OK, that sounds like gibberish.

What I mean is that a segment of the upper classes at some level believe Marxist doctrine, and think that acting like the villains of Marx’ piece best serves their interests. It’s very hard for them to alter this instinct because the form their Marxism takes is that of doublethink: a bundle of pairs of contradictory concepts to be understood according to context. This is intellectual suicide. Scratch the surface of their thought, and it’s clear that they’re stuck in the 19th century, everything afterwards being either a tool for the furtherance of the cause of the upper classes or propaganda of one kind or another. This is the dark heart of the Republican Party.

I’m sorry could you go over number two one more time I’m having a hard time writing all this down

we have a similar problem here in australia. the basic problem is that ‘conservative’ politics attracts three kinds of people:

1) rich people

2) morons who think they can become rich if they act like rich people

3) sadists with a feudal peasant mindset that the natural order of things is to work themselves to death for the lord of the manor.

only the first group are acting in their own interest. i can understand a rich guy voting to stay rich, but not a poor guy voting to stay poor. figure that out and our side wins.

(My apologies if this has already been posted, I haven’t read the whole thing yet.)

August 12, 2009 at 6:11

Standing in line for toilet paper? Been there, done that. I’m old enough to remember the meat panic, the coffee panic, the chocolate panic, the antifreeze panic, and yes, the toilet paper panic. Nixon/Ford were in office at the time.”

I remember that also. I watched the “Tom Snyder Show” and he reported on it; then told everyone to “sit tight”.

I agree with several commenters that religion, or at least the self-righteous, willfully ignorant brand of it practiced in the U.S. is the root cause of the problem. I’m soaking in it living in an upscale neighborhood of suburban ATL. The south is home to the born-again birthers making up the strength of the republican party.

Southern christians really believe in hell and know there is one ticket to salvation: the inerrant word of god as communicated through bronze age fables edited by medieval clerics.

Many are bible literalist. These are people who have read and re-read this book riddled with contradictions and STILL believe it is absolutely the final truth and only source for eternal life. What amazes me is their belief that every word and every story must be true or their whole belief structure collapses. It is all or nothing. The best selling messages of Ted Haggard became worthless when they found out he was gay.

They deal only in absolutes. Good and evil. Saved and unsaved. Us and them.

You can spot the truest of the believers in any neighborhood here: they don’t get newspapers. A neighbor actually told me that the good book was the only source for news anyone needs. Home schooling is booming. These are people actively breaking off contact with the outside world—anything that challenges their view of a 6000 year old world.

This is a culture that crushes independent thought, reasoning and skepticism. Why worry about global warming when Jesus will be coming back for me any day now? Just don’t take any of my money while I’m waiting and give it to those people who won’t even be leaving with me and my bff Jesus.

Keep in mind these people are motivated by fear—fear of eternal damnation. Using scare tactics to influence a population raised to never question authority is so easy, even republicans can do it.

As beautifully stated above – Jesus makes you stupid.

Can a leftist name ONE thing America is better than Europe in?

I can name two: Hog snot, and bovine feces.

You’re soaking in ‘em, dude.

Because you’re Yanks.

Think about it – pro wrestling, American football, Fox, paranoid lunacy.

As to why… I imagine it’s because of an ancient native American curse… “So white man, you want our land? OK. But while you possess our land one third of your people will be batshit crazy, one third will be susceptible to the crazy, and the final third will have to suck on big, fat, crazy turds. Goodluck. Oh, and what is this “craps” you speak of?”

From Wiki:

More than just imploding any traces of old-world aristocracy, ordinary Americans also refused to defer to those possessing, as Tocqueville put it, superior talent and intelligence. These natural elites, who Tocqueville asserted were the lone virtuous members of American society, could not enjoy much share in the political sphere as a result. Ordinary Americans enjoyed too much power, claimed too great a voice in the public sphere, to defer to intellectual superiors. This culture promoted a relatively pronounced equality, Tocqueville argued, but the same mores and opinions that ensured such equality also promoted, as he put it, a middling mediocrity.

No. It will be the three shells.

Didn’t ANYONE see “Demolition Man”?????

We don’t have single-payer healthcare with a mental health component