Many Americans are Simply Dumber Than Bush

[SOS2008]

With all of the color coded fear mongering Bush has made a great number of people believe something. Once people, dumb or smart, believe something it is difficult for them to change their minds. That is human nature because changing their minds would be admitting that they were wrong in the first place. Doing this is difficult for most people to do.

The power of suggestion has also been used extensively to make people believe. To the best of my knowledge Bush never made a claim that Iraq was behind the 9/11 disaster. Yet at one point well over 50% of the American people believed that it was true. A lot of them still do, including my sister in law.

I don't give Bush the credit for accomplishing this belief phenomina. Bush was just the front man. Rove and the PR people worked the process out a along time ago. And they are still using it.

The big problem is that once people believe something they quit thinking and put their brains on auto pilot. That is why we are now faced with a large number of people who do not want to look back at all of those broken promises, failed programs, and repeated fear phrases that we have been seeing and hearing for the last five years.

I agree with your assessment of how our country has deteriorated to this point. And I agree Bush can't be given all the credit, but for a different reason. I feel Americans must take responsibility for their culpability in the matter. They need to own up to their role in a democracy by investing more time, thought, and effort into the world around them, and stop relying on Uncle Joe, or water cooler conversation, or what was said at Church, and start thinking on their own.

 

[Amp1]

Good topic SOS, this ties into my thread a little. So if anyone noticed an inordinate amount of trigger words such as SOS mentioned, please feel free to include the observation in a reply should you post in my thread about the SOTU speech.

 

[Xenophon]

While agree with SOS in the fact that many Americans need to start thinking on their own, I'm not sure that's a viable option.
Many working- or middle-class Americans most likely do not have the time or patience to discover facts until election year, when the facts are colored by each opposing party. So, unless you plan a massive factual revolution, don't plan on most of the average Joes to do more thinking than they have to.

-Xenophon

By the way SOS, why did you capitalize church. To do so would imply just the Catholic Church, which would appear bigotted, something I doubt because your other arguements seem educated, so you would know that generalizations are a bad way to go. I just noticed it because I know some Catholics who are moderate and do not support their church fully in all respects and do think for themselves. Don't generalize.

Edit: Sorry to sound so touchy, they're good friends.

 

[SOS2008]

While agree with SOS in the fact that many Americans need to start thinking on their own, I'm not sure that's a viable option.
Many working- or middle-class Americans most likely do not have the time or patience to discover facts until election year, when the facts are colored by each opposing party. So, unless you plan a massive factual revolution, don't plan on most of the average Joes to do more thinking than they have to.

-Xenophon

By the way SOS, why did you capitalize church.

The capitalization was not done with any intent—I’m agnostic, but for example capitalize God out of respect for those who do believe (I think other organizations capitalize the word church--not just Catholics).

Back to the topic: I find the “working, middle class American doesn't have time or capacity” to be a poor excuse, because the same socio-economic classes in other countries are much more politically aware.

We could have a massive factual revolution via better education, better support of independent media (e.g., PBS), exposure of media that spreads lies (right wing talk radio, Rush Limbaugh), and encouragement of good citizenry. This becomes more clear when we analyze why there is so much disinformation and denial.

The polls show that millions Of Americans now realize that Bush/GOP are not about conventional politics, but rather the dirtiest politics yet seen in U.S. history. But what about the approximately 178,815,518 Americans who still support Bush? Here are excerpts by blogger Dan Merica “Bush/GOP Supporters and the Phenomenon of Delusion Why Many Americans Cannot See the Truth”:

Described below are some psychological phenomena, very much useful to the Bush/GOP regime, which enable their lies, crimes and treasons to go unnoticed and unchallenged. Many people accept being deluded for reasons that may be conscious or unconscious.

Disbelief
· Many people won't believe alternatives to the official story because they didn't read about it in the New York Times or hear it on CNN.(unanswered 9/11 anomalies)
· Denial is widespread when the enormity of a situation is so unprecedented that people lack past experience to base acceptance. For example, many European Jews failed to recognize their impending extermination. To quote an old German adage: 'Things whose existence is not morally possible cannot exist.' (Bush stealing the 2000 and 2004 elections)
· Many people are 'mystified' when a plausible misrepresentation of reality in which forms of exploitation are presented as forms of benevolence. (Bush's 'Clean Air Act' increasing pollution) (Bush's 'Save Our Forests Act' permitting logging in national forests) (Bush's attempt to privatize Social Security)

Conformity and Herd Mentality
· 'Unity' in a community comes as the phenomenon of 'One Mind' develops.
· 'One Mind' is each individual in a community aligning their thoughts with what the other members are thinking. This occurrence is motivated by the sense of comfort it provides.
· It can be described as collective hypnotic induction, which creates an illusion of a consensus that is hard to challenge.
· Many people lead their lives enslaved by artificial belief systems imposed by others. The few that are courageously critical are not heard, or else they are severely shamed, ridiculed and viciously accused of causing problems. (thousands of American soldiers unnecessarily killed and maimed)
Learned Helplessness
· Psychologist Martin Seligman's theory of 'Learned Helplessness' explains how when one's repeated actions have no effect, people learn that what they do doesn't make a difference and give up, even in situations where they can potentially make a difference. (Bush stealing the 2000 and 2004 elections)

Cowardice
· The thought of challenging powerful, dominating authority with the prospect of losing is overwhelming. It is too big for most individuals at this level. This fear becomes part of the problem and rewards domination.
· As long as people remain silent and isolated from one another, they don't realize the protection of collective action - safety in numbers.
· 'The Passive Bystander Effect' (psychologist Stanley Cohen) Individuals wait for someone else to act and diffuse their personal responsibility into the collective responsibility of the group. Also, the larger the group the lower is the likelihood that any individual person will spontaneously take action himself.
· More information alone is unlikely spur action. People need the social support and the validation of others. They will not accept the reality of the problem unless they see others engaging in emotionally charged debate, protest, and meaningful, visible alternatives. (The alternative media)(Air America)(Impeachment efforts by a few in Congress)

Denial and Psychic Numbing
· It is frightening, unsettling, and intolerable for many Americans to question these core beliefs about our leaders and to accept the reality of extensive fraud. Also, ignorance is bliss, but for the moment, and knowledge implies responsibility, which may be feared and avoided. (Bush stealing the 2000 and 2004 elections) (Bush's AWOL from the National Guard and cocaine use)

Avoidance and Compartmentalization
· People want to retreat, to focus on their own survival, family, daily life and pleasure, which are manageable.
· Stanley Cohen in his book States of Denial wrote that the capacity to deny particular levels of awareness is the normal state of affairs for people in an information-saturated society. In order to deny the moral implications of something it is necessary at some level to recognize its existence. It is a state of simultaneous 'knowing and not-knowing'. (Bush's reluctance to accept Global Warming)

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_dan_meri_060122_bush_2fgop_supporters_.htm

Still, propaganda is at the heart of it:

The Bush administration's Orwellian logic, particularly since the events of September 11, 2001, is clearly exemplified by the endlessly growing list of Congressional acts, programs, and initiatives--and language--which are described or employed in such a way as to convey the opposite of what they actually do or intend.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush_administration_Orwellian_logic

In his June 25, 2003, New York Times' article "Still plenty of newspeak, but it's less Orwellian," Geoffrey Nunberg writes:

"...Orwell is the writer most responsible for diffusing the modern view of political language as an active accomplice of tyranny. As he wrote in 'Politics and the English Language,' 'Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.'

Orwellian resonances in phrase like 'weapons of mass protection,' for nonlethal arms, or in names like the Patriot Act or the Homeland Security Department's Operation Liberty Shield,

...an Orwellian note in the name of the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness project, which was aimed at mining a vast centralized database of personal information for patterns that might reveal terrorist activities. (The name was changed last month to the Terrorist Information Awareness program, in an effort to reassure Americans who have nothing to hide.)"

Now this interests me. Because of all the deception, I find the NSA spying the most difficult to understand in regard to American acceptance.