TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2023
It's all anthropology now: We hadn't yet returned to campus last week when Kevin Drum offered this post.
The post concerns the number of people who (say they) agree with this somewhat improbable statement:
A secret group of Satan-worshiping pedophiles is ruling the US government.
Kevin stressed the (remarkable) fact that 16.5% of Republicans said they agreed with that statement. When we checked to see what other groups said, this is what we found:
Republicans: 16.5%
Democrats: 8.0%
Independents: 16.0%
As you can see at this link, that's what respondents had said.
For many years, mainstream pundits were inclined to fall back on this flattering bromide:
"The American people are pretty sharp."
In a somewhat similar vein, Aristotle is widely said to have said this:
"Man [sic] is the rational animal."
Years ago, we suggested a different point of departure:
"It's all anthropology now," we despondently said.
Guthrie / Springsteen submission: Long ago and far away, writing about dislocation during the Dust Bowl, Woody Guthrie painted a related picture, Bruce Springsteen adaptation:
Well, now I just ramble round
To see what I can see.
It's a wide, wicked world,
Shore a funny place to be...
To those less inclined to be fooled, it’s likely many or most of those poll responses are in jest; however, it is uncontroversial that Republicans are triggered by issues related to child abuse due to their owning defining traumatic experiences during their formative years.
ReplyDelete"In a somewhat similar vein, Aristotle is widely said to have said this:
ReplyDelete"Man [sic] is the rational animal."
Years ago, we suggested a different point of departure:
"It's all anthropology now," we despondently said."
First, 16% of any group is not a large number. Second, this view about satan and pedophiles in the government belongs to Q-Anon, a religious conspiracy theory involving the second-coming. Religious extremism has always been with us and it doesn't represent mainstream thinking. In fact, religiousity has been declining and secularism gaining, so it is hard to see how Somerby's doom and gloom conclusion is justified. Third, religious explanations are a form of reasoning used by people who lack scientific explanations. As such, they are a way to control uncertainty using sacrifice and ritual, because feeling at the mercy of uncontrollable events makes it harder to function. This is what anthropologists actually say. Somerby's attribution of his own depressed musings to such experts totally ignores what anthropologists actually have to say about religion and reason.
Then Woody Guthrie (suffering from alcoholism and Huntington's Chorea, a fatal degenerative disease) wrote a song that appealed to Bruce Springsteen, but has nothing whatsoever to do with anthropology or Q-Anon but seems to appeal to Somerby in a depressive mood. That proves nothing whatsoever and has nothing to do with whether the world is actually going downhill or anyone is rational.
Why does Somerby post this crap? I used to think it might be a cry for help, but no one who cares about him has the ability to respond, unless a relative is reading his blog. Maybe he thinks it makes him sound wise or prescient, but "we're all gonna die" isn't much of a prediction that anyone can work with. This stuff only makes me feel bad because Spmerby obviously "isn't quite right" in the head when he says such stuff.
God is a figment of dim-witted imaginations.
DeleteSo is Satan and so are the overabundance of pedophiles in government.
DeletePrior to more science based knowledge, the notion of gods wasn’t necessarily dim-witted - and could be a decent source of entertainment, but organized religion has always been a tool of oppression.
DeleteThere’s no credible evidence for Jesus or Satan, so these characters are most certainly myths.
Free will does not exist, Superdeterminism is likely accurate.
When people claim they believe in things that seem irrational, that’s not directly an issue with their ability to be rational, it’s an indication of suffering from unresolved trauma.
Anthropology indicates that modern humans existed largely as egalitarian until we transitioned from immediate-return based societies to agrarian/surplus/commodified societies, about 10-12k years ago.
Somerby seems intent on making inaccurate claims about society, politics, education, etc., without an accompanying curiosity to learn about these subjects. Worse, he uses his misinformation as a weapon to bludgeon those not onboard with his toxic right wing notions.
ANON 9:20 - "Anthropology [sic] indicates that modern humans existed largely as egalitarian until we transitioned etc." There are no written historical records going back that far, and this position of equality that far back is at best a hypothesis, based on limited evidence. I don't know if there is a consensus among anthropologists on this point. I'm no expert by any means on the subject, but it seems that among many higher level mammalian species there is not equality - there is a dominant male; why wouldn't that have been the case with prehistoric humans?
DeleteThank you for acknowledging the authorship of Guthrie and Springsteen for the quoted song lyrics with a link. Not only do they deserve the recognition, but your readers might like to hear the music.
ReplyDeleteIs Bob’s point here that there are things so batshit crazy that only 16.5 percent of Republicans believe them? Is the poll question
ReplyDeletesuggesting anything more unhinged then the big lie?
Hunter Biden was seen passing money to Cokie Blaylock.
ReplyDeleteZzzzzzzzz ....
DeleteTrump supporters are saying that Trump had the right, by virtue of the 1st Amendment, to say that the election was fraudulent and that he, not Biden, won in 2020. I've seen people saying that the indictment worries them because of the interference with free speech. This is a misunderstanding of the contents of the indictment.
ReplyDeleteThe indictment clearly affirms Trump's right to call the election fraudulent. It does this right at the beginning, in section 3:
"3 . The Defendant had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the
election and even to claim, falsely,that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the
election andthat he had won . He was also entitled to formally challenge the results ofthe election
through lawful and appropriate means, such as by seeking recounts or audits of the popular vote
in states or filing lawsuits challenging ballots and procedures. Indeed, in many cases, the
Defendant did pursue these methods of contesting the election results. His efforts to change the
outcome in any state through recounts , audits,or legal challenges were uniformly unsuccessful."
It then goes on to detail the things that Traump is accused of doing that were illegal. This is not about Trump's free speech, it is about his illegal acts, which are detailed in the indictment. People worried about a president's free speech need to read the indictment and see what Trump is actually being charged with having done. It is not about speech.
Trump and Papadopoulos interfered with Mookie Comstock.
DeleteTrump called the January 6th protesters "losers", which will make any claim of an insanity defense too difficult to sell to a jury.
Delete"Belief in Satan-worshipping overlords!"
ReplyDeleteI doubt they are worshipping satan as much as taking direction from him. If there were an entity such as satan, it might be smart to stay in his good graces. I assume this is the reasoning of those who curry favor with Trump. It is smarter to appease him than to resist, especially if it is Trump (not Democrats) who are marching to Satan's tune, and who is to say it is not?
"One out of six Republicans think the government is run by pedophiles" (Drum says)
ReplyDeleteBased on this statistic, I doubt that one of six Republicans knows what a pedophile is. Why would such people spend their days running the government instead of doing something that puts them in proximity to children? Given the examples Republicans put forth of who is and is not a pedophile, I don't think their definition is accurate. This is supported by the average education levels on the right compared to the left. Those 16% are also probably illiterate and don't know what a census taker or an agronomist is either.
The same poll found that only one of 12 democrats believed, or said they believed, the same thing, suggested democrats are only half as stupid as republicans.
DeleteThis result doesn't particularly interest me. Wicked survey responses are not wicked actions. A certain percentage of survey respondents make ridiculous choices because they're annoyed at the survey or through perversity.
ReplyDelete