Talk about getting bang for your buck. Read down the comment threads on articles about the current government shutdown crisis-and you'll see that the massive, multimillion-dollar propaganda
campaign carried on year after year at the behest of a few thousand
billionaires and multimillionaires...has been amazingly successful.
We know a lot more about the human mind than we did even a few
decades ago. And amoral people with a vast sense of entitlement have
paid skilled operatives to use that knowledge to get many millions of
Americans to believe a long list of "facts" that are not factually true.
However, those lies are woven into a pandering, emotionally
self-satisfying narrative that makes more "sense" to the average
Republican voter than ambiguous, messy reality does.
Reality doesn't stand a chance.
The result is people like the commentors here who absolutely believe
that they know more about the Constitution than the Supreme Court and
the constitutional lawyer who's our President, more about civics than
civics teachers...these are people who believe the political things they
believe with same fervor that the more fervent Fundamentalist
Christians or Muslims or Jews or Hindus or Buddhist apply to their
religious beliefs.
You will also see that this propaganda campaign has inoculated them
against reality--given them bogus counter-arguments but even more
important, gotten them to believe that Democrats are the enemies of
America, and therefore they need not listen to a single word any
Democrat says.
When you talk with them in person you can see their faces close up,
at which point nothing you say will be processed in their cerebral
cortex--it all gets shunted down to the emotional centers in the middle
of the brain.
The irony being that their leaders are their actual enemies--enemies
who've convinced their victims that they're their friends, in a massive
Stockholm Syndrome.
Thus the .1% have become the most successful parasites in
Nature--parasites whose victims eagerly present themselves to them to
get sucked dry, and then turn angrily on those who are trying to save
them.
Apart from the moral horror, it's quite impressive to watch.
We know a lot more about the human mind than we did even a few decades ago. And amoral people with a vast sense of entitlement have paid skilled operatives to use that knowledge to get many millions of Americans to believe a long list of "facts" that are not factually true.
However, those lies are woven into a pandering, emotionally self-satisfying narrative that makes more "sense" to the average Republican voter than ambiguous, messy reality does.
Reality doesn't stand a chance.
The result is people like the commentors here who absolutely believe that they know more about the Constitution than the Supreme Court and the constitutional lawyer who's our President, more about civics than civics teachers...these are people who believe the political things they believe with same fervor that the more fervent Fundamentalist Christians or Muslims or Jews or Hindus or Buddhist apply to their religious beliefs.
You will also see that this propaganda campaign has inoculated them against reality--given them bogus counter-arguments but even more important, gotten them to believe that Democrats are the enemies of America, and therefore they need not listen to a single word any Democrat says.
When you talk with them in person you can see their faces close up, at which point nothing you say will be processed in their cerebral cortex--it all gets shunted down to the emotional centers in the middle of the brain.
The irony being that their leaders are their actual enemies--enemies who've convinced their victims that they're their friends, in a massive Stockholm Syndrome.
Thus the .1% have become the most successful parasites in Nature--parasites whose victims eagerly present themselves to them to get sucked dry, and then turn angrily on those who are trying to save them.
Apart from the moral horror, it's quite impressive to watch.