Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Bernardo de La Paz

Bernardo de La Paz's Journal
Bernardo de La Paz's Journal
December 1, 2021

The Cons and the Qons will say: "See! Democratic cities are hellholes". But


Death by gunfire by county. Red is the bloodiest counties. Notice a pattern?



November 22, 2021

They have been raised by parents with no empathy to kill any empathy within


"Oh, mommy, look at how cold that poor kid is without a jacket."

"Shush honey, his parents must be bad to be so poor."

"Daddy, see that man helping the guy who fell. Let's help too."

"Don't you dare! People have to learn to take care of themselves!"



Just like there are no bad dog breeds, only bad owners.

It is interesting how a lack of empathy correlates with red states, imperfectly of course but there is definitely some correlation. Alberta is the most CONservative province in Canada.

To get more sense of the correlation, note states where reporting is mandatory but do not offer immunity. Few vets are going to "notice" abuse when they can suffer if they report it. In those states the "mandatory" aspect is just for show, not for effect.



November 19, 2021

It's a psyops technique, to discourage opposition. Also an in-group reaction to suppress out-groups.


Quelled?

Education. Voting Rights. Rebalancing the Senate (I know, kinda hopeless).

One very big way is to make the nation as progressive as possible. In all ways. Small ways have big effects. At all levels. Locally predominantly, rippling outward.

Make the nation so diverse, so unified by progressive purposes, FORWARD-looking purposes, that it leaves the repugnant deplorables in the dust.

While they are making their white enclaves more insular and more anti-science and more religious and more authoritarian, all under the guise of Freedom and Jesus, ...

... while they get smaller, progressives and liberals and Democrats can expand, can and will use more advanced medicine, become more educated and better able to work with each other and help each other. Better able to generate synergy.

Let the CONservatives and the RepubliQons fall further into DISARRAY, fighting each other over who is more fake and who is more loyal.

November 14, 2021

The wave is fueled by RED states. Outliers do not invalidate the data


Each dot represents a US county.



November 13, 2021

Your other point about long-term choices is good too. Closely related to Con's family perimeter


RepubliQons are tuned into the 90-day event horizon of quarterly reports because it is consistent with their main personal economic theory of "grab all you can get as fast as you can".

It is closely related to the Cons idea of in-groups trump all out-groups. Concentric circles of family then circles of religion and race and finally of "country" (but not of the "other" people who make up the country and to hell with the rest of the world).

It is fundamentally the scarcity view of economics and the zero-sum game view.

But it's worse.

By constantly grabbing the here-and-now they turn it into a negative sum game, a race to the bottom.

The progressive view is that by helping all people, everything positive is raised including the family wealth the Cons are so obsessively concerned with. Helping the PTSD vet on the street by providing housing and a basic income results in lower costs (less policing/healthcare) and higher revenues (more taxes paid because more people working and higher paid jobs come in). Everywhere it has been tried, as far as I know. Just one example, of course.

Profile Information

Gender: Do not display
Member since: Fri Jul 16, 2004, 11:36 PM
Number of posts: 49,001

About Bernardo de La Paz

Canadian who lived for many years in Northern California and left a bit of my heart there. (note to self: https: //images.dailykos.com/images/1043361/original/2016.09.19_sunflowers_header.jpg . https://i.imgur.com/1VKgdmc.jpeg)
Latest Discussions»Bernardo de La Paz's Journal