Back in Omaha for a month and staying with my parents, and they listen to Faux constantly, even put it on in the car. Obviously super deplorable and voted for Trump.
My mom, surprisingly, has taken corona and vaccines extremely seriously and is very concerned about the Delta variant. Yesterday they were listening to some “doctor” on Faux denouncing vaccines and the dangers.
So my mom turns to my dad and says something like “he’s just making those numbers up I think”. It was funny watching the gears begin to churn and maybe realize that most of what they’re hearing in BS. At least there are signs of life in the attic.
She’s actually a little more compassionate on social issues, but is too far gone at this point and one of those women who wouldn’t dare contradict their husband (like my sister in law). I’m 100% sure she’d have voted Biden if she had married a Dem, same with my sister in law.
Probably nothing more than tradition and just believing the right is the party of faith. If you asked her about individual issues, she’d probably come away sounding moderate or maybe even left leaning. But far too indoctrinated at this point.
What kills me is how they just casually want to destroy democracy. Like, they’d be fine with Mike Pence disregarding the vote entirely and simply declaring that Trump won another term. So why bother with elections? They’re such a nuisance anyway.
So my Trumpy co-worker is all the way gone. Full anti-vaxxer. Hours a day on Facebook, the whole deal.
This is truly incomprehensible. I’m not exaggerating, this guy is one of the smartest people I know, and I know a lot of smart people. He pulled his kids out of school because the schools are “too liberal,” dude has lost his mind.
He calls his employees in the middle of the night to rail against China for concocting covid in a lab, tells us to violate mask mandates, won’t require masks in class, but also says we need to make sure to wash our hands a lot because that’s how covid spreads. Called one of my coworkers a sheep and told her to stop being so scared. He watches FOX News all day.
Also calls people-- women only-- in the middle of the night to tell them why abortion is murder.
A lot of smart people are dumb. This guy is verifiably elite at logical thinking and yet this is what you get.
Would you be surprised if he dabbled in drugs and then became an addict? The fascist playbook is based on psychology and has been paired with the brain chemistry power of social media. No one is immune. Intelligence and education help, but they aren’t guarantees.
A friend of mine in the lifestyle whose conservative. Anti mask, Anti Vaccine. Catches Covid. This person is a chemist so they have some brainpower to think, but apparently they forget about the concept of being responsible for themselves. They had no PTO and their employer basically makes them take unpaid time off (unlike my software company which has like a month of covid pto). So she’s got a gofundme going to help her pay expenses while she recovers. She’s been sick for nearly two weeks. For fucks sake pull yourself up by your bootstraps or something. How about fucking getting a vaccine so other people don’t have to support your bad choices. She’ll get her money I am sure since she is attractive and organizes parties, but not from me.
So you’ll see the librul media post articles about random dickheads that get covid and then say “I was dumb, shoulda got the vaccine” but do any of these people that actually do this ever actually change or move left? Or at least change their information sources etc? I’d guess not since I’ve never seen a followup.
There is some serious irony in psychology turning out to be the most important discipline. No shortage of “rational” people getting dopamine smacked into insanity. It is truly astonishing.
Special case of people not having any agency over anything. Come join me over in the Free Will Pessimist camp, the water’s fine.
My gf’s anti-vax sister who has said there’s “no way” she is getting the COVID vaccine sent my gf her justifications. No prizes for guessing where the “research” was sourced from. Several items related to the AstraZeneca vaccine, even though as an under-60 that’s not the one she would be getting here (Pfizer). The rest was basically drivel. I can’t really be bothered to argue as if she’s not going to make an effort to distinguish between AstraZeneca and Pfizer, it’s pretty obvious the rationalizations are just a pretext for getting to the conclusion she knew was correct all along. The government here are making noises about allowing businesses to exclude unvaxed customers, after vaccines become more generally available. Between that and someone she knows eventually getting really sick - which is a lock because she moves in unvaxed circles and the virus is going to become endemic - I’m pretty sure she’ll just change her mind eventually.
I know a lot of smart to very smart people, including people who post on this site. None of them believe anything on Fox News or have any problem understanding Covid.
It’s interesting to hear about “smart” people who have dipshit ideas (I think of John Nash saying something like he knew the CIA or aliens were recording his thoughts by the same means as he came up with mathematical proofs), but they really are freakish outliers and probably have genuine psychological issues.
OTOH, I know a lot of stupid people, some with weird ideas about Covid, who just aren’t very good at distinguishing sources, processing information, and lack the background knowledge and educatuion to tell good arguments from bad.
I know a lot of people who could retain information and study and show up every day for a few years but are otherwise idiots outside of their skill set.
For example. My uncle has a PhD in botany and has worked on and developed GMOs for Cargill and Monsanto and travels the world now just selling for them. Super vax skeptic and his wife is basically Qanon level of bullshit. I told her she was in a cult recently.