RUNNING ON TRIBAL: Our tribe should stop demonizing The Others...

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2021

...and should stop peddling The Stupid: One week ago, the column in question made a fairly obvious point.

According to the column in question, Americans should stop with the "sweeping generalizations" about members of various groups. 

(For example, about such groups as "white women.")

And not only that! According to the column in question, we Americans should avoid creating "a society with rampant dehumanization, where people are barraged with crude stereotypes that are increasingly detached from the complexities of reality and make them feel unseen as individuals." 

We should avoid those crude stereotypes, along with the rampant dehumanization those stereotypes engender. That's what the column said!

According to the column in question, we tend to create a society like the one described when we engage in those "sweeping generalizations" about those various groups—but especially, about groups to which we don't belong, about groups we may even disfavor.

We shouldn't engage in "crude stereotypes" about members of various groups! You'd think this would be an obvious suggestion—but if you did, you'd be wrong.

The column in question appeared in the New York Times. After reading the column in question, we wondered ig the paper's readers would be able to tolerate thess fairly obvious suggestions.

We clicked on comments, and started to read. At that time, the third and the tenth comments went exactly like this:

COMMENTER FROM CS: I'm a lifelong Democrat, in my late 60's. Taking my political party as a group, I am proud to identify myself as a member. My group believes in equal rights and opportunities for all people, regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. My group believes in science and understands the existential threat posed by climate change. My group believes in a strong social safety net that will provide health care to all of our citizens. My group understands the importance of knowledge and learning, and supports affordable higher education for all of us.

The other group? Trumpists? (There are no more true Republicans). Well, their group believes in white nationalism. Their group believes that their extreme view of Christianity should be the law of the land for all of us. Their group disdains education and sneers at those of us who have college degrees as "elitists." Their group believes that "rights" mean they are entitled to do literally anything they want, regardless of the harm they cause others—as is evidenced by their behavior during a once in a century pandemic.

I'm proud to align myself with my political group, as it strives to help all Americans. Those folks in the other group, however, ought to be ashamed of themselves.

COMMENTER FROM COLORADO: Oh, please. I recall the days after the November 2020 election when our NPR station hosted "breaking bread"  chats for Biden and Trump voters. Biden voters would say "I learned a lot about their issues" while Trump voters would say "I think they learned a lot about our issues."  Get the difference, David?

Today, those comments hold a privileged place in the column's comments section

Those comments stand as the top two entries in the list of comments designated as "Reader Picks." Of the 1,201 comments to the column in question, these two comments were recommended by the largest number of New York Times readers!

They're also included in the list of comments designated as "NYT Picks." Some editor may have thought they were outstanding comments, worthy of recommendation.

Different people will react to those comments in different ways. We'll only note that these commenters instantly engaged in the kinds of "sweeping generalizations" the column in question discussed.

In addition, we'll have to add this:

With apologies, the comment from Colorado could hardly be much dumber. The commenter characterizes something said by some small number of Trump voters on some particular NPR program or programs. 

(The commenter may have been referring to this "civic experiment," in which "six Coloradans, three who voted for Trump and three who didn't, br[oke] bread together" in May 2017.) 

Based on reported comments by a few Trump voters, the commenter seems to make a sweeping generalization about 74.2 million other Trump voters. The conduct could hardly be dumber, but the conduct is deeply human.

Meanwhile, the comment from "CS" is an absolute classic in the field of sweeping generalization:

Everyone in the commenter's group is honest, upstanding and pure. Everyone in the other group—in the group which is despised—is heinous all the way down.  

Everyone in the other group "believes that their extreme view of Christianity should be the law of the land for all of us, disdains education and sneers at those of us who have college degrees." Everyone in the other group even "believes in white nationalism!" 

Inevitably, everyone in the other group "ought to be ashamed of themselves." This is the essence of the conduct the column in question described.

It would be hard to overstate the stupidity of that second presentation. But it received the second most recommendations from New York Times readers, trailing only the number of recommendations garnered by the amazing stupid comment which generalized from statements reportedly made by a handful of people who spoke on some radio show.

You can't get dumber than those two comments, but members of Our Own Infallible Tribe stood in line to recommend them. This is the nature of "the problem we all currently live with" as one observer after another describes the existential peril our failing nation now faces.

If Democrats hope to win a larger number of future elections, they will almost surely have to peel away a certain number of people who voted for Trump. Sweeping denunciations of this extremely stupid kind may not be the best way to accomplish this task—and yes, this is exactly the kind of thinking which has led to violent tribal wars all across the face of the globe since the dawn of time.

Our human brains are wired for these deeply stupid generalizations. That's true within our vastly self-impressed Blue Tribe, just as it's true within the Red Tribe which is functioning Over There.

As we noted on Monday, the column in question wasn't perfectly reasoned. On the other hand, the basic recommendations the column made were just blindingly obvious—unless you belong to our self-impressed tribe, in which case the love of loathing is often extremely strong.

Our corporate tribunes sell us this porridge on our "cable news" channels. (The red tribe's corporate tribunes behave the same way Over There.) We humans have construed the world in this highly familiar way since we first crawled out on the land.

Today, we're going to make two recommendations to members of our blue tribe. The first recommendation relates to these two deeply stupid comments. We start by noting this:

Everyone who voted for Trump isn't exactly like the most regressive person who voted for Trump. Our constant insistence to the contrary—our love for sweeping claims about the 74 million deplorables—only makes it that much harder to accumulate future votes.

That leads to our first recommendation:

Stop believing those stupid claims about The Others. More significantly, stop making these deeply stupid statements in public.

That would be our first bit of advice. Our second recommendation concerns the widely-discussed recent colloquy between Ezra Klein and David Shor.

Shor makes a suggestion which is perfectly sensible, at least as far as it goes. He suggests that Democrats should stop discussing unpopular ideas—should concentrate on policies and programs which are broadly popular.

That suggestion is perfectly sensible, at least as far as it goes. That said, a principled person might respond by saying that we sometimes need to discuss unpopular values and ideas if we hope to move the society forward.

That statement makes sense too, though it's subject to widespread abuse. And since many members of our tribe will want to discuss issues involving gender, ethnicity, immigration and "race," we'll offer this second suggestion:

Stop making The Stupidest Possible Comments when you discuss such important topics.

Our vastly self-impressed tribe spills with such unhelpful comments. Our assistant, associate and adjunct professors often lead the way in this area, joined by some of our corporate "cable news" stars.

They love to make the kinds of dumb remarks which mainly succeed in convincing The Others that our tribe is dumb as a sack of rocks, or that we're committed to unpleasant values and perhaps to hidden outcomes. These frameworks now appear in the Washington Post and the New York Times every single day, though members of our own tribe may not be able to spot them.

As with all human tribes, our own tribe—at least on balance—can be extremely dumb. As with all very dumb human tribes, we love to praise Ourselves and to denigrate The Others.

We love to make inane remarks without stopping to consider The Way We Look to Others. When tribal  members do such things, we shower them with "recommendations." This is the way of the world.

This is the way we humans behave until we teach ourselves not to. If we want to win more elections, maybe our vastly self-impressed tribe should rein this impulse in.

Please don't do X, the column said. Our tribe took that as a challenge! According to major anthropologists, such is the way of the world.

Next week: People in Anchorage, people right here / The way people look to others


94 comments:

  1. "According to the column in question, Americans should stop with the "sweeping generalizations" about members of various groups."

    Tl;dr, but one thing is for certain, dear Bob: Americans don't do it.

    You, dear Bob, you and your liberal-hitlerian cult are responsible for identity politics.

    Yes, you, dear Bob. And please don't try to pin it on Americans...

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    1. So your tribe is pure and it's only the liberal-hitlerian cult that's to blame? You might need to surface for air before you drown in irony after a response like that.

      Let's try a different approach, and also I am generally curious. Could you name a politician or media figure on the right that you support and that you feel does not engage in the behavior Bob mentioned? An "American" as you say...

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    2. We don't have a tribe, dear dembot. Don't judge others by yourself.

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    3. Mao, in America we have a two-party system in which people register a party affiliation and tend to vote for those who are members of their declared party. That is what is meant by "tribe" in this context.

      Of course you are a special snowflake, unique and individual, but if you vote in an American election, you are declaring yourself for candidates who are part of one tribe or another.

      This must be confusing to you, coming from a country where there is usually only one name on the ballot. The minute you start making choices, you are declaring yourself as part of a tribe. Somerby pretends that tribes are bad, but collective activity has permitted people to accomplish much more by working together to achieve shared goals. Coordinating such activity is the point of government.

      Somerby's arguments have no inherent integrity or consistency. He isn't making good faith arguments but saying whatever will denigrate liberals and weaken support for liberal values, such as education, belief in the value of science (and all those other things mentioned by the first letter writer above). Somerby argues against liberals and liberal values because he is no liberal, but is a Trumptard pretending to be what he is plainly not.

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    4. Actually no. You would only seem to have a tribe if you ALWAYS vote straight ticket. From 1986 to 2014 I pretty much fell into that camp, then it seemed like my tribe went insane.

      Part of that insanity would seem to be the daily ingestion and spewing of haterade.

      Maybe it is an internet thing. People are more comfortable being extremists online.

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    5. "You would only seem to have a tribe if you ALWAYS vote straight ticket."

      Meh. Surely it is possible to vote straight ticket while still not belonging to any cult.

      Bob's 'tribes' have little to do with voting. They are about zombies, mindlessly parroting talking points and dumb narratives, produced by cult's high priests and disseminated by the media.

      Currently we observe only one cult: the liberal cult. Which is not surprising, as this cult is sponsored by the global finance and yuge multinational corporations.

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  2. Meanwhile, this kind of thing happens to those who conservatives persist in stereotyping and dehumanizing. But we SHOULD sit down and shut up about it?

    "Christina Nance, 29, who was reported missing 2 weeks ago, was found dead inside a police van parked outside the law enforcement offices in Huntsville, Alabama. Now, her family is demanding answers."

    As long as racism persists, how do we know whether this happened because she was black or for some other reason? And what excuse can there possibly be for this to happen?

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  3. "Some editor may have thought they were outstanding comments, worthy of recommendation."

    The NY Times does not feature comments because they are outstanding or worthy. They feature them because they are representative of a large number of similar comments.

    Somerby should understand that, as long as he has been reading the paper and walking on this earth. Instead, he pretends that editors are imposing their own opinions, their own ideas of worthiness on the letters section. That is how Somerby puts his thumb on the scale, attempting to generalize the opinions of letter writers to the paper itself.

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  4. Everyone among The Others may not share the same identical views, but they are close enough to make the differences not worth discussing.

    I agree with the two letters Somerby has singled-out for awfulness. I have no intention of assuming that any member of The Other (e.g., Trump supporters and deplorables) is an exception to the beliefs of those who wave their banner (now black in honor of their extremism).

    Why? Because it doesn't matter if there are some "good" Trump voters. The vote they cast has done a great deal of harm to our country and especially the minority groups The Others tend to target for bad treatment. You don't get to hurt people and still pretend to be good people. And that applies to Somerby too, since he is choosing to ally himself with The Other.

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  5. Somerby has picked out two letters that sound reasonable to me and is using them to generalize about "us" and "liberals" and "our blue tribe" (which he is not a part of). How is that not doing the same thing that he accuses the letter writers of doing, except that liberals are the target?

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  6. Liberals are neither dumb, nor inane, nor self-impressed.

    Somerby is calling names again. He himself abandoned reason long ago, and spends nearly every essay calling people names. Whatta guy!

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    1. The liberals in this comment section are all three. With a vengeance.

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    2. More name-calling.

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    3. True. But you don't come across as very smart or very together though. You come across as completely unhinged. Your comments are very very unimpressive.

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    4. And here is some more name-calling.

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    5. Are you calling him a name-caller?

      I'm just kidding! Everyone have a good weekend.

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  7. One can only hold the view that people who believe ridiculous things should be respected if you have no respect for truth. Conservatives have abandoned belief in truth and facts in favor of whatever will enable them to "win" (a word that includes achieving political goals, acquiring money and hurting enemies). Somerby himself routinely argues against the existence of expertise, knowledge, truth, facts, from a faux philosophical stance, which allows him to set aside factual arguments in favor of support for people whose actions have declared them to be unworthy of support. There is no equivalency between the right and the left at this point, no list of compelling arguments for conservative beliefs, no set of facts they are emphasizing because they have different priorities, as once may have been true. That makes the choice clear and I consider it a necessity to support the political party with morality and ethics on its "side" and not the one that permits misogyny, racism and xenophobia whiles sabotaging our attempts to fight covid.

    Somerby is off the rails today.

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    1. Liberals abandoned respect for the truth and still do with their idiotic belief in Russiagate and Trump Russia collusion. It's just one of many things that their side can point to and make the exact same idiotic generalities you do here. Can't you see that?

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    2. I'm just showing respect for the facts Corbs. Calling it a big lie proves the point. It also gives the other side ammunition to accurately describe our side as disrespectful of the truth and dumb. Can't see that huh? You're lost. No wonder you criticize Somerby with such ignorance.

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    3. Your claims have been refuted many times here in comments. You keep repeating this lie as if repetition might make you right. And yes, that is why your side is disrespectful of truth. You think that shouting a lie makes it more believable. And this is absolutely a lie.

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    4. Okay we're going to have to agree to disagree. Let the record show you think one side, tens of millions of people think one, immoral and wrong way and the other side thinks a different, more moral, more correct way. Good luck with that!

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    5. Corby, serious question. Are you in an insane asylum?

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    6. Anon 2:13, “ one side, tens of millions of people think one, immoral and wrong way and the other side thinks a different, more moral, more correct way.” You just described the Republican Party. It seems to work for them, doesn’t it?

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    7. I don't know what you're talking about idiot.

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    8. 2:39, Of course you don’t. Because you are ignorant.

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    9. 2:13,
      At least we (those of us who listen to them) can agree GOP voters are bigots.

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  8. Bad enough I have had to endure the harmful policies of Reagan/Bush family, all done with a smile and a knife in the back.

    Now I have to avoid demonizing the Trumpoholics.

    Can't do it, a bridge too far. Like Joe McCarthy it's their way, or the highway.

    Not so with standard liberals who are open to compromise and generally avoid extremism.

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  9. This is what The Other are doing:

    "A top administrator for the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, actually told teachers to provide students with “other perspectives” on the Holocaust in their classroom libraries last week.

    “Make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives,” Gina Peddy, the school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, told the teachers during a secretly recorded meeting on Friday."

    This is the result of the campaign against so-called CRT in classrooms, and it is as ridiculous as any extreme remark made by some Assistant Professor somewhere, made the focus of Fox News and thus appearing on Somerby's radar for criticism.

    The right is insisting that Hitler's supporters be given equal time, that the pros of the Holocaust be taught, not just the cons. In what reality does this make any sense? Only on the right, among batshit crazy Trump supporters wanting to make the alt-right feel at home in their party.

    Hitler loved his dog. We shouldn't characterize him using an ugly stereotype about dictators no matter how many disabled people, elderly, Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, artists, communists, political enemies and other "defectives" he had killed in his camps. Amirite?

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    1. Corby's reasoning is God's gift to plutocrats. Divide and conquer! Wtg ignoramus.

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    2. There should be a dividing line between those who admire Hitler and those who do not.

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    3. Are all comments now being assigned to me? That is another illustration of why using a nym is a bad idea.

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  10. Sounds like what you want is a return to the Fairness Doctrine. Did you happen to notice which president, which Party, which 'tribe' got rid of it and opposes any effort to reintroduce it? It was Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party. Because they wanted Rush to be able to spew his hate without a balanced response.

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    1. Let's give Rush some credit.
      As of today, he's been drug and alcohol-free for 8 months.

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  11. This is how The Others respect truth:

    "GOP Guv Threatens Reporter For Flagging Online Security Breach: Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) threatened criminal prosecution against a reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Thursday for informing the state’s Department of Education that teachers’ Social Security numbers were visible in the HTML source code of the department’s web pages."

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  12. This is how The Others reason, because they have no respect for facts and no interest in education:

    "Scott Pio, who previously worked as an organizer for former President Donald Trump’s campaign and is now a state legislature candidate in Virginia, suggested taking boats out of the ocean to address sea level rise."

    Should we all just say that this kind of thinking is OK, because Somerby claims that The Others shouldn't be criticized as a group for their shared values about ignorance? Trump today said that windmills cause more carbon emissions than "running something for 30 years". This is where denigrating education gets you. And those who know better SHOULD just sit down and shut up about the ignorance of those running for office without the qualifications to govern competently?

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    1. None of them have respect for facts or interest in education?

      Now that is a stupid thing to say.

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    2. We wish we said the thing about taking boats out - so much excitement in the zombie community! Mmm-mm good.

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    3. Name someone who does, anyone on the right.

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    4. Senator Tim Scott.

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    5. Here is an example of Scott's willingness to mix religion with education, instead of upholding the separation between religion and state:

      "Scott served on the council from 1995 until 2008, becoming chairman in 2007.[7] In 1997, he supported posting the Ten Commandments outside the council chambers, saying it would remind members of the absolute rules they should follow. The county council unanimously approved the display, and Scott nailed a King James version of the Commandments to the wall. Shortly thereafter, the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State challenged this in a federal suit. After an initial court ruling that the display was unconstitutional, the council settled out of court to avoid accruing more legal fees.[19] Of the costs of the suit, Scott said, "Whatever it costs in the pursuit of this goal is worth it."[19]"

      Here is an example of being against seeking facts about 1/6:

      "On May 28, 2021, Scott voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 Capital attack"

      There are facts about health care, sex, and end of life issues and Scott appears to put his religious beliefs ahead of those facts:

      "Scott describes himself as pro-life. He supports adult and cord blood stem cell research,[88] but opposes taxpayer-funded embryonic stem cell research[89] and the creation of human embryos for experimentation.[90] He opposes assisted suicide[88] and same-sex marriage.[91]"

      There are facts about climate change but Scott appears to put his fund-raising interests ahead of our planet's survival:

      "In 2017, Scott was one of 22 senators to sign a letter[100] to President Donald Trump urging him to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Scott has received over $540,000 in political donations from oil, gas and coal interests since 2012."

      Scott is in favor of school choice, despite the various reports showing no advantages for charter schools:

      https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/senator-tim-scotts-impassioned-speech-school-choice

      He seems to be in support of education in his statements but toes the conservative line in his support for education policies of Betsy DeVos and his vote against Biden's pick for Education Secretary. There are facts about education that should dictate choices, not Republican party-line, which Scott follows in most of his votes and statements. Scott made no statements about the racial gaps.

      I wouldn't say that Scott shows respect for facts, although he does give lip-service to the importance of education while undermining it with his votes.

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    6. And that to you proves that the entire other side doesn't have respect for the facts and our entire side does? Do you know how stupid you are?

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    7. I didn't use the word entire. You did that.

      Otherwise, I agree with your statement that Tim Scott's positions show a lack of respect for facts. He seems to be making his decisions based on: (1) adherence to Republican party-line, (2) what his campaign contributors want him to vote for/against, (3) his religious beliefs...and these three factors seem to outweigh facts.

      As to your other question, I know how smart I am because they have tests for that. So far, no one has developed a test to measure stupidity, but then, life tends to do that by punishing stupidity, so there may not be a need for it.

      You seem to think that whatever you consider stupid must be factually stupid and not a matter of your opinion. But if you believe the other stupid shit that conservatives believe, I doubt you can recognize stupidity and I wouldn't trust your opinion about my reasoning.

      It is a fact that Tim Scott thought it would be a good idea to put the Christian 10 Commandments in a public building, despite the FACT that this has been disallowed by our Constitution and the courts repeatedly, as a violation of the separation of church and state. How stupid is that? Pretty stupid and a huge waste of taxpayer money to defend the ACLU lawsuit against him. But that is the kind of stunt that Republicans get off on, in their overwhelming stupidity.

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    8. Okay. Sounds good. Have a good weekend.

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    9. We have heard on good authority that when dembots see the 10 commandments on a wall of a public building, they go blind. Is that true?

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    10. Is that what they tell you on the right?

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  13. Somerby can only say that there aren't religious extremists on the right because he is not female. Women in Texas are feeling the results of the imposition of religious values on those who do not share them, with the new restrictions on abortion. This is not only an imposition of religion via government force, but it is contrary to the beliefs of a large majority of the country who support a woman's right to choose. But this kind of thing is A-OK with Somerby, who suggests that we shouldn't criticize The Others for their actions, even when they harm women. Texas is far from the only state in which right-wing politicians have enacted repressive measures that interfere with women's health choices. This is part of what the right wing is about -- The Other, as Somerby calls them while pretending to be what he is not. There can be no tolerance for people who actively work to deny women their rights as human beings. There is no corresponding limitation on any aspect of men's health care.

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  14. I'm pretty sure all of these comments are just meant to be more illustrations of the use of "crude stereotypes that are increasingly detached from the complexities of reality".

    Must be. Right?

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    1. I hope so. It would be hard for them to be more ignorant. I have a feeling it's just one psycho troll posting under different names.

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    2. If you think there are examples of ignorance here, try posting a correction, with facts and sources supporting your statements. All you are doing now is name-calling.

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    3. One correction would be what Scott Pio said doesn't represent how the Others reason. That's pure ignorance. You're stupid.

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    4. I find it hard to believe a correction would be needed when the statements are basically denying that the right stands for a single good thing, or holds any true, reasonable values, or is ever right about anything.

      So the ask is be to produce one single person or position of the right that doesn't fit the stereotype?

      What does this remind me of...

      Racism.

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    5. Anon @1:42 -- are you saying that Scott Pio is not a Republican and not a Trump supporter? He worked for Trump's campaign.

      Or are you saying that Scott Pio is an especially stupid example of The Others, and that others among The Others are smarter? And yet these guys get elected. How does that happen, if they don't represent how The Others reason? You tell me.

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    6. Rationalist, where do either of the two letters say this:

      "when the statements are basically denying that the right stands for a single good thing, or holds any true, reasonable values, or is ever right about anything."

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    7. Rationalist, you said “So the ask is be to produce one single person or position of the right that doesn't fit the stereotype?”

      Somerby engages in stereotyping by taking a single letter writer and implying that that is how all liberals think. Don’t you see that he is engaging in precisely the behavior that he attacks liberals for?

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    8. I think the context of my comment has been lost, when I referred to correction - look to the previous comments including my initial one.

      Shifting gears, mh - I don't think it's fair to say Bob criticizing how some liberals (much of the media specifically) generalize about the right equivalent with Bob generalizing about all liberals, that feels like a tricky debate tactic.

      It reminds me when a Christian guy asked me if I believed in absolute morality and I said no. He then asked if I believed that absolutely!

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  15. Somerby seems to be saying that unless every member of some group agrees, one cannot attribute a set of beliefs to that group. That isn't how categories work. There are always more or less typical members of groups and some who are exceptions in some respects but not all.

    It is fair to say that Republicans in general have a set of core beliefs, issues and priorities. It is also fair to say that while not every Republican will agree with everything, most do and that is why they are Republicans. There are also clear differences between Republicans and Democrats and that is why there are two parties and not just one big party. To say that a characterization of Republicans as a whole cannot be made while one person disagrees, is ridiculous and would make categories not useful in thinking.

    As long as one keeps in mind that an individual in front of them might not be typical of the larger group, categorization is a necessary and useful part of thinking. More than that, it is the way our brains work and nothing Somerby says about it is going to change that.

    Somerby's ignorance about how our brains work is on a par with the person who suggested lowering the ocean levels by removing the boats. Categories and concepts are not going away just because Somerby thinks they are unfair to Republicans.

    Meanwhile, I have found that while quite a few of the people I know voted for Trump, I have lost respect for them and cannot feel the same way about them. That saddens me but my values are important to me and I am not going to set aside my ideas of what is right and wrong in this world in order to make another person feel better about their bad choices.

    Somerby appears to be trying to normalize wrong. That isn't going to help our society out of its current mess. It will not help decrease polarization to tell one side (ours) that we cannot stand up for our values and beliefs, any more than it works to tell The Others to straighten up and fly right. It is time to defend truth and stop letting The Others think that anything they believe must be true, no matter how ridiculous it is.

    We are now hearing that the legislator from Alaska who refused to comply with mask requirements and was banned from air travel has gotten covid. Somerby needs to ask himself why these covid deniers do not correct their mistaken beliefs when confronted by the realities of this pandemic. But Somerby chooses to defend their right to hold wrong beliefs instead of defending reality. That is the route to crazytown.

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  16. Trump supporters apparently believe it is OK to use profanity in the hearing of small children, given their behavior at a protest of Joe Biden as he visited a childcare center.

    What kind of people are these? I think it is fair to ask that question. Somerby doesn't seem to think so.

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    1. Oh dear. Thanks for the laughs, dear dembot.

      Were they chanting "let's go Brandon" again?

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    2. They were chanting "Fuck Biden". How does that help parents who wish to teach their kids not to use such words?

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    3. And this is largely the extent and scope of political discourse in the US today.

      Find some terrible behavior on one side and say how awful it is.

      What would happen if we returned to discussing the nuances of actual policy. Too much hard work for the media and people don't tune in or click I suppose. Well we all got what we asked for, get your quick fix of reinforcing your beliefs without having to challenge them or do any sort of deep thinking. Those Others! So Crazy and Terrible they are!

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    4. According to your zombie media, dear Corby, the words are "let's go Brandon". You can't have it both ways, dear, so get on with the program.

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    5. Rationalist, this is a tactic being repeated by different Trump supporters in different locations, so it appears to be not the actions of an isolated weirdo, but planned activity in support of Trump and the Republicans. Not an isolated incident at all.

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    6. So ask yourself this: does Trump represent rational, nuanced positions meant to move the country forward? And then follow up with this, does pointing out behavior of his supporters represent it either?

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    7. A responsible campaign doesn't permit misbehavior because it reflects badly on the candidate -- and Trump IS running.

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    8. Okay so now what? We already established Trump is a poor choice.

      I know what's next! We draw the conclusion that anyone that supports him is an awful person.

      So now we have this beautiful logic:

      Some Trump supporters bad = Trump campaign bad = Trump bad = All Trump supporters bad

      Now we can shut off our brains and relax, that was a close one, almost had to think about policies to improve the country... phew!

      How about those terrible Others, got any other good stories?

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    9. Organized by whom, dear dembot? Must be the Dark Lord Putin?

      Please enlighten.

      Delete
    10. By Trump's campaign. These are Trump supporters doing it at Biden events.

      Delete
    11. Right. Dembots know everything. There is, however, no such thing as "Trump's campaign" at the moment.

      So, did you get this from CNN?

      Delete
    12. No, it came from the White House press pool. I'm not willing to call the president a liar. It can be seen on the video taken at the event.

      Delete
    13. We should talk about Biden's mental decline. Can drunk ass Kamala beat Trump in 2024? Because it's looking like Joe will be somewhere sitting in a chair being spoonfed mashed banana by a caretaker. Amirite?

      Delete
    14. "Right. Dembots know everything."

      Dawn shines on marble head.

      Delete
    15. @10:22 spreading more lies

      Delete
  17. And then there is this:

    https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2021/10/a-party-of-callow-assholes

    Tucker Carlson mocking Pete Buttigieg for wanting to be a good father.

    But we're not supposed to say anything bad about The Other and their values?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Does your link call Pete Buttigieg, the US Transportation Secretary, an asshole for taking 2 months off while dozens of container ships are stuck off the coast of California, heavily disrupting the supply chain?

      We agree: well deserved.

      Delete
    2. Paid leave, by the way. It's been two months already, and still going.

      Tsk. As they say: a great job, if you can get it...

      Delete
    3. Parents take time off with newborns in order to promote the continuation of our species which is considered a good thing in most civilizations. You may differ, of course.

      Delete
    4. The biggest responsibility of office is that the holder is expected to put the country first, and at no time more than during a crisis.

      Best to stick with arguments that blame Trump for all the issues and accuse the past administration of dereliction of duty, than to argue that paternity leave came first with what is a crisis with effects that ripple through the economy.

      I know the media exists to cover up your messes and to sell your soap, but don’t make that utterly impossible even for them. .

      Delete
    5. Surely even you can understand that if there is no parental leave then women cannot serve in government at all?

      Delete
    6. Surely, you can understand the difference between labor and delivery and adoption.

      Delete
    7. You think adoted kids are less work?

      Delete
    8. Yes. They are as far as recovering from their birth… (the context of the comment to which I replied) and getting back to work pronto on solutions to a crisis.

      The context of

      Delete
    9. When a politician wants to "spend more time with his family" he resigns. Be it an asshole politician or the other, virtually non-existent, kind.

      Staying home for 2+ months while keeping a high-level executive government post with its executive salary, that seems worse than just being an asshole.

      On the other hand, if this is an indication that dembot executives are mere figureheads who aren't doing any actual work (wouldn't come as a great surprise to us), that's also good to know.

      Delete
    10. All people, including cabinet members, have the right to have a family concurrent with a job. No one insists that the president, who is ultimately in charge of all crises facing the nation, must be unmarried with no distractions. Buttigieg can keep tabs on his office while on family leave and no doubt has capable assistants. He need not be there 24/7 any more than anyone else in government.

      This attack on him is not about his family leave or his parenthood but about denying gay people the right to the same family pleasures and responsibilities as straight people enjoy. If a woman were being accused of unfitness for taking leave after a pregnancy, it would rightly be labeled as misogyny. In this case, this attitude reflects homophobia.

      And it reflects hypocrisy, since none of these critics complained about Trump's excessive golfing and vacations, his short work days and TV watching, and his general failure to assume the responsibilities of his position.

      Delete
    11. Cecelia, do you think the head of an agency does all the work by himself?

      Delete
    12. "This attack on him is not about his family leave or his parenthood but about denying gay people the right to the same family pleasures and responsibilities as straight people enjoy."

      Yes, dear dembot, straight people regularly take 2+ months of paid leave from their top-level executive government jobs. Practically every day they do it.

      Delete
    13. Thank you for your extremely valuable contribution, dear Corby. Please rest assured that it'll get all the attention it deserves.

      Delete
  18. What about this one, dear Bob:

    https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-dr-sanjay-gupta-journalistic-malpractice-joe-rogan-interview

    One of your favorite dembots, with super-hilarious name "Don Lemon", is involved...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joe Rogan: For people who equate "too stupid to know when he's being lied to", with being "open-minded".

      Delete
  19. After his long, rather grade school opening one might expect Bob to illustrate how fair minded, decent, well meaning persons might support a crazed bully whom even Bob had admitted is quite insane. Surely out of those millions it must be a fairly easy case to make.

    No evidence was forthcoming.

    ReplyDelete
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