I want that red pill now, please

Introversion · Oct 21, 2019

How Florida Republicans Are Talking About Impeachment

Representative samples, in case the paywall keeps you out:

NY Times said:
On a recent Saturday night, while sitting outside a bar with a friend, a man with just a few teeth started a conversation with me. The first thing he uttered was an apology for his lacking dental work. Like so many other Americans, he couldn’t afford to get them fixed.

The conversation took an unexpected turn when he went on to rail against universal health care. He didn’t want to pay for other people to get help. He didn’t have health insurance and told me he once duct-taped a cut on his arm because he couldn’t afford stitches.

“I’d rather take care of my own self with tape than be stuck in a system where I pay for everyone else,” he said.

He didn’t want to be helped because that meant he might have to help other people he didn’t think of as deserving.

NY Times said:
Out at dinner last month with my husband, we had a discussion with a group of Trump-supporting women. Three of them had abortions in their younger years and admitted that without that service, their current lives would have been unattainable. But they continue to support the president because they feel their cases were different from the women needing these services today.

“When I was younger, we didn’t use abortion as birth control like these girls now. It wasn’t like sending back a coffee; we put time and thought and tears and strife into that decision. Now it’s easy peasy.”

NY Times said:
Florida Republicans appreciate a man who has helped himself, who can boil talking points down to the black-and-white, easy delineations of fair and unfair. The more investigations and allegations leveled against Mr. Trump, the more fiercely they cling to him. He is being treated unfairly, they think, just like they are. He will understand their plight and help them.

That final sample is particularly telling: There is no coming back from this level of disconnect from reality. Trump really could shoot someone in broad daylight on camera on 5th Avenue, and they'd believe whatever he told them to believe.

I'm seriously contemplating just stepping away from all sources of news until next November, because crap like the above just serves to depress me. I find myself envying the hateful morons interviewed in that article. If ignorance truly is bliss, they're goddamn Bodhisattvas of bliss.

Marian Perera · Oct 21, 2019

Introversion said:
Trump really could shoot someone in broad daylight on camera on 5th Avenue, and they'd believe whatever he told them to believe.

He wouldn't need to tell them anything. They'd think, "Well, the person he shot was probably a criminal, or at least a bad person who deserved it" and they'd praise him for making America safe again.

Roxxsmom · Oct 21, 2019

Introversion said:
How Florida Republicans Are Talking About Impeachment

Representative samples, in case the paywall keeps you out:

That final sample is particularly telling: There is no coming back from this level of disconnect from reality. Trump really could shoot someone in broad daylight on camera on 5th Avenue, and they'd believe whatever he told them to believe.

I'm seriously contemplating just stepping away from all sources of news until next November, because crap like the above just serves to depress me. I find myself envying the hateful morons interviewed in that article. If ignorance truly is bliss, they're goddamn Bodhisattvas of bliss.

When I see this kind of attitude, it reminds me of a sort of sour grapes--people who aren't making it, but they focus intensely on being cheated by someone else.

Of course, if we did have universal health care, he wouldn't be the one paying for everyone else, but he's too proud to admit it.

There's also that syndrome where people defend their abusers (parents or spouses), insisting that abuse=love. I remember arguing with a guy once who was really mad that parent's aren't "allowed" to beat their kids anymore. His dad beat him regularly and even hit him with a two by four once, and he deserved it, because he was "all boy" and a little terror!

In this case, the capitalistic system we enjoy for health care has kicked this guy to the curb and run him over to boot, but it's for his own good, right? I suspect it's a kind of odd machismo, since most of the people I've met who feel this way are men.

Some people feel that extreme punishment and suffering build character, even though there's little evidence of that.

cbenoi1 · Oct 21, 2019

Introversion said:
He didn’t want to be helped because that meant he might have to help other people he didn’t think of as deserving.

Life as a zero-sum game.

Introversion said:
He is being treated unfairly, they think, just like they are. He will understand their plight and help them.

Hmmmm. Right. Just ask the Kurds.

-cb

I want that red pill now, please

Introversion

Pie aren't squared, pie are round!

Marian Perera

starting over

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

cbenoi1