, people thought it was a Holy script and she’s Christian.
I kid you not one election season I saw an angry mob with a banner that said USA = COMMUNIST !!
Most have hard enough time just to get by day to day so I get it, they take anything to blame. With corruption top to bottom it’s a sad state all around. I’m grateful it’s still a relatively peaceful affair though, at least here in Java.
The hard part is, she gets to pick between genocide, and genocide with fewer rights for women.
I don’t understand why she’d pick the latter, but anger does crazy things.
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In defense Kamala is actively in power with Biden and has had many chances to voice and make change on this issue and she hasn’t. We know what we will get with Kamala, and it’s a lot like Biden all over again
Well, seeing a lot of the positives Biden has done, or tried to do but the repubs shut down purely out of spite, I’m still fully voting for Kamala.
We also know what we’d get with Trump. He’s pretty forward about wanting Israel to finish the genocide quicker.
If your presidential plan is “Trump is worse,” you have no plan, that’s the problem. Trump is obviously worse, but you need to stand for something and have policy and actions.
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The rest of us, and themselves, hang for it.*
Too many minorities that support their system forget that they’re are minorities, and have no seat at the table. They’re just useful idiots for now, and bodies in the end game. Think of people like Rafael Cruz, Nimrata Haley, and Vivek Ramashwarmy. The fact that two of them had to change their name to have a seat at the table now is evidence enough.
Testing
I am so, so glad Democrats have finally woken up to the fact that Republicans are not just misinformed Democrats. There’s no amount of facts we can throw at them to make them stop being terrible people. They’re not going to suddenly go “oh my God, I was wrong!” This is who they are.
My take is that with Harris courting endorsements from many formerly rank-and-file Republicans, this drives the point home. If anybody is still confused that Trump’s party is VERY different from what the Republican Party used to be, the Cheney’s endorsing her should settle that. Anybody still unconvinced is wilfully ignorant at minimum.
If anybody is still confused that Trump’s party is VERY different from what the Republican Party used to be, the Cheney’s endorsing her should settle that.
And then you have the braindead .MLs who argue that awful people supporting the normal candidate over the fascist means we really need to rethink our support for the normal candidate 🙄
A basketful of deplorables, as it were.
They’re dixiecrats, they used to be the worst part of the democrats before LBJ dared to sign civil rights, an unforgivable sin.
they are selfish.
That’s where all of those symptoms stem from.
selfish greed.
Lots of them are, but it’s stupid comments like this which make me shake my head. The left will lose 2024 with their fake moral superiority and fail to understand what happened.
Again.
get your maga out of here.
*The left will lose 2024 with their fake moral superiority…"
it is not a fake moral superiority, the left has a practical moral superiority demonstrated by material policy that positively affects the lives of people.
The left beat you in 2020 because of their tangible moral superiority by providing civil protections and material assets for the rights of the electorate.
conservatives are legally trying and succeeding in stealing the rights, liberties and property of Americans.
Americans don’t like that, and voted to the left.
they’re fighting back by prosecuting and removing the selfish conservatives who are harming people, and are creating laws and funds protecting everyone,
civil rights are not a “fake” moral superiority, they are a tangible moral superiority effected through practical, respectful policy.
The smug feeling of moral superiority and the continuous willingness to correct the other’s behaviour is THE reason why people can’t stand “left/wokism/whatever”. Continously pointing out on fake “offensive words” just to show off how morally superior they are.
That how it looks from outside.
(For context i am not American and don’t guve a fuck about orange man neither for so called “christian values” so don’t try to paint me as a conservative MAGA supporter.)
“moral superiority and the continuous willingness to correct the other’s behaviour”
it is tangible practical moral superiority coming from the protection and support of civil rights and liberty.
rather than taking away employee rights, the left is giving employees rights.
rather than taking away minority rights, the left is legally protecting minority rights.
those are not imaginary feelings, those are practical and effective policies.
"The smug feeling of moral superiority and the continuous willingness to correct the other’s behaviour is THE reason why people can’t stand “left/wokism/whatever”. Continously pointing out on fake “offensive words” just to show off how morally superior they are. "
this is largely your imagination and pointed conservative media and a poor excuse for selfish people to continue abusing vulnerable people for their own gain.
offensive words are not fake, and there’s nothing wrong with being considerate toward everyone.
the fact that you don’t understand haven’t considered the difference between protected civil liberties and imaginary fake word hunts from the left (that are actually perpetrated by conservatives banning books from libraries) demonstrates exactly how successful the conservative media you consume is.
consider what you’re saying, consider the information around you.
anybody accusing the left of instigating moral panics while the right is literally banning books in libraries over words that they don’t like or understand clearly doesn’t have even the most tenuous comprehension of what is really happening.
rather than taking away employee rights, the left is giving employees rights.
Good, that’s not what I am talking about
rather than taking away minority rights, the left is legally protecting minority rights.
Good, that’s not what i am talking about neither
. those are practical and effective policies.
Cool I agree!
this is largely your imagination and pointed conservative media and a poor excuse for selfish people to continue abusing vulnerable people for their own gain.
Oh wait, so telling someone “your fears/points you makes, it’s just your imagination” is a valid argument now? lol
the fact that you don’t understand haven’t considered the difference between protected civil liberties and imaginary fake word hunts … the conservative media you consume is.
Well you didn’t even bother to check if we are talking about the same points. Good on you I guess. You also somehow deduced I consume conservative medias, that’s some skill!
consider what you’re saying, consider the information around you.
Consider what you are saying, consider the information about you.
… right is literally banning books in libraries over words…
Banning books is dumb, I don’t know what makes you say I d support it. It never occured to me to ban a book, and I am not planning or supporting anyone who does.
Again 95% of your comment is completely beside the point, because you somehow assumed my view points without ever considering I actually have similar views, I just don’t subscribe to every other random bullshit “the left” (whatever that means, because I don’t consider myself “right” neither) does.
nobody’s throwing you in jail for being the public bigot you aspire to. use all the slurs you want.
people are, however, murdering trans people and banning books. in the real world.
have fun cradling your make believies.
So you think that being an asshole and holding the country hostage is a reasonable response to being scolded? Like a literal fucking toddler?
Sorry I don’t know what you refer to
One of the lawyers that defended a handful of J6 insurrectionists said they would give them a reading list to help them understand on a general level what any of the legal charges they faced concerned or what the consequences could be, or just how government worked, and because this was ‘‘you need to read this before trial so you can ACTUALLY have a chance of getting a plea deal or even a dismissal if you can actually convince a judge you now grasp what you did and how bad it was, and you’re super duper sorry’’ some actually read them. And they came out of it going ‘‘oh… I’ve been lied to and manipulated into doing very illegal shit by a political party that knows it can no longer win elections and needs to do very illegal shit to retain any level of power’’ and similar thoughts.
But yes. If they instead acquired a smidge of curiosity and interest in worthwhile pursuits they would probably stop being garbage ass people. Maybe we need to make reading cool? Possible dinosaurs reading on posters. That’s what got me reading.
Bring back the Pizza Hut reading club!
They don’t like to read
I argue that’s the issue right there.
Reading only headlines will get you there quickly. But headlines are click bait and insufficient.
I recall seeing a study on the demographics of who actually reads articles and MAGAs were among the most that did not read.
Sounds like a basket of deplorables to me.
No, you mustn’t say!
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Many of them started in camp 1 and entered camp 2.
my (lifelong republican) aunt and uncle were trump haters in the 2016 primaries. but of course they voted for him in the election because Hillary is literally the devil, and once he won they were all in.
I need to ask my parents, cuz last I heard around June my dad had snapped out enough to at least to say he was considering not voting for the first time ever in a national election. There’s an ironic push for ranked choice style options moving forward now thanks to our state Republicans trying to revert back to caucuses and pissing a bunch of constituents off by having us vote to ban other options
A lot of conservatives are authoritarians that value group cohesion above most everything else. Going against the group feels bad in a deep way, I think, so all sorts of justifications will be made to stay with the group.
Honestly, as far as I’m concerned that’s a form of stupid. Kind of funny given the boomer cliche of “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump off too?”. It turns out yes, a lot of people would.
A lot of them feel betrayed/wronged by the system, or by lleft leaning/progressive politics.
That’s why they don’t mind Trump’s wrongdoings. They see things like his felony mugshot and think “he’s been betrayed and attacked by the system just like me!”…
…a lot of it is emotional for them, and it’s a difficult mindset they’re unlikely to leave behind.
Still at least it’s a better ratio than in places like Israel, where the vast majority of the population are far-right (many of whom are conspiracy theory inclined, particularly when it comes to the assassination of their former PM Yitzhak Rabin).
That scene gets more and more perfect every year. Tho the worst morons dont actually work or live on the land, they live in the suburbs and drive around in their monster trucks that have never been off road or hauled jack shit in the beds
You’re not wrong.
These are the same people onsite who never take responsibility.
Also, they’re willing to listen to children. Literally saw one yesterday comment on Facebook repeating the “kamala,” nonsense.
Seriously, they act like children… Their dictator is literally a child, and no body in high school even would act this way
