Because the rich control an overwhelming amount of the media we consume. They are capable of shaping the narrative to their benefit.
They also successfully killed public education, so literally the citizens are too stupid to understand they’re being conned.
This is the most important part.
And also they push religion hard which is inherently a system of control for the uneducated and exploited.
Not just control, but Christianity specifically (as well as a few others) is really good because it promises a paradise after you die.
You can get idiot plebes to spend their whole lives dreaming about it all being better after they die, because they were pious and accepted abuse during life.
So, control through fear and hope.
EDIT: Also Christianity is inherently misogynistic and that’s very appealing to disaffected young men who hate that women won’t fuck them. Angry young men with no direction or group to belong to are one of the most dangerous and destabilizing groups a country can have.
I must’ve fallen through the cracks, because I went through the American education system and I’m not completely stupid.
It’s more that the system itself just leaves more and more children behind, as passing kids who aren’t actually making the grade has become the norm because parents are abusive and more apt to harass/harangue and schools are pressured with funding to make sure enough kids are graduating. Teachers themselves are left with few options and there’s still bright kids, they’re just waaaaay in the minority compared to the apparently teeming masses of absolute fuckwits.
Also, I’m in my 40’s and when I think of the quality and intelligence of the people I graduated with? Well, maybe it hasn’t gotten that much worse, actually. Because I remember thinking everyone around me was a fucking idiot, tempering that thought as I got older, but now I’ve come back full fucking circle to these people are fucking idiots, raising other idiots.
If kids are dumb today, millennials are on the hook for it, boomers didn’t do this one.
Because powerful people turned politics from a policy / representation in to politics as an identity. People will almost anything for their two minutes of hate.
religion is a big part of it. how many millions of people only vote for the candidate who promises to criminalize abortion without knowing (or caring about) a single other goddamn thing about the person
I’m going to start a 3rd party. This party is going to be the “Fuck America” party. My party is going to run on the ideals that America is awful, and that trump is not a problem, he’s a symptom. America is the one who overwhelmingly approved of his ideas. I’m going to openly state FUCK GOD, THERE IS NO GOD. I’m going to take the stance of FUCK EVERYBODY. You guys want to argue about if boys and girls and trans should all be allowed to play high school sports together? Ok, here’s what we’re going to do, assholes. Boys and girls and trans can all play on the same teams together now. BUT!!! Every school district will also have one new team. This team won’t have students on it. You want to play basketball with boys and girls and trans, that’s fine, but we’re going to also make you play games against professional athletes who are trying to qualify for the national olympic teams. Why? Because then no matter which high school team you’re on, you lose. Everybody loses. That’s the message here. Equality for all, and fuck all of you because humans are the worst.
Then I hear people argueing about abortions. Can a woman have an abortion, or is it against gods will? You know what? Fuck that! Forced abortions for men. All men will now have their balls smashed by the youtube show Hydrolic Press. We put all your balls into the hydrolic press, and let an industrial size piece of machinery squish them flat. No more babies.
And as for women, we’re going to treat you equally too! No more opening the doors for you, or holding your chair. No more weddings, or divorce. No more considering your opinion on stuff. What? You thought when a bunch of guys get together, we all sit around and consider each others feelings? No. We wrestle each other and punch each other to decide where we’re going to eat that night. Doesn’t matter if your vegan, we’re eating at a place called gut busters meat emporium. Because Steve, with the biggest bicepts broke your nose, and you were too much of a pussy to get up and punch back.
Dogs are now manditory in government. Every government position is now held by a dog, because dogs are better than people, and they’re the only good boys!
…what? Why is everybody staring at me? Oh my god, was I talking outloud?
Republicans didn’t start caring about abortion until they decided they could go after the Catholic vote. Even Evangelicals didn’t have a position on it until Republicans started to target them with misinformation about it. Those people think that they literally take screaming babies and putting them into a blender. There’s a video they made in the 80s called “the silent scream” that they used to scare kids with.
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
–Lyndon B. Johnson
Let’s say I’m an American male. I like football. I like the NY Jets, because I also like to suffer.
I don’t have to read the news, or go to news websites, or listen to news radio, to hear about my Jets. I don’t have to risk accidentally learning about what’s going on in the world watching the 6 o’clock news every evening when all I really want to know is the latest saddening Jets news.
I can listen to podcasts that tell me about jets players health, fantasy picks, gossip, the latest games, and betting strategy. In the offseason my podcasts don’t go off air. I can go to websites where algorithms that have already identified me as a Jets fan bury any news about politics or social issues under a mountain of roster updates and advertisements for beer (because Jets fans need it).
Then it comes time to vote. These democrats all seem to talk about stuff I don’t care about or understand. This Trump guy says he will do stuff. I hate the way things are, but I don’t know why they are that way. Corporate monopolies? Antitrust? Voter suppression? All that shit got buried under Aaron Roger’s passing stats. And Trump wasn’t all that bad when he was president. Certainly better than I feel now, and while I’ll pore over individual player stats to take matchups into account when I set my fantasy football roster I’m not gonna go pore over statistics on the economy or anything. That shit is complicated and boring, and football stats are definitely not. So I never have to risk remembering that Trump was pretty fucking bad.
On Election Day I vote for the guy who says he’ll do stuff, and it’s easy to do it, and it’ll be fast, and I’ll like the outcome. I won’t vote for the party that gave up 30 years ago and whose message is basically “come on guys we’re trying really hard but this governing thing is impossible!”
That’s how, basically. That and bigots.
The sooner you realize the vast majority of humans are simply not very intelligent, the more everything starts making sense. And the more depressed you will be.
It is a combination of this and the power of propaganda.
When you can control the information that people consume, you can have a huge influence over what they think.
If you can influence the thoughts of a big portion of the populous, you can create control structures. You use these control structures to move people into their emotional decision making more often. The more often you can keep people in their emotional decision mode, the easier you can control what they do.
The thing is, the easiest way to keep people in their emotional thought mode, is to pull the fear and anger levers. Keep people afraid and angry, and you can steer society.
The other problem with this is, the people who see through this kind of thing are not the majority.
The people who can see through the techniques, are not always the traditionally “smart”; but higher intelligence is certainly an advantage.
This is true. Always has been, always will be. Many Trump voters are already regretting their decision after seeing the early consequences of Trump’s statements. But that won’t be permanent. Many will likely be duped again by another conman using the same tactics.
I need to mention that old school ‘patent medicine’ (ex: snake oil) in the 19th to very early 20th was not destroyed by advancements in actual medicine and education and awareness… it was done by simply banning the patent medicines and forcing others to disclose their ingredients. When buyers of said medicine were aware of the bullshit of old snake oil, they just moved onto another brand of snake oil (which may or may not have been made and sold by the same guy).
If they removed regulations on medicine and legalized many of the old hard drugs we would see a resurgence in patent medicine that caused so many problems in times past. There was actually a reason why people who avoided all medication in the 19th century actually had a longer than average life expectancy.
I have no science behind this (and am therefore a hypocrite) but I’m giving up on the assumption that people think. I suspect that most people feel and make decisions on those feelings.
Thinking happens later, if at all.
