Why are they so ANGRY?

[Sannum]

Apparently the solution to healthcare reform is for everyone to join a church and have a close family - that way, any medical bills they have will vanish because of collective christian love!

What struck me most about the conversation is how fast it turned angry - It began as a discussion about how I am dealing with the death of my dad from cancer. He was a conservative, I am a liberal, and we would always tease each other. I said I miss calling him to talk politics - he did become a Democrat several years ago, but we so enjoyed "arguing" with each other. I said that I don't know when the time came where everything was so divisive and no one could find middle ground like Dad and I did. Her face, which was a face of compassion suddenly turned very stern. She started ranting and raving about SOCIALISM and OBAMA TAKING AWAY HEALTH CARE and that she was wanting to RISE AGAINST THE COMMUNISTS. She then started about Canadian Death Panels and people not being able to get a new hip. And then she said I was too young to understand why being Liberal was wrong. I pretty much left it alone because what's the use - I would be better off talking to a brick wall and I hardly have any emotional energy left.

My reaction, and I was trying to stay calm (because what the hell did I do?) was one of complete shock - I know that these nuts exist, and I know there is something seriously wrong with their emotional health if a simple conversation about my Dad, who would have laughed at this display of ridiculousness could inspire such blind rage!

Does the anger stem from them being in power for 8 years, blindly following the pied piper and knowing what happened under their watch and being to stubborn to admit it? Does it come from the President being Black? Could it be that simple? I have never, ever lost it in a political argument. I love politics and I love rational discussion and debate. By the age of 5, I was expected to have my own opinions and encouraged to learn and debate facts.

I ask again - WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE!

[havocmom]

1. Dealt with three people like you described in the past two days

I need to find a cave someplace. There is no way to deal with such irrational, panic driven people. Worse than trying to reason with a drunk.

[Sannum]

2. They need psychological help

Yet another reason to have a comprehensive single-payer healthcare system!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Good questions...

Part of the problem, I believe, is that they have invested so much attention and time in the wrong resources (fox news, etc.) that they simply cannot believe they are wrong.

Part of it is they are racists. Plain and simple.

I also suspect that folks who are scared of what they think they see happening tend to be rigid and controlling on these matters.

Any insecure person tends to be irrational. And they are both.

K&R

:patriot:

[hamsterjill]

7. Great insight!

Great insight, California Peggy.

And I think, too, that to admit they are wrong is going to force them to really SEE all of the people who are obviously in need of help, and who they are ignoring.

They want to believe that anyone who needs health care is getting it; a fact that certainly is not true. But they continue to believe that fervently because to admit otherwise is to admit that they aren't doing what Jesus would want them to do. In other words, to admit that they are complete and utter failures.

To borrow a phrase from Michael Jackson's song "Man in the Mirror"

"I see the kids in the street without enough to eat. Who am I to be blind, pretending not to see them need?"

[GoCubsGo]

17. Yep, it all boils down to fear.

They fear everything that is different from their own comfy, little worlds. And, they fear every little thing that do not understand. Even their racism is rooted in fear. Brown people and foreigners are different, and "different" is scary. Keeping things the same is the very essence of conservatism, and they cannot abide by any sort of change, even that which benefits them.

[niceypoo]

35. McCarthiest conspiracy theories

The republicans I work with are like this too. I just shake my head and tell them to take their Glen Beck conspiracy theories elsewhere.

[sui generis]

4. they're selfish.

They really don't believe in community, and if they don't need it themselves they can't possibly see why anyone else would need it.

Not only that, but they are just defective people. They value authority above all else, law for the sake of law, blind adherence to rules, and the worst crime one can do is not to break the law but to defy authority.

Some of them are here, fresh converts. You can always tell because they try to circle wagons using terms like "we" to ensconce themselves in the DU equivalent of moral majority and marginalize everyone else.

they're bullies - resorting to shouting at town hall meetings, to shooting abortion doctors through their kitchen windows, and were exactly the same kind of people who hung people from light posts and hangin' trees when they thought justice wasn't served enough.

They don't trust anyone, rely on the opinions of someone "in authority", like Rush, or ultimate authority, like the baby jeebus or george dubya, and will all the same get misty eyed and patriotic over sentimental shit, because they only have two speeds: angry at the world, or righteous.

These people think the dollars they pay in taxes are "their dollars", not for use by anything they don't approve of, and god forbid we have a surplus or have to raise taxes to deal with a multi trillion dollar deficit caused in part by reducing taxes.

The anger stems from poor brain morphology, cultural conditioning, and inbred stupidity.

[Cha]

5. Is it hateradio doing all their thinking for them?

[uponit7771]

12. They have no other perspective,....it's sad

[Gman2]

6. They need scaring. Two different baddasses in their faces, problem solved.

[RDANGELO]

8. Tribalism

These people are very insecure because they see a country that is becoming increasingly more diverse and tolerant. Instead of the one they are accustomed to living in. They are stoked and manipulated by the right wing propaganda machine. You can't have a logical debate with them because it is not really about anything logical, it is about instinct.

[uponit7771]

10. Someones convinced them that 1.) they have something other than their love of country to take

...and 2.) the "others" are going to take it from them, they're even convinced gay folk are going to take their marriages or some crap like that.

The lack of diversity in broadcasting does this

[uponit7771]

9. Lack of diversity of information sources on radio and TV ie the reason why KKKons hate the internets

Fear, wrong teaching via silo'd information (rural towns RARELY broadcast progressive radio) and lack of perspective. Widen their information sources and people usually become less stupid.

To get people thinking stupid demonize other perspectives and make sure theirs perspective is the only one correct.

[Arugula Latte]

11. Who is "she" -- i.e. how do you know her, why were you talking to her?

[Arkana]

13. They only know how to hate.

[discopants]

14. FoxNews.

Beck, Hannity and the repetitive memes that you had flung back at you in your conversation ... I swear it's like brainwashing ... even simple discussions on any issue in the news becomes a rant about Obama destroying the country.

[pansypoo53219]

15. KKKarl promised them a PERMANENT republiKKKlan majority

and reality so not georgeeland.

[craigmatic]

16. They're angry because we're winning and they don't like the taste of failure.

I say fuck them and their faux news driven opinons.

[GoCubsGo]

18. They're also angry because they lost it ALL in November

They're no longer in power, and no longer control any part of our government. The majority decided they no longer wanted anything to do with these assholes, and that just galls them to no end.

[Puzzler]

19. It's the steady diet of Fox News, Limbaugh, et al. that brainwashes people

[DrToast]

20. Yoda: Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. (nt)

[Atticus]

21. They believed the Rovian claptrap that the GOP would run this country for the next 40 years.

A skinny black guy proved what nonsense that was and they are PISSED!

[MadMaddie]

22. I hate to say it but it is because he is "Black"!

Sometimes the easiest answer is the right answer. These same people had no problem with the previous administration running amok and breaking the law from sun up to sun down.

These people are angry about the economy that the last 30 years of Repug rule have left this country in ruins and they can't grasp that their own party did it to them.

These are the same people that cowered to the "Red Scare" and McCarthyism, they are the same people that spied on their neighbors and turned them in to local, state and national officials.

These are the same people who stood by during the "Lynchings" of blacks and Jews in this country and they enjoyed their picnic lunches.

As a Black American I am not surprised by the vitrol and venom that these people spew. As a woman I know that if Hillary or another Democratic woman were elected it would be really bad too.

Just sayin...

[POAS]

23. It's been coming for a long time...

The fact that Obama is a Black man is the final push over the edge of their insanity.

They are mired in their own delusions and lack the skills to critically think themselves out of their misguided notions.

[MadMaddie]

24. Exactly!!

Critical thinking is not one of their strongest suits!

[Butch350]

36. I like and agree with what your, "just saying"!

[Window]

25. My doctor's nurse tried to go off on me at my last visit.

My doctor said something to the effect that President Obama's plans for health care would make things better for people.

His nurse said, "If Obama's plans are passed, you won't be able to get anything done, i.e., surgery, etc." I asked her why she felt that way and told her that that wasn't true. She said, "Oh, don't get me started on him. I know what I'm talking about because a doctor from here is on the panel, and he knows what he's talking about."

I couldn't get her to say anything further, but she really pissed me off. I think they are all just so mean and evil that they just make shit up and then believe it.

[RagAss]

Racists are an ugly sight.

[RagAss]

26. Racists are an ugly sight.

[flpoljunkie]

32. The Rush Limbaughs and wannabes hate fest have made rational discussion virtually impossible

[EmilyAnne]

27. So, why then aren't all of our health care problems already solved? Certainly there are enough

churches around to handle this?

I have a doctor appointment next week, but maybe I should swing by the closest church on the way to pick up some cash to pay the doctor and for the lab work?

[Kablooie]

28. No explanations I have read up to now really seem to explain the phenomenon.

Many seem to have bits of the puzzle but no one has definitively defined why this issue is so unbelievably divisive.

I could understand opinionated arguments about how a new health plan should be set up but to dismiss it totally as an unneeded evil is exceedingly odd.

[Zoeisright]

29. They're angry because they're losing. And they have lost.

All of the conservative positions through the years have been roundly defeated, from being against women's right to vote to civil rights to abortion to divorce to now an African-American in the White House.

And they will continue to lose - on single payer health care, gay marriage, larger government, etc. etc. Taht's why they are so angry.

[Hippo_Tron]

30. If you want a good answer to that read "What's the Matter With Kansas"

[mwb970]

31. They don't know the facts, they offer no solutions, but they do have their EMOTIONS.

Two emotions, specifically: fear and hate. Stoked by fearmongers on fox "news" and talk radio. Bolstered by endlessly richocheting e-mails filled with capital letters and lies.

Here's the thing. Our objections to bush and cheney were based on things they had actually done. They did invade Iraq for no reason. They did deregulate the financial industry, leading to global economic collapse. They did give billions in tax breaks to the super-rich without paying for a penny of it.

Now look at what the Beckaloons object to in Obama: he's going to take away all our guns. He's going to set up concentration camps for conservatives. He's going to adopt a one-world currency. He's going to merge America with Canada and Mexico. He's going to establish a Socialist dictatorship. And my favorite, though heard somewhat less of late: he is going to recruit a personal army in Palestine and subjugate the states militarily, one by one.

Note what these paranoid fears have in common: (1) Obama (nor anyone else) has never advocated or even mentioned any of them; (2) they are all part of a "secret liberal agenda" that apparently only right-wing extremists have been able to divine; (3) they are all in the future, meaning that not one of them has actually happened.

If this is not pathology, then I don't know what is. Imagine living in daily fear of such dire yet non-occurring events. These people need help.

[Cass]

33. Excellent post. They don't operate from a reality-based viewpoint.

Trying to have a conversation about issues with these people is virtually impossible. The talking head propoganda artists have done a good job brainwashing these people.

[tledford]

34. "Does it come from the President being Black?"

Yes. That's the only explanation there is, frankly.

[Butch350]

37. THEY HATE CHANGE!

[paparush]

38. Have you LISTENED to Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly, et al?

Even if you believed 5% of what they said, you'd be scared to death and angry enough to eat nails.

People sit glued to that stream of sh*t for hours on end and literally get brainwashed.

Then they go go church and get a double dose from the preacher. Ugh.

[paparush]

39. dupe

[StarfarerBill]

40. Ignorance.

Ignorance of compassion for others and for their own needs. That ignorance is fed with lies from the RW propagandists and kept alive by spreading those lies to each other; when the lies are all they hear and ignore everything else, that's all they'll ever know and believe.

[Brigid]

41. I need a little context here.

What "conversation?" Who is "she?" I read your post 3 times and seem to be missing something here.

That said, the rich among these people have too much invested in the status quo to lose it. The poor among them are at long last beginning to have a sneaking suspicion that they have been suckered. That, and good old fashioned racism is at work here.