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Journal elmegil's Journal: Click. Maybe this is it. 23

Journal by elmegil
(there needs to be an icon for politics in general instead of insisting on republicrats of one color or the other)

The reason the right wins with nasty tactics and the left loses with nasty tactics may be pretty simple:

Nasty tactics appeal to the lizard brain. Right wing causes also frequently appeal to the lizard brain. So they're aligned. They have synergy. They reinforce each other. Left wing causes often appeal to a higher vision (though I can't say I think much of their tactics) which is dissonant with the lizard brain of nasty tactics. The two don't pull together.

If you think your agenda is a lizard brain topic, you might get some traction with lizard brain tactics of fear and anger. But if you think your agenda is higher than that, then you need to find a different approach that might actually work.

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Click. Maybe this is it. More

Click. Maybe this is it.

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  • Nasty messages just demonize the opponent so you don't have to think about the actual pros and cons of their personalities, skills, and platforms when it comes time to make a decision?

    After all, which is easier: unilaterally declare that John Kerry is a dirty, communist baby-killing liberal beloved by OBL and Kim Jong-Il, or sit and think about the implications of John Kerry's platform on middle eastern stability and U.S. foreign policy developments?
    • Aka appeal to the lizard brain, yes. Exactly. Funny that you of all people would be making the comparison in quite that way, given your mirror image over Alito.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • the allegations that TMP has made against Alito are broadly true, if framed negatively, as is TMP's wont.

          So, I understand you have stopped beating your wife?

          whining about how the liberals are beyond the pale when they criticise anyone.

          Clearly you've been paying close attention to what I've said, and what my political position is overall. (<&lt sarcasm for those of you who are impaired today)

  • Much of the democrat's agenda relies on the most basal instincts of all in humanity - greed.

    Greed in the sense of "We're gonna take money from those evil, evil rich people and give it to you!"

    Can it get much more lizard brained than greed? Oh, maybe jealousy, because that's what's behind the greed.

    Greed and jealousy - the democratic party's platform in a nutshell!

    What's that you say? That's what democrats accuse republicans of?
    Gee, hopefully you just learned something!
    • I think both platforms have plenty of both, definitely at the tactical level. But if I broadly overgeneralize the stated goals in a reasonably neutral fashion, Democrats want to make sure everyone gets taken care of, and Republicans want to make sure everyone is free to keep what's theirs. So how is that latter not just a different face of the same greed, with a little frisson in practical application of "I can get mine by fucking the little guy and not get called on it"?
      • Yep, have to agree that the greed of both liberals and conservatives are really flipsides of each other.
      • So if the politicians of both sides are going after the same thing from different angles, it should rather be embarrassing and a sign of incompetance that the democrats aren't as effective at it as republicans.

        Of course, I'd disagree they are less effective, it's just a matter of target audience. Democrats have been VERY effective at scaring the elderly, for example. Always screaming that the big bad evil republicans are going to steal your medicare benefits or social security payments. Greed. And it wo
        • Get over your (you in general, not you personally) "throwing your vote away" mentality and vote the bastards out already!

          I hope this was targetted at someone else, because I've only voted a major party twice. The first time I voted, and one time that it was stupid to do it anyway. :-)

        • In the immortal words of Frank Zappa:

          Republicans are fair if you're a multi-millionaire
          Democrats are fair if all you own is what you wear

          I would probably be a Republican if the candidates would stop pushing specifically religious agendas. I vote against 'taliban-style, forced religious edicts'. The 'old breed' Republicans are the hawks that disapprove of civil rights... they still hold office. The "new breed" isn't like that, but it's hard to tell them apart. The stigma is still there. Vote those as

          • The really old-style republicans are the ones who freed the slaves, pushed civil rights legislation over the protestations of the democrats, fought for the women's right to vote, etc.

            Indeed, the republicans used to be the left-wing liberals and democrats were the right-wing conservatives. They've flip-flopped several times over the past 150 years, which is how we can be particularly certain there's nothing worth anything to a political party.

            As for republican cutting of police and firefighters, do you mean
            • It's never been the Federal governments job to fund local firefighters and police forces. I can agree with this. Yet, when they do fund these things, they bolster the local municipalities budget. That's the evil dependency thing, sure. However, when the fed mandates that I must prepare each Police officer with 20 hours of Zombie attack training, with at least one joint exercise in the next 12 months, that mandate had better have a check attached. Otherwise, the fed is being irresponsible.

              The Republica

          • Why is it that Democrats raise taxes, and instead of bolstering the local services, give it to a newly created buracracy?

            Like DHS?
      • And by the way - that "making sure everyone gets taken care of" [by the government] is FAR more insidious, since it essentially just ensures everyone comes to be dependent upon the government to the point they don't even TRY to take care of themselves. Witness the hurricane victims, particularly in Florida given how slow Wilma moved and how much "extra time" that gave them to prepare. Only many of them didn't prepare, expecting, despite the government's showing in Katrina, that the government would take p
  • Look here! [slashdot.org] Eg. 1 [slashdot.org] 2 [slashdot.org] 3 [slashdot.org].

    I think that you've been reading too much David Icke, though: we all know that politicians acting in times of crisis are using monkey brains [theregister.co.uk]! Icon [slashdot.org].

    Those who value maximum freedom are not necessarily [geocities.com] lizard-brained bastards, BTW, and there are many government policies that do not work in the long term, and sometimes immediately. Some of those are rightist policies, BTW; eg. many policies regarding to punishment: those who seek justice (on left or right) will often start neglect

    • I think perhaps I wasn't clear, I don't mean that valuing freedom means you have a lizard brain, but the lizard brain interpretation of freedom appear to be "freedom to screw the other guy".
      • It's called "trust".

        Unfortunately, sometimes trust is exploited. Sometimes the exploitation of trust is too costly (in terms of freedom) to put a stop to, or else requires a careful calculation of costs and benefits, as is the case with the minimum wage [slashdot.org].

        Freedom to screw the other guy is sometimes, in fact frequently the right policy. It sucks, but then maybe there's something that the better amoungst us can do to alleviate it. Give people a way out where possible. Be careful what you buy: favour fa

        • I'm not talking about the libertarian ideal where everyone is fully informed and contracts are enforced equally regardless of your financial standing, I'm talking about the current Republican implementation (or attempts at implementation) that are all about hiding bad information and stacking the deck in favor of money.
          • I'm with you really. Also, I'm no libertarian; I'm more a liberty-biased utilitarian ("the greatest liberty of the greatest number").

            Decent policy-making is difficult, particularly since sometimes it involves self-restraint in the face of demands for left- or right- wing "justice". However, it makes me sick when they don't even try, and one thing is portrayed as another.

            I remember how Bill Clinton's scheme for medical insurance became "socialised medicine" [slashdot.org], for example.

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