Do you feel stupid after being fooled by bushco?

[mopaul]

i think that's what drives a lot of people's opinions about bushco and 9-11. no one wants to admit to being utterly fooled, and no one wants to admit that they were stupid enough to believe a cheap lie.

no one wants to admit that they supported blasting afghanistan and iraq, in a haze of retribution and vengance. no one wants to admit that thousands have died over cheap lies, thousands of our sons and daughters crippled and killed, thousands of innocents slaughtered.

is feeling stupid and hoaxed too embarassing to admit? we were all hoaxed, by the media and the propaganda and the big lies and the fear and paranoia. no one likes being tricked and lied to, especially over such grave matters.

do you ever just say to yourself, 'damn, i was so stupid to have believed that osama and saddam did 9-11'? or, 'damn, how could i NOT have seen it?' we've all been fooled before, and we WILL get fooled again. it sucks, it hurts, and it pisses you off.

'damn!, how could i EVER have fallen for such cheap shit lies?'

[BlueEyedSon]

1. I was never fooled. I do think the rest of America should feel stupid!

(and the media, too.)

But since they'll never admit to being duped, they will continue to try to "believe".....

[ObaMania]

15. I'm with you

Never fooled.

[tom_paine]

2. I don't, but the concept of denial due to ego is a common human thread

We all do it. I do it, but I am sure in different areas.

[flordehinojos]

5. yes, people deny serious illnesses, or that a loved one is leaving them

Those who supported the ouster of Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s and supported Fidel Castro's revolution when he was in the Sierra Maestra mountains had a very difficult time accepting the fact that the liberator of a dictatorship of the right, had, himself, turned into a communist dictator of the left.

They could not face the horrible truth.

Collectively we cannot face the horrible truth about Bush or Poppy or Jebbie--even when some of us haven't been fooled by them for one single instant.

But,hopefully, it is our collective voices that will be heard as one big GO BACK TO CRAWFORD in November if enough of us can open our eyes and face the horrible awful truths about Bush, the regressive mode into which he has sent all of us, and the precarious situation in which he has placed our nation and the world.

So many of us are not able to face the fact that in fact we are losing our DEMOCRACY!
;(

[jpgray]

3. I don't think many people were really fooled by Bush

I think many decided to fool themselves. Hitler learned that if you make the truth unappetizing enough, the people will do a lot of the dissembling for you to avoid accepting it. People genuinely do NOT want to believe we went to war on a lie and for oil, and they will go to great lengths to convince themselves. Of course it goes without saying the media and BushCo will help however they can. But that atmosphere of 'we're going to lie so obviously people will refuse to believe we're lying' seems to have an impact.

[kcwayne]

8. My observation of Republicans that support Bush is different

These people believe in the Republican party on faith, in the same way they bind to religion. There is no fact, crime, or deed that will shake their belief that anything a Republican does is wrong, let alone evil.

Short Version
They believe that Republicanism is the greatest cause of good in the world, after Jesus. Any other thought or consideration that conflicts with this belief is simply discarded.

Long Version

The hard core Republicans I know are not intellectuals, they are anti-intellectual. They don't read, investigate, ponder, or contemplate anything. They simply believe, and hate. They believe the corporate entity has more rights and fewer obligations than a citizen. They believe that minorities are inferior, lazy, and the cause of taxation that only they have to bear.

They believe America is always right, and that it too good and philanthropic. Every other country in the world should bend over and kiss our ass. The ones that don't are ungrateful, and we should bomb them back to the stone age.

They believe that any criticism or questioning of the Republican administration is treason and lies propagated by a liberal media that should be censored.

They believe the war in Iraq is a success, and that all the liberals that think otherwise should just shut up because they are wrong.

There is absolutely nothing that will change their minds because they will not listen to nor pursue information that is contrary to their beliefs, which are based on belief, not fact.

[leesa]

20. Obviously the GOP trumps Jesus for these folks.

[Kahuna]

4. Since the first time I laid eyes on him, I've never been fooled by him.

It should only take one look at those beady, shify eyes to know what a rat he is.

[demnan]

6. I've always had my eyes open

where this vermin is concerned. The only time I gave him a pass was about 3 weeks after 9/11.

[Justice]

7. I believe you have hit on something there.

I've said the same thing for a long time.

When people on DU say, I was never deceived, I was never fooled - that is the way I feel.

However, for all of those people who did believe, and now are struggling with how they were duped - we have to help them understand that their frustration, their anger is appropriate and should be directed at Bush and company.

A big part of Bush's act is to say if you didn't believe him, you hated America. So people that now have second thoughts about Bush don't want to be seen as hating America. We have to help them understand that Bush's lies are about Bush, not about America.

I also believe it is hard to stand up and say Bush lied in certain parts of the country. I read stories of courage at DU every day -- from people who live in conservative areas. We have to encourage people to speak out with the truth.

[madmom]

9. Gov. Ann Richards warned us...

of this bastard some listened, alot didn't.I listened,I remembered,I wasn't fooled.

[jukes]

10. i suspected

from day 1, but wasn't a convinced MIHOP until iraq.


hate these greedy, murderous fux!

[GiovanniC]

11. They Haven't Fooled Me Yet

That's in large part to the fact that they are so predictable. I have developed an incredible system for determining the truth about just about anything. I'll share it with my fellow DUers free of charge (for a limited time only, some restrictions apply, see store for details):

STEP 1: Listen to what Bush/Cheney/Rice/McClellan/etc. say.

STEP 2: The reverse is true.

That's it! It's that simple, folks!

Let's practice!

"Saddam Hussein has stockpiles of chemical, biological, and nukular weapons."

Okay, that means "Saddam ain't got shit."

Let's try another one.

"This country is safer than it's ever been!"

That means, "At this rate, we're fucked."

Now you try it whenever you hear Bush or his cronies talk. It really, really works!

[Mad As Hell]

13. Yes I feel stupid

Embarrassed also. I am also ashamed that I was not more discerning about what I was being fed.
Now I am furious. Actually, it is probably a good thing that * is so inept and is going to lose this election or else the country would be lost forever and I and all of the other "unwashed masses" would not have woken up until it was too late. That's why Kerry is getting so much money from people like me.

[madmom]

18. welcome to the light mad also...

may the force be with us always.

[Sparrow]

12. I don't think ANYONE was fooled by Bush

seriously, it is not possible.

[leesa]

21. Well I would say that 97.9% of Americans were fooled by their lies about

9-11 being pulled off by a cave man on dialysis. They were so conned that they could not see anything wrong with carpet bombing a country for 10 months because this alleged master criminal half-dead cave man happened to be residing there. Tell me people were not conned. Tell me they don't remain conned.

Believe me. For the one or two of us who didn't buy the BS conspiracy theory handed to us by the WH and their pet press, it was very lonely after 9-11.

[lottie244]

14. If you were fooled by Bush, you are too dumb to feel stupid.

These people supported Bush because of what they know the Republican party stands for...he is their standard-bearer. They know the code words and the code-works and that is what they are supporting and will support to their deaths. The Civil War rages on.

[90-percent]

16. loose the election?

Cornered rats can fight pretty hard to save their lives. We all have to work our asses off between now and Nov 2. to keep this bastard out. These people are trecherous cretins that will stoop as low as they have to to win. They would nuke NYC Nov 1 if they thought that would make them win!

-85%

[chefgirl]

17. I was never fooled, per se...

Ever since his father was in office, I've known in my gut that there was something just 'wrong' about these people.
Of course, in the prosperity of the 90's I had forgotten how intensely I felt about them.

When the GOP announced the little dickhead as their nominee, however, it all came flooding back.
I will admit to being blindsided by the election result, though. On election night, when I heard him say that he was sooooo sure Florida would go to him, I actually made a snide comment like, "What makes you so sure, asshole?? The fact that your brother is the governor?"
I was completely unprepared for how right I actually was about that. Here I thought I was just being sarcastic.

I will admit that in the three and a half years since then, I have learned a whole lot more than I ever knew about them before. More than I ever really wanted to know, actually.

No, I don't feel stupid because I really wasn't duped, per se, but I did go through a period of deep sadness/anger once the veil was completely lifted from my eyes.

I think THATS the reason why a lot of people won't admit they were wrong about him.....they just want to live in their comfortable, American denial.

Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then, ya know??

-chef-

[OpSomBlood]

19. I was fooled...I assumed the WMD/al Qaeda claims were true.

Given the "evidence" the Bush administration presented, I thought the invasion of Iraq was justified.

But now that I know they lied, I'm very pissed.

[louis c]

28. I was fooled too.

That's why I'm angrier than most.

I was never a Bush supporter for economic reasons. But I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I never figured he could lie and get away with it.

Well, he has been found out, and will go down in History as the dumbest, most incompetent, moron ever to serve in any capacity of authority in the history of this country.

And that still gives him the benefit of the doubt re: he's an idiot and not evil

[suegeo]

22. It sort of pissed me off

I was fooled, but not for long.

Once I got over the shock/stupor I suffered after the 9.11 event (Reichstag Fire II), I started to feel that something was not quite right with the story the media was dishing out. (I guess that is why the advice is given: don't make any major life decisions after a traumatic event, because you are just not thinking clearly.)

I mean, just looking at Jr. Bush and hearing the words "Strong leader" caused massive cognitive dissonance (or whatever the shrinks call it) in my pea brain. Yet, in the first few months after 9.11, I didn't as yet think the event was LIHOP or MIHOP. I still naively thought: "My government couldn't possibly sacrifice us like that. Fascism certainly can't happen here, etc. etc."

Still, I felt uneasy, and started to research the evil Bush family history. I stumbled on the Enron story, the Afghan pipeline story, and a few months after 9.11, I had done a 180 turn, and started to believe that something was indeed rotten in Denmark.

As Gloria Steinem (sp?) once said "The truth will set you free.But first it will piss you off."

I still am pissed that these bastards get away with (at best) being criminally incompetent, and at worst, being somehow complicit in the Reichstag fire II.

From my perspective, it's most of us on the planet vs. a handful of fascists (ie very nasty, very rich killers who are insane.)

[yellowcanine]

23. I never thought the WMD claims were true BUT I did think * would manage

to find enough "duel use technology" and create enough smoke to make it look as if there were a WMD fire. That he turned up nada - now that was a surprise. So I guess I was fooled a little but it's funny, I don't feel a bit stupid about it. In fact, I can hardly keep myself from grinning when I think about it. What stops me from grinning is to know that Bush's WMD obsession has cost us plenty - in lost and maimed lives, lost treasure that could have done so much good at home and abroad, and lost goodwill around the world. Then I get pissed off.

[MuseRider]

24. I am just hoping

that those that were fooled and now realize it but can't admit it will be able to vote in the privacy of the booth for Kerry. They may never admit it but perhaps they can be honest with themselves.

[Tsiyu]

25. Sorta fooled but not really

I've had my eyes on the Pat Robertson/ Dominionists for 20 years. I never thought they would accomplish their takeover of our government but I was watching...9/11 had some lihop/mihop flavor to it, but I didn't want to believe these geeks were so hellbent on owning America that they would stoop this low.

I supported invading Afghanistan TO FIND OSAMA ( ha ha-how stupid i was to think they ever would find Bush's buddy OBL) and i felt like a hostage when Iraq was invaded because one of my kids was over there in the thick of it. At the time i said to my TV, "Mr. Bush, if you're just sending our kids to Iraq for oil I'm gonna come to the White House and kick your ass." Well, he hasn't gotten his asswhooping from me, but from most of America. And the next election will hopefully kick the Bush clan out for good...

As for the Repukes who were fooled, I believe they are having a tough time coming to grips with their blind allegiance to their 'benign dictator.' Honestly, I think many of them will just stay home from the polls rather than admit they were wrong.

[mopaul]

26. feelin stupid kick

[mitchum]

27. I was never fooled by that fraud, but I think that many who were...

will take out their anger in the voting booth. Even if they are hesitant to admit it out loud to family, friends and associates.