Political and Societal Observation, Copied From a Comment I Made on Facebook

[jcsbimp]

I have suggested elsewhere before, I'm afraid that what has happened has caused a large swath of our population to need something akin to what we have called deprogramming, when we used it to refer to someone manipulated by a religious cult. Maybe it would not be good to use that precise term here, but it seems that powerful interests have indeed manipulated the minds of a good part of our population, people who want us to think a certain way EVEN THOUGH they realize it is an incorrect way of thinking - that is, not sound reasoning or science-based or objective - so that we will benefit these few powerful human beings, and they've done it with a combination of political and religious shrewdness. Perhaps it is a craft of motivating thought that has always been used to keep the poor and oppressed okay with being poor and oppressed. I even think they and their ancestors have cultivated their technique over decades, or even centuries. Maybe they did not realize they were psychologically harming people. Maybe they did, but didn't, and don't, care. What I can hope for now is that the shade is falling from people's eyes, just as the mask might be slipping off from what these folks thought 45 and the Republican party to be for them, guided by whoever is the puppet master over the Tea Party, the Religious Right, and their ilk.

This would also explain anti-intellectual forces: Those who do think and understand science and reasoning already see behind the mask, but if you manipulate enough people, you can out-vote those folks. Nobody likes a smart-ass. Bully culture helps establish at an early age who can be manipulated, and who should simply be marginalized.