Republican "Critical Thinking"

[gillamonster]

We have all been a witness to what is the most illogical, irresponsible, and moronic mass thought processes in the historoy of the world. I am by no means a philosopher. I am someone who believes that the truth is something fairly easy to see, it is nearly always common sense and something that sticks out like a sore thumb. I have found myself for the past 7+ years asking how people can think and believe in such glaring and obvious lies. How can some people look at an issue and seem to be so far off base and disillusioned from what seems to me as an obvious truth? It is really a difficult concept to grasp. Some people on the far right dont necessarily agree with alot of the propaganda and rhetoric that is spread but arrogance and pride wont let them admit it, so they go along with it. But there are people out there who actualy buy into the things this administratino says, and beleive in it, as much as most of us disagree with it. So I tried to tackle this idea and looked for ways people can honestly believe these things.

If you take a long hard look at most of these arguments you will usually find an underlying stuborness from right wingers, an unwillingness to compromise. A fortitude not to give in under overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It is truly mind boggling to most of us. THere seems to be no basis or logic, it is just someone saying the same thing over and over expecting someone to believe it. So what is at the base of these arguments? What is the fundamental reasoning you see with nearly every republican argument? It is the same "logic" that you see from a majority of Americans. It is part of the reason people support the republican party. It is what many citizens consider their most important decision and the single most important factor people identify themselves with. So what factor has identical reasoning, logic, and facts when compared to the republican rhetoric. Religion. It is a belief in something. A belief that is not based on facts or reason. It is something that cannot be proved or disproved. It is something based on faith. It is based on the faith that they are right, therefore everything else is not, and since that is what they believe in, it is 100% correct. Personally I am proud to live in a country that is tolerant of all religions, and gives the people the right to believe and worship whatever they choose. What I have a problem with is when people apply this thought process to ideas outside of religion and faith. When people take out critical thinking from an important issue and revert to a stubborn child and say, "I am right because I said so and I believe it", is where debate and the line of conversation and compromise shut down. This way of thinking has to be part of the reason we find ourself in a country that seems to be so polarized.

This thought process is a critical mistake. It has led to a foreign policy where our leaders "believe" we are better then all other countries, so we must be right, no compromise, no critical thinking, no chance for failure, just a reaction, and be damned those who do not passively go along with us (The French). It has lead to a society of people thinking they are better then citizens around the world just because we are American, like it is a birth right, something inherent, something that is handed down to us, not something we have to work for, maintain, or even improve on(Elizabeth). It has lead to an upper class that believe they are better then the rest, and can exploit, forget, and walk over everyone "under" them because they are better, because they believe it(Elizabeth). The stubborn belief that no matter what anyone says, you are right, no matter how clear it is you are wrong, you are right, because that is what you believe no matter what. We have seen it before, some cases more extreme then others, some with very different and opposite intentions. The Holocaust, Viet Nam, 9/11, Iraq, are all events that were carried out by men who "believed" very strongly in what they were doing, they all thought they were carrying out a plan that was best for man kind, they all had a strong faith in what they were doing was right in every sense of the word. But in the end these instances will be remembered as avoidable and extremely unfortunate events that were caused by men unwilling to compromise, unwilling to listen, and unwilling to believe they could be wrong under any circumstances. This thinking, this abscence of logic and reasoning is what has caused these events, hopefully we all eventually learn from this and start to think in a way that promotes healthy debate, conversation, and compromise. I am not sure if we can achieve this, since the events mentioned came with so much devestation, death and destruction, and we have yet to learn, but I have to keep the faith ;)

[OHdem10]

1. I cannot resist--here is an old line but I believe

appropriate. Republicans believe they have truth and Democrats
are in search of truth. Shorthand. Republicans are right and
Democrats understand they(Dems) could be wrong.

Unfortunately. The GOP really believe they are right(correct)
Therefore, if you have watched them--they all walk talk and
act with an air of authority.

Democrats for the most part come across as hesitant(may be too strong)
Could this come from knowing and understanding that they do not
have all the answers. In reality, nor do the Republicans but they
are not going to admit it.(look strong and act like you know
what you are doing even if you do not.) Democrats are willing to
explore, investigate, seek advice in searching for the solution.

Your post is right on and OH SO Accurate.

[insomnomaniacal]

2. It's a good observation...

The late, lamented Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. called it "being stupid on purpose."

The condition existed before Bush took office, but it has become pandemic on the right since Bush took office.

Their first detachment from reality is when they believed that Bush was actually elected to the Presidency. It was clearly a judicial coup d'etat, buoyed up by Republican brown-shirt intimidation in Florida, as well as the deliberately, and wildly, inaccurate "felon list" cooked up by Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, and her little lackey, Clayton Roberts.

G. W. Bush then set a sort of national example when he began publicly to deny reality. Faced with evidence that there was no Iraqi involvement in 9/11 and no Iraqi ties to al-Qaeda and no WMDs and no active nuclear program and no uranium ore purchases, he simply did what any good dictator would do, and that is to continuing asserting the lies until his faithful simply adopted the lies as the truth. Even after Bush had admitted the truth about these things, his handler, Cheney, went on asserting them to crowds of the faithful; and we've even seen Bush come back to reassert falsehoods that he had earlier eschewed.

Before the war began, Bush appeared in a one-on-one interview on a major TV network. Asked about his campaign to go to war with Iraq, he did not present any evidence as to why this would be a great idea -- he didn't even try. What he said was this, and I paraphrase, "Well, if I keep stating it over and over, and I keep telling people that we need to do this, and I persist in telling them, then I create a kind of 'slip-stream,' and little by little people begin to fall into the slip-stream, and support what I've been saying."

This is a classic propaganda method, so effectively developed and employed by Hitler's people. To me it was a flashing red warning that we had a very dangerous man in the White House, and this has proved to be the case.

By publicly denying reality, day after day after day, this "president" has set an example that his supporters have learned to follow. Does he have no proof that Iraq has any significant ties to al-Qaeda? No problem, assert it anyway; is there evidence that the yellow-cake ore purchases in Niger were bogus? No problem, assert that the evidence is real and discredit anyone who claims it isn't. Is there an obvious necessity to investigate the events of 9/11 thoroughly, exhaustively, and objectively? Deny that need as long as you can, drag your feet as long as you can, then "compromise" by naming a "commission" composed only of members you select, and then underfund it. Is it true that embryonic stem cells could cure major diseases? Well, come out against it on the basis that it destroys "potential life," but don't bother to address the fact that the embryos in question will be discarded, anyway, once the client of the in-vitro fertilization clinic has a child, and that there are never enough "embryo adopters" with the funds or the ability to "adopt" them. Don't point out to the faithful that you have no concern if the embryos are destroyed, as long as they are not allowed to be used to find cures for some of our worst diseases.

I could think of examples of this, endlessly. Bush has a bold technique, and that is simply to be "stupid on purpose." As the leader of the faithful, he will naturally instill this same form of stubborn, deliberate stupidity in them. And he has succeeded.

[johnlal]

3. Remember when your mom warned you about comic books...

Our mothers warned us that comic books could damage our brains. In the 1950's Congress even held hearings to determine whether there was a link between comic books and juvenile delinquency. While it may sound silly now, they may have been right. The people in government today are a product of that danger. Our government is run as if we live in a comic book world. There is a hyper-Americanism in which our country is always right and every moral issue is black-and-white. Every problem can be solved by physical violence or jail. (WAR on drugs, WAR on terror) Even something as complicated as education is solved by superheroic sentiment (NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND).
Nuanced problems and dicey diplomatic concerns are solved by "Shock and Awe" and "Bomb-Bomb-Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran".

Their brains have been rotted out by comic books.