Yes, the MAGA crowd likes to create its own reality, completely separate from the actual reality in which the rest of us live. I was particularly struck by the comments of Clay Higgins (R-La) and Mike Johnson. Clay Higgins makes some really reprehensible racist and xenophobic statements on social media, then after backlash, takes down the post. When House Speaker Mike Johnson, fellow Louisiana representative, is queried on Mr. Higgins’s statements, Johnson says “He is a very principled man…”. Mr. Higgins is said to have “prayed about it” before taking down his post. Prayed about it? This seems to be the ubiquitous get-out-of-jail-free-card for holier-than-thou, fake Christians. Just “pray about it” and all harm from your actions is magically swept away by “forgiveness”. People like Higgins, Johnson, and Mark Robinson (North Carolina gubernatorial candidate) use their faith as a cloak to hide the ugliness that lies beneath.
To some degree, without getting too metaphysical about it, we all live in our own realities, which, seen from the outside, can seem fairly strange to others. I'm not countenancing the wacky world that the MAGA folk live in by any stretch. But the advisor was right. We can all sit here and point fingers at the crazy myths others steep themselves in without ever truly taking a hard look at some of the crazy shit we've come to accept as normal – – even real. It's OK to talk and speculate and ponder and analyze, but at some point, all of us need to simply get on with the task of actually doing something about this world of alternative realities that we find ourselves in and see if we can't find reasonable and rational consensus among the majority. If we simply continue to pander to the extremes on either end of the political spectrum, we're simply buying into the unwise and unhealthy democratization of all voices. Not all voices deserve to be heard.
I think a good starting point in having rational discussions and solving problems, is to acknowledge what are facts and what are fictions and conspiracy theories. In the words of the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “You are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts”. I live in a very red rural area, packed with the MAGA faithful, and I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people make statements that are obviously and demonstrably wrong and counter to fact, but you cannot convince them of reality with any amount of information, because they have become conditioned to believe that anything other than that issued from the mouths of Trump, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, etc. is “fake news”. If Trump says the world is flat, then the world is flat. If Tucker Carlson says that blue is red, then blue is red. It is just that easy for them.
I, too, live a rural part of the country that bleeds red. There's no getting through to most of them, at least not if you choose the traditional rhetorical strategy of arguing from a fact-based position. That is, as you note, a losing proposition. I learned this the hard way a few years ago, so I've started taking on a different tack, and though I haven't had any redneck smack their heads in recognition of the error of their ways, I have had decidedly more willing listeners. I don't start with facts, I start with opinions, like "I don't trust the guy because he's cheated on every wife he's ever had." "I don't like the guy because he makes fun of disabled people like my son." "I wouldn't let him within 50 feet of my teenage daughter," "He's never supported a policy that has done a lick of good for middle class white guys like me," and so on. They can argue with facts by simply asserting "alternative facts." But opinions? Hell, those are fool-proof. "The Donald is a whack job, and I don't trust anyone whose skin glows." Do you see what that approach does? It disarms your interlocutor. They don't know what to say, and in some cases even manage to register a twinge of recognition that someone is speaking to them from a normal world they once inhabited. In other words, you fight fire with fire. Try it. It works!
La should censure Higgins! As should the House. I keep wondering what kind of Kool Aid these people have been drinking. Wonder what Higgin's family & friends think of his remarks. I'd be saying: Devil, get thee behind me. Yup, you need to work hard for any forgiveness- not just make the offending words disappear. We all know what he said. Mike Johnson is a big weenie for not responding in a manner that shows the HOuse is not going to let a member speak like that. I am so disgusted.
I wonder how many in your audience lean left or are left, lean right or are right or extreme right? Asking because I feel since I am in the left choir you are talking to me. But are you reaching independents? How many undecideds are left? I will be glad when this election is over. it's depressing,
While I will accept the Substack app instead of, apparently, reading Richardson’s articles in my emails, I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO ALLOW SUBSTACK ACCESS TO MY CONTACTS! The very nerve of you! Since I could not change my answer there, here is my answer: Getting Heather Cox Richardson in my emails or canceling my subscription. Barbara L Bricks
Hi Barbara, I’m not sure if this is helpful, as I am using the Safari browser on an iPad to access Substack, but on this page I’m looking at right now, there is a small circle, like the one next to your name on this comment, in the upper right-hand corner and it has a small down-arrow on it. If I click on that circle, it brings up a drop-down menu that has “Manage Subscription” as one of the choices. Click on that and it brings up a page with “toggle” buttons to turn ON and OFF the e-mails for the written and audio versions of Prof. Richardson’s letters. I get both in my e-mail in-box (usually, the written version arrives several hours before the audio version). Hope that helps.
I agree with you. I am a real nerd and cld not figure how to just get email letters. Don't need more discussion stuff. Please advise how to correct to straight email letterss.Barbara Ruether
If you grow up being home schooled or in a religious cult without having a basis in science and facts you might believe there is no difference between facts and fiction. You might even start believing that you can create your own facts, but reality sooner or later will catch up. Everytime your imagined reality and the truth collide more and more outlandish conspiracy theories are needed to 'reconcile' the fake with the obvious.
That's why it is so important to limit faith based schools, private schools, and home schooling and ban it outright where effective oversight by independent, non partisan, expert panels cannot guarantee that learning outcomes are at least the same or better than public schools. Stop tax payer funded religious indoctrination and child abuse by unqualified home schooling arrangements!
These Republicans are totally unfit to govern. I haven't heard of even a single constructive
proposal from them. All they seem to do is to say no. To say their behavior is unbecoming to the US House of Representatives is an extreme understatement.
I also think Senator Kennedy (R, LA) should be banished from the U.S. Senate for his hateful comments to Maya Berry in a Senate hearing last week when he told her she should put here head in a bag. I'm sure you can listen to it, or may already of have heard him.
Yes, the MAGA crowd likes to create its own reality, completely separate from the actual reality in which the rest of us live. I was particularly struck by the comments of Clay Higgins (R-La) and Mike Johnson. Clay Higgins makes some really reprehensible racist and xenophobic statements on social media, then after backlash, takes down the post. When House Speaker Mike Johnson, fellow Louisiana representative, is queried on Mr. Higgins’s statements, Johnson says “He is a very principled man…”. Mr. Higgins is said to have “prayed about it” before taking down his post. Prayed about it? This seems to be the ubiquitous get-out-of-jail-free-card for holier-than-thou, fake Christians. Just “pray about it” and all harm from your actions is magically swept away by “forgiveness”. People like Higgins, Johnson, and Mark Robinson (North Carolina gubernatorial candidate) use their faith as a cloak to hide the ugliness that lies beneath.
To some degree, without getting too metaphysical about it, we all live in our own realities, which, seen from the outside, can seem fairly strange to others. I'm not countenancing the wacky world that the MAGA folk live in by any stretch. But the advisor was right. We can all sit here and point fingers at the crazy myths others steep themselves in without ever truly taking a hard look at some of the crazy shit we've come to accept as normal – – even real. It's OK to talk and speculate and ponder and analyze, but at some point, all of us need to simply get on with the task of actually doing something about this world of alternative realities that we find ourselves in and see if we can't find reasonable and rational consensus among the majority. If we simply continue to pander to the extremes on either end of the political spectrum, we're simply buying into the unwise and unhealthy democratization of all voices. Not all voices deserve to be heard.
I think a good starting point in having rational discussions and solving problems, is to acknowledge what are facts and what are fictions and conspiracy theories. In the words of the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “You are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts”. I live in a very red rural area, packed with the MAGA faithful, and I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people make statements that are obviously and demonstrably wrong and counter to fact, but you cannot convince them of reality with any amount of information, because they have become conditioned to believe that anything other than that issued from the mouths of Trump, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, etc. is “fake news”. If Trump says the world is flat, then the world is flat. If Tucker Carlson says that blue is red, then blue is red. It is just that easy for them.
I, too, live a rural part of the country that bleeds red. There's no getting through to most of them, at least not if you choose the traditional rhetorical strategy of arguing from a fact-based position. That is, as you note, a losing proposition. I learned this the hard way a few years ago, so I've started taking on a different tack, and though I haven't had any redneck smack their heads in recognition of the error of their ways, I have had decidedly more willing listeners. I don't start with facts, I start with opinions, like "I don't trust the guy because he's cheated on every wife he's ever had." "I don't like the guy because he makes fun of disabled people like my son." "I wouldn't let him within 50 feet of my teenage daughter," "He's never supported a policy that has done a lick of good for middle class white guys like me," and so on. They can argue with facts by simply asserting "alternative facts." But opinions? Hell, those are fool-proof. "The Donald is a whack job, and I don't trust anyone whose skin glows." Do you see what that approach does? It disarms your interlocutor. They don't know what to say, and in some cases even manage to register a twinge of recognition that someone is speaking to them from a normal world they once inhabited. In other words, you fight fire with fire. Try it. It works!
La should censure Higgins! As should the House. I keep wondering what kind of Kool Aid these people have been drinking. Wonder what Higgin's family & friends think of his remarks. I'd be saying: Devil, get thee behind me. Yup, you need to work hard for any forgiveness- not just make the offending words disappear. We all know what he said. Mike Johnson is a big weenie for not responding in a manner that shows the HOuse is not going to let a member speak like that. I am so disgusted.
I wonder how many in your audience lean left or are left, lean right or are right or extreme right? Asking because I feel since I am in the left choir you are talking to me. But are you reaching independents? How many undecideds are left? I will be glad when this election is over. it's depressing,
While I will accept the Substack app instead of, apparently, reading Richardson’s articles in my emails, I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO ALLOW SUBSTACK ACCESS TO MY CONTACTS! The very nerve of you! Since I could not change my answer there, here is my answer: Getting Heather Cox Richardson in my emails or canceling my subscription. Barbara L Bricks
Hi Barbara, I’m not sure if this is helpful, as I am using the Safari browser on an iPad to access Substack, but on this page I’m looking at right now, there is a small circle, like the one next to your name on this comment, in the upper right-hand corner and it has a small down-arrow on it. If I click on that circle, it brings up a drop-down menu that has “Manage Subscription” as one of the choices. Click on that and it brings up a page with “toggle” buttons to turn ON and OFF the e-mails for the written and audio versions of Prof. Richardson’s letters. I get both in my e-mail in-box (usually, the written version arrives several hours before the audio version). Hope that helps.
I agree with you. I am a real nerd and cld not figure how to just get email letters. Don't need more discussion stuff. Please advise how to correct to straight email letterss.Barbara Ruether
Hi Barbara, Please see my comment (reply) to Barbara Bricks. Maybe this helps you?
If you grow up being home schooled or in a religious cult without having a basis in science and facts you might believe there is no difference between facts and fiction. You might even start believing that you can create your own facts, but reality sooner or later will catch up. Everytime your imagined reality and the truth collide more and more outlandish conspiracy theories are needed to 'reconcile' the fake with the obvious.
That's why it is so important to limit faith based schools, private schools, and home schooling and ban it outright where effective oversight by independent, non partisan, expert panels cannot guarantee that learning outcomes are at least the same or better than public schools. Stop tax payer funded religious indoctrination and child abuse by unqualified home schooling arrangements!
These Republicans are totally unfit to govern. I haven't heard of even a single constructive
proposal from them. All they seem to do is to say no. To say their behavior is unbecoming to the US House of Representatives is an extreme understatement.
I also think Senator Kennedy (R, LA) should be banished from the U.S. Senate for his hateful comments to Maya Berry in a Senate hearing last week when he told her she should put here head in a bag. I'm sure you can listen to it, or may already of have heard him.