I just read someone's right-wing blog about the terrible state we are in, blaming it on the democrats. I don't disagree that we are in crisis mode in the US; however, I am mind-boggled at the repetitive, thoughtless rhetoric of political party loyalists.
You don't have to be right-wing to be mindless. We have plenty of mindless left-wingers, too! (We are an equal opportunity country--for better or worse. I find extremists in any field generally too motivated by their emotions, rather than their logic. Their vision is usually clouded.
The following is the comment I left on his blog in answer to his rant on the state of the Union. I wanted to shed some light on how peoples' psychology makes them believe and act. It's always best to look at the bigger picture and not get trapped into mimicking rhetoric.
"And what do you offer as options or alternatives to the government we have?I agree that there exists much hypocrisy in America that makes me want to pull my hair out. Even overseas (where I lived for a long time), America is known for its hypocrisy. But that could be a result of having more freedoms, thus having more polarization. It is always more fun and easier to point at the negatives. It’s what sells.
I think that, in most cases, if you are on the right or left politically it is a result of the information you are exposed to, starting from the family. If you choose to believe one way, you will generally read literature that supports your belief, thereby continuing to strengthen your beliefs, even in the face of opposing facts. That’s how our brains work.
Politics, like religion, is so emotionally loaded. So it becomes difficult to think critically.
Personally, while I don’t like to be legally obligated to pay taxes to help the poor, etc., I would rather the system was more socialistic than to experience the mayhem, the suffering, the craziness we have these days. Having lived overseas, I am not as afraid of socialism as most in America. I have seen the quality of life and people’s happiness in Europe, for example, to be much higher than ours!
Some people blame the religious right, some the religious left, some the non-religious. Religious people cannot be put in one basket. They are as polarized as the US! On one extreme, they feel that people’s bad fortune is due to some moral failing; on the other, they are extremely supportive of anyone who is a democrat, regardless of unsavory facts about the candidate.
We are under the thumb of higher powers (and I don’t mean God). It has less to do with right and left than it has to do with money and power, banks and the elite. Republicans seem to be different than democrats--but we are just looking at their masks. They are ultimately after the same thing: money and power.
These people in power are very sick, narcissistic sociopaths, for the most part. It’s a very scary situation.
Life, politics, religion--nothing is black and white. It is easy to criticize--and I support constructive criticism--however, I would like to hear more ideas about what we need to change to live better, freer lives.
We need, as a people, to unite, rebel, and get our power BACK! Otherwise, our citizens will just continue in ignorance, complaining, and unwittingly giving their power to "those who pull the strings behind the curtain!"
