From the tribal thinking files: Other people are not all alike!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011

Some is less than most and most is less than all: We were surprised by the start of David Atkins’ post at Hullabaloo. We’ll highlight the points of surprise:
ATKINS (10/20/11): The Cain Conundrum

October 2011 marks two events in the Republican Party that political observers from ten years ago would have claimed were utterly impossible: first, an African-American man is leading in the polls for the Republican nominee for president. Second, the same GOP frontrunner openly admits he wants to hike taxes on most Americans.

That is seriously revolutionary in the political landscape, and should cause intelligent political observers to recalibrate their assumptions about the Republican Party on the issues of taxes and race. The Republican Party has long been assumed to rely on racial resentment and voters' own distrust of government and hatred of taxes to win elections. But Hermann Cain's meteoric rise certainly disproves that thesis, at least viewed in simplistic terms. It is difficult to ascribe overt racism to a Party base that would push an African-American to the front of its field. And it is well-nigh impossible to claim that anti-tax fervor animates a portion of the electorate that advocates raising taxes on most Americans, especially those of modest means.
Really? Does Herman Cain “openly admit he wants to hike taxes on most Americans?” Luckily, Atkins provided a link. It went to a brief Politico post, which quoted Cain saying this:
CAIN: "Some people will pay more. But most people will pay less," Cain, a former chief executive of Godfather's Pizza who has never held elected office, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" program.
Most people will pay less, Cain said. To Atkins, this meant that most would pay more! Cain was openly admitting it!

For the record, some and most are two different things. Some is less than most.

Atkins’ piece deals with race more than it deals with taxes. Here too, we see a conceptual problem that seems to dog Hullabaloo—the difference between some and all.

“The Republican Party has long been assumed to rely on racial resentment and voters' own distrust of government and hatred of taxes to win elections,” Atkins writes. But: “It is difficult to ascribe overt racism to a Party base that would push an African-American to the front of its field.”

Really? Why? In recent polls, Cain has been preferred by roughly 30 percent of Republican voters. That leaves 70 percent who could be snarling slobbering racists, thus pleasing our liberal souls. In the last year, we’ve been amazed at the difficulty Digby seems to have separating some from all. But this kind of typological thinking really infests this whole site.

Might we describe a certain type of disordered thinking?

To the tribal mind, “those people” must always be all alike. We often see Digby thinking this way. If one tea party supporter spits on the sidewalk somewhere, then all forty million have done it!

Go ahead—read the comments to the Atkins post. You will see this intellectual tendency suffusing the comments.

At some point, pseudo-liberals should bite the bullet and accept the bitter truth: Other people are not all alike. Not even among those people!

11 comments:

  1. I scanned spoon's post before coming over here. The typical "All conservatives believe X" junk, with X being some caricature of conservatives' beliefs that, at most 1% of them believe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bob, you should know by now that in politics and the MSM A = Not A.

    Q. Does Herman Cain believe all abortions should be outlawed, or does he think the families should decide?
    Please document your source.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I will not read that hack David Atkins.

    Since Digby has purged her comment section and brought on a Atkins I see no reason to read her tired tribal thinking. Thank you for reading the blog so we don't have to.

    But in fact, the more I think about it, Digby and Atkins deserve even more condemnation because they know better--they know not all Tea Party people are alike and are not all motivated by the same reasons. But Digby and Atkins engage in this partisan dishonesty intentionally. They're nothing but party hacks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Tax Policy Center has conducted a more in-depth analysis on how Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan would redistribute the federal tax burden. It found that 83.8 percent of all taxpayers would experience a tax increase, and in some cases that increase would be substantial.

    For example, those making less than $10,000 a year would see their after-tax income fall by 20 percent. Those making $40,000 to $50,000 a year would see their after-tax income fall by 11.1 percent.

    Conversely, those making between $500,000 and $1 million would see their after-tax income rise by 11.1 percent. Those making more than $1 million would see their after-tax income rise by 22.4 percent.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sometimes Somerby gets a little tiresome on this topic. I suspect we all know people who aren't the worst stereotype of a racist--they have black friends or black people they admire, just as Atkins says, and then they use that role model as a reason to diss all the blacks they don't think live up to that model. I grew up around people like that. I know others with this sort of attitude towards Muslims. If you don't see the bigotry in the Republican Party you're not looking very hard.

    Which is not to say that all Republicans are like this and that liberals themselves aren't guilty of stereotyping too.

    And notice how Somerby tends to trash every liberal/lefty who doesn't put things EXACTLY as he would. It's almost like he has his own stereotype of the dumb liberal who isn't as sophisticated as he is. The condescending tone (that royal "we" for instance) Somerby puts on is funny a lot of the time, but it also puts him in a position where he seems to be looking down his nose at anyone who doesn't put things exactly as he would like them put.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Excellent point, Bob.

    While Cain's plan would hike taxes on most Americans (except those who could most easily afford a tax hike), he has (surprisingly!) not admitted it, himself. So you totally busted Digby and company on that one.

    I think you should condemn Sadly, No! next.
    ~

    ReplyDelete
  7. In light of the past Presidential primary, I sort-of like this approach with Cain:

    Herman Cain - Why Hold Him to a Higher Standard Poster

    - My friends who supported Hillary got to get angry all over again.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sometimes Somerby gets a little tiresome on this topic.

    I suspect he gets tired of repeating himself, but some people never seem to learn.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "I think you should condemn Sadly, No! next."

    Oh, Snap! Clever beyond compare, witty friend.
    [/end sarcasm]

    Somerby: "Go ahead—read the comments to the Atkins post. You will see this intellectual tendency ["they" are all alike/awful] suffusing the comments."

    I resisted visiting Hullabaloo again (I have lost count of the times I've said "never again" to reading the site), but finally complied. Sadly, No, Bob was not wrong.

    I am sympathetic to the view that says Digby's audience/influence may not be significant enough to merit this site's sustained critical attention. Color me agnostic on that one.

    But hey, ittdgytm32rc, what should The Daily Howler attend to in your opinion, instead of what you seem to feel that he's wasting his time on?

    ReplyDelete
  10. It should be noted the comments over there at Hollerbaloo all now must get the Atkins/Digby sign of approval before being posted.

    No wayward souls are allowed into the Digby tribe nowadays.

    Haven't you heard?

    A big Presidential election is on the horizon which means intellectual honesty will have to take a backseat until at least November 2012.

    ReplyDelete
  11. "Might we describe a certain type of disordered thinking?

    To the tribal mind, “those people” must always be all alike. We often see Digby thinking this way. If one tea party supporter spits on the sidewalk somewhere, then all forty million have done it!"

    We are tribal creatures, Bob. It's a human characteristic and it's not going away anytime soon.

    If one OWS supporter doesn't bathe or goes around topless, then all OWS supporters have done it.

    If it's "disordered thinking," then we're all insane. Which is probably true...

    ReplyDelete