this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
163 points (98.8% liked)

politics

19072 readers
4969 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 12 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Nougat@kbin.social 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yes, a strong sense of belonging and community - and its counterpart, avoiding excommunication - are very powerful. Religions throughout the ages demonstrate that. I think there's one more thing, though.

People who are willing to abandon reason in order to believe that they're "winning" are the problem. That willingness is exploited by manufacturing a losing condition for them, while at the same time supplying the "winning solution": join us.

There you have it, the bits that, when combined, create the paradox of "We're being oppressed at every turn! We're undeniably correct and unstoppably strong!" "You're losing, come with us so we can all win really soon."

[–] magikarpet@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

2 quotes come to mind

The problem:

“you cant reason someone out of something they were not reasoned into.”

  • Jonathan Swift

And the solution:

”He drew a circle that shut me out- Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle and took him In!”

  • Edwin Markham

You have to draw a bigger circle. It is the way to deprogram people from that tribalistic mentality. Teaching them and “winning” debates will not work.

[–] WagesOf@artemis.camp 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can have the hateful murderous delusional assholes in your circle. I want my family to live.

[–] magikarpet@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, i mean that sounds great until 40% of the country gets so fanatical and dehumanizing that they decide the only choice is to fight a war.

I prefer finding common ground, deprograming, and forgiveness over violence unless that is the only path that remains.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 17 points 1 year ago

Of course not. You never could. It's why you can't convince someone to stop being a Christian fundie by explaining how evolution is unequivocally true. Even if you can overcome the sunk cost fallacy, you'll never overcome the backfire effect.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 9 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


She was struck by how people who were usually rational in private would repeat the utterly absurd slogans of the regime, such as claiming that the dictator Hafez al-Assad was the greatest chemist in the world.

This claim is so groundless that Fox, the network that supported the allegation, had to pay nearly a billion dollars in a settlement with Dominion, the company that makes the machines.

Along with Wedeen’s Syrian example, I’m reminded of the Czech dissident and playwright Václav Havel’s essay The Power of the Powerless, where he tells the story of a greengrocer in communist-era Prague who puts up pro-regime posters in his shop window.

Republican politicians face none of the danger communist-era Czechoslovaks or Syrians under the Assads have, but living in truth seems beyond them.Contradicting Trump’s absurdities risks falling out of favour with the leader and his supporters.

A democracy will struggle to survive, let alone flourish, when such huge swathes of its population see it as their badge of loyalty not to trust its most fundamental processes.

Pledging loyalty to the “big lie” is more about identity than knowledge – and to fight it entails understanding the need for belonging and meaning it fulfils.


The original article contains 932 words, the summary contains 200 words. Saved 79%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!