[Outcast_Searcher]

I have a sister who believes in stop-the-steal and I have effectively disowned her.

So the modern educational system doesn't teach people to reason? At all?

So much for the idea that evidence matters.

By the way, my sister and her husband are much too far toward leaning toward the trump and magical sky people (religion) front (vs. evidence), so my family is no prize, re rational thought.

We've basically agreed not to discuss politics (or science) AT ALL, because the result isn't pretty.

And the scary thing to me is that she is a math major (but from a liberal arts college, so there is that).

[JuanP]

I have a sister who believes in stop-the-steal and I have effectively disowned her.

I hope you have more than one sister! I think your reason to disown your sister is quite insufficient.

[aadbrd]

So the modern educational system doesn't teach people to reason?

It's not all about that. It's about people's penchant to build narratives that confirm their preferred world-view the way beavers build dams. If they develop a cynical world-view then they will seek out information that confirms it and filter out anything that doesn't until they have enclosed themselves in an iron-clad mental fortress.

Take Marjorie Taylor Greene's denial of the Parkland shooting, for instance. There was a very clear reason why she denies it. She communicates this very clearly in her rhetoric. It's because she rightly sees how a rash of mass shootings undercuts public support for unfettered gun rights. By constructing conspiracy theories where these are staged in order to sabotage gun rights advocates it allows her and all others like her to sidestep having to reconcile the issue of mass shootings with their absolutist notions of gun ownership. It's a simple avoidance strategy.

Most conspiracy theories are a form of denial. Stop the steal was a defense mechanism Trump employed in order to avoid the damage to his ego. His followers (who like all populist drones live vicariously through his ego) latched onto it for the same exact reason.

The most important lesson in learning to reason is to remove your own wants, desires, and fears from the equation, which most people are simply incapable of doing.

[jedrider]

I have a sister who believes in stop-the-steal and I have effectively disowned her.

I hope you have more than one sister! I think your reason to disown your sister is quite insufficient.

I reduce the communication level to the bare minimum when I feel that way with a relative, even at the level of sister or brother, and I recently found out that my sister was rooting for Michael Bloomberg to be the Dem candidate. That's close enough for me to be on good terms with her

I think that I treat friends more generously and just don't mention politics. Usually, one has something in common with friends which is why we keep them.

[jedrider]

Trump to give talk at CPAC meeting. I keep thinking that Trump's days are over, but they're not. I thought McConnell would cement the separation of Trump from politics, but he doesn't seem to have succeeded. Republicans and Trump are perhaps one for a while longer. Obviously, Republicans must think he can deliver the goods. I'm glad, though, that I don't have to listen to Trump's speeches any longer.

[careinke]

I have a sister who believes in stop-the-steal and I have effectively disowned her.

Wow, giving up your family because of a difference of opinion. How old are you anyway? Your programming is strong. Similar to how the Hitler Youth would turn in their own family members. Hopefully experience will fix this. I'm sorry..

Peace

[aadbrd]

It's not just a "difference of opinion". Ask anyone who has a family member who has been swallowed up by cults and maybe you'd understand the dynamic. It's very similar to a drug addiction in that it's a self-destructive spiral. You can't help someone who refuses to admit she has a problem. Continuing to engage only enables.

[Ibon]

a lot of drug addictions ride on the back of dysfunctional families. the current wave of conspiracies ride on the back of dysfunctional culture.

[Pops]

they will seek out information that confirms it and filter out anything that doesn't

A good post.
Probably this has always been true but now there is an authority to co-sign every whacked out theory out there. See a meme, do a search and Boom, you're wandering around behind the little animals.

[Plantagenet]

I have a sister who believes in stop-the-steal and I have effectively disowned her.

Wow, giving up your family because of a difference of opinion. How old are you anyway? Your programming is strong. Similar to how the Hitler Youth would turn in their own family members. Hopefully experience will fix this. I'm sorry..

Peace

Don't blame aabrd. S/he can't help it. People in some families are just incapable of forgiving each other and instead when a quarrel happens they decide to go to the nuclear option and cut each other off. And its not their fault....its how they were brought up.

And it goes on generation after generation. It literally runs in some families, and these families amount to roughly 10% of the population.




Its not clear if its genetic or if each younger generation learns from the prior generation how to be a jerk towards their own family members, but the research is clear now that this kind of intra-family warfare recurs in certain families for generation after generation. Everybody doesn't cut everybody else off, but in generation after generation one or two people get lopped off and cut out of the family for things that in other families could be solved with a little bit of patience and a hug.

Cheers!

[aadbrd]

An concern-trolling ad-hom is still an ad-hom. Shall you care to open your life to judgment? Shall we start with asking how often you beat your wife?

[JuanP]

I wouldn't be surprised if ADDbrd was actually cut off by his sister in the real world, and not the other way round like he claims. S/he beat all the records to be put on my ignore list. It took less than two months and 200 posts for me to reach the conclusion that the best thing for me is to ignore him. His noise to signal ratio is as high as it can be.

[JuanP]

"Nearly HALF of Republicans would ditch their party for Trump and only 27% would remain loyal to GOP - poll finds"
https://www.rt.com/usa/516236-trump-par ... cans-poll/

This is according to a Suffolk University/USA Today poll. TRUMP 2024!

[Plantagenet]

"Nearly HALF of Republicans would ditch their party for Trump and only 27% would remain loyal to GOP - poll finds"
https://www.rt.com/usa/516236-trump-par ... cans-poll/

This is according to a Suffolk University/USA Today poll. TRUMP 2024!

If Trump quits the Rs and starts a new party it will split and destroy the R party.

From the moment Trump was elected I predicted that Trump would destroy the R party.

His presidency didn't play out exactly like I thought it would......he did better on some things and worse on other things then I would've expected.......but he's still on track to destroy the R party.

Cheers!

[Ibon]

This is painful for those poor republicans. the split means the two factions must live with each other. Either faction going alone knows they dont have the votes so they are forced to keep Trump at the helm. I could not have designed a more perfect destiny for this party....

so much better than impeachment.

[Newfie]

An concern-trolling ad-hom is still an ad-hom. Shall you care to open your life to judgment? Shall we start with asking how often you beat your wife?

Aadbrd,

That is the second time you have accused someone of a personal attack without citing the specific occurrence.

In both cases I have searched for the slight and not found it.

Please be specific.

[Plantagenet]

This is painful for those poor republicans. the split means the two factions must live with each other. Either faction going alone knows they dont have the votes so they are forced to keep Trump at the helm. I could not have designed a more perfect destiny for this party....

True enough.

Splits in parties are not uncommon. The Ds put up with having a racist, pro-segregationist southern wing tied to a more moderate northern wing for decades, and even today there are splits between the leftists and the far-left progressives in the D party.

It is't having a split that is the problem for the Rs.........parties can survive having different viewpoints in the party........its Trump that is the problem. The split in the R party isn't between two viewpoints.....its between Trump and anti-Trump. This personal attachment and loyalty to Trump from many R voters is very dangerous for the R party, as Trump has an emotional age of about 6, and may throw a temper tantrum and start a new party at any second and take all those voters with him.....at the least Trump is going to back "primarying" all the Rs he disagrees with, which tends to weaken more moderate R candidates and will lead to the election of more Ds.


Trump is basically a big, egocentric baby........

The chances of Trump destroying the R party is pretty high, IMHO. At the least he has already severely damaged the R party and its brand......and rather then fading away now he's going to try to lead the R party for the next four years. I see more disaster coming for the Rs.

Cheers!

[Ibon]

Plant, it is not Trump the person, it is Trump the symbol of white supremacy that gave rise to the cult following.

Dont focus so much on the man but more on where his finger was pointing.....

its not enough to just blame Trump as a flawed individual....... otherwise he would already have been made irrelevant a long time ago. there is a reason he still holds power.

[JuanP]

I would like to see both the Republican and the Democrat parties destroyed, and I think both of them are doing a great job of destroying themselves, so I am very happy about that. I will take the destruction of either party as a partial victory until the other crashes and we finally have a win-win scenario with both parties destroyed.

I don't think that either party or the American political system can be repaired or reformed at this time; it is too late for that. The USA is headed full steam ahead towards inexorable political, economic, social, financial, and military collapse. The only questions are how soon, how fast, and how deep it will collapse. The longer it takes the worse it will be, yet delaying and denying seem to be the order of the day.

I'll take every day we can delay this collapse regardless of the ultimate consequences, because I will leave when the collapse comes and I am already ready to do it, but I want to stay as long as possible. If I didn't have another place to go then I would prefer the collapse to occur as soon as possible.

[aadbrd]

its not enough to just blame Trump as a flawed individual....... otherwise he would already have been made irrelevant a long time ago. there is a reason he still holds power.

Just as neo-Nazis have persisted long after Hitler's death, Trumpism will soldier on with or without him. Even now we see a scramble afoot to anoint an heir apparent, with names like DeSantis being floated. All of these have adopted the same exact narcissistic and bullying rhetorical style as Trump, the same anti-intellectualism, the same self-aggrandizement. The only thing that can possible counter this is for the country to actually better itself under Biden and the Democratic controlled legislature. If the public begrudgingly (and it will only be begrudgingly, rest assured) concedes that life improves under this new regime then it will provide a pragmatic comparison of life with and without the jack-boot of Trumpism.