Has this ever happened to you?
You’re ‘discussing’ politics with someone of the ‘opposite persuasion’, & some (or all) of the following comes-up:
-so any (alleged) failures by him, aren’t indictments of Repubs, let-alone ‘Conservatives’
-”unknown”
-”liar”
-”unqualified”
-really did “pal around w/ terrorists”
-caused stock-market crash; the Market simply reacted in fear that he’d win
-a Liberal
-a “Traitor” (Rush’s favorite line)
-ruined the economy
-hugely expanded gov’t, with massive give-aways to baby-boomer/ 60′s counterculture (ie ‘socialist’) Programs
-deregulated housing market & created the bubble
-never went after terrorism
-downgraded the military
-accelerated failure of marriage -&-
-”made a mockery of the Presidency”
-”lied to Congress (about sex)… which is (technically) much more important than lying to American Public about WMD”
-everything was perfect
-”deficits don’t matter”
-eliminated recession
-’gave us’ the best US economy & taxpayer/citizen wealth in 30+ years
-she is/was prepared; much more than a ‘Community Organizer’
-MSM edited her interviews to make her look bad
-Biden is waaay more gaffe-ridden & dangerous
-diplomacy is weakness; ‘big stick’ is best
-there really were WMD there, -&-
-however well the surge worked, 4yrs in, justifies our Presence there
-stimulate economy
-gov’t would just waste it anyway
-Natural Disasters are states’ responsibility
-Louisiana’s Governor & New Orleans’ Mayor screwed it all up, not FEMA
-always lying & censoring the real truth (ie, Rush, O’Reilly, Hannity, etc)
-always Liberal, with unquestionably massive bias
-basically stupid, de facto traitors/etc aligned with ‘our enemies’
…& then my two ‘Favorites’:
-all Gov’t failures are expected
-Dems create more damage than repubs, are more corrupt & misguided, nottomention are all creeping Socialists/Liberal/(read: “Traitor”)/etc
-deficits/Federal-Debt doesn’t matter — China will be happy to keep funding it, forever
-Repubs & Conservatives are more honest, morally, ethically, fundamentally
-& best-
-Dems & Repubs are ‘pretty-much the same’, & therefore-
-Dems are (morally) culpable for everything Repubs (allegedly) did, b/c “they did it too, & it’ll get exposed eventually”
.
So… any of this sound familiar?
This is quite the impressive list… from ‘lightly-twisted’ interpretations of history, to outright lies… this combination of ‘talking points’ isn’t just airtight, it’s hermetically sealed.
Nothing can penetrate this set of statements; the person (spewing) this isn’t just “well-prepared”, they’re utterly walled-off from any possible other input.
Ladies & Gentlemen– this is called Message Discipline via doctrinal repetition, confirmation bias, & ad-hominem attack.
Let me break-down the Repub/Conservative ‘Debate Process’:
1) State talking-point, w/ utter confidence & authority as if it’s a-priori & beyond doubt
2. Freely attack the personal character of not just Obama/Bill Clinton/et al, but of yours as well, for (daring) to defend them, -& always-
3. Escalate emotion, as follows:
(a) Their positions/statements are true, logical, & self-evident; how (dare) you question them(?!)
(b) Claim they’re being misunderstood, mis-represented, &/or (even) victimized, if/when you respond in kind… -& then-
(c) Outright blame you for being emotional, disingenuous, unreasonable, illogical, & ill-informed. Ie, classical projection… or rather, ‘accuse you before you can accuse them’; ie, “tap-tap no tag-backs!”.
Rinse & repeat.
…& what’s amazing, is I thought this would all be done after Nov 4th.
After eight (8?!!) years of high-crimes, misdemeanors, & outright ineptness, we now can start to rebuild, right? And the repubs/conservatives[sic] will fall-back & regroup?
Don’t you believe it– for whatever reason, Rush et al appear to be on the offensive even worse, & his DittoHeads are still going-strong… but, um, with the same talking-points from last month(?!) Earth to Rush– the Election already happened, & you lost. NO, it wasn’t some great MSM conspiracy, ‘massive voter fraud’, & NO “Fair Use” isn’t going to pull you & your wingnut brethern off the air… And yet you still persist in this nonsense.
So it’s good for us Dems/Progressives/Liberals to be prepared: next time this happens to you, next time you get caught-up in this sequence, just stop in your tracks, disengage, & walk away.
Why? Isn’t that ‘giving-up’? Don’t we have a (responsibility) to point-out when ppl are being lead-astray, by [fat, oxycontin-guzzling, rabble-rousing, incredibly hypocritical, smooth-talking, etcetc] unrepentant liars?
No. Because there’s no reasoning w/ someone who thinks like this:
- they don’t consider this a ‘discussion’, an opportunity to trade ideas & explore different points of view;
- this is simply another venue for a (repub/conservative) to follow their Process, & beat-down their Opposition….
- By any means necessary.
…& we Dems/Liberals/Progressives are typically Suckers for this, b/c in general–
- we try to Listen
- we try to give them the Benefit of the Doubt
- we (assume) the other guy/gal respects our position, or at least the possibility that we have a (valid) position
.
Look– it’s really simple:
…& anybody espousing any of the Talking Points above is coming-from Belief, rather than Fact, no matter how vociferously they spin it.
And so next time this happens, give-up trying to find “common ground”, let-alone getting them to ‘agree’ w/ any of your points…
…& for that matter, you might as well give-up spending any time at all ‘considering’ the Talking Points listed above… all of them have been thoroughly refuted, and to spend any time at all (re)reviewing them is just to play into their Game… & thereby erode your own confidence.
Just. Walk. Away.
or, if you will:
Don’t Feed the Trolls…
.
FWIW– There’s a word for people who attack violently, unethically, immorally, & would rather (die) than admit defeat. They’re called “terrorists”;
And this kind of verbal attacking, this flagrant intellectual dishonesty & willingness to stop at nothing to ‘win’, is basically “intellectual violence”.
And the Repubs/Conservatives are extremely skilled at it… B/c God knows that’s the closest Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rummsfield, Palin… let-alone Rush, O’Reilly, Hannity, Coulter et al ever got to actually taking up a weapon & defending our Country… They’d just rather brutally slander real war heroes like Murtha, Kerry, & Max Cleland.
I gots your #, bitches.