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Sloppiness, yes, sometimes.
As for me, I dislike all the people who follow this guy who are blind about it...the "shock troops" and the rich oil types, etc.
There are some people who are conservatives whom I otherwise like. I just think that when it comes to their politics they are blind and just don't get it. Or are in the process of slowly waking up or something.
As for deconstructing sentences...I have seen some pretty bad ones on DU, too. I guess that's where it's hard for me to know where to draw the line. Some people are brilliant when it comes to math, but just can't write very well, or whatever.
Anyway. I agree with you on the illogical lines of reasoning as exemplified by the last paragraphs. But I don't think the only reason people believe that garbage is that "they're stupid." There's more to it than that. And it's not their "feelings" I'm concerned about...it's whether or not just saying "they're stupid and we have to show that" will work.
I guess I'm part of the school that believes there's more than stupidity at work getting people to believe these things...and until we understand THAT, and how to undo it, we will continue to wander around in circles trying to change anything.
I get frustrated too...but in general I have found it un-useful to simply label the opposition "stupid." I mean, the freepers call Keith "stupid" all the time...and we all know objectively that that isn't true. In the end it just devolves into name-calling. "You're stupid." "No, YOU'RE stupid." I am as guilty of it as anyone else...I just admit it is not too constructive.
Is Karl Rove stupid? No. I don't think so. He is a genius at making others dance to his tune. He is a genius at fooling scads of people into thinking an un-presidential man is "presidential." Just one example.
That's all I'm trying to say. As long as we tell ourselves that people don't see things the way we do because "they're just stupid"...are we going to get anywhere?
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