Can Republicans Read?

[corarose]

The reason that I ask is because they believe everything that Rush, InSannity, OWeirdly, Jr or any other right wing nut thug talks about as the truth.

Why is it that Democrats read and discuss issues like intelligent people but Right Wingers can't even comprehend a thought of their own?

[TXvote]

1. It confuses them

Laura finally admitted that she does not read the papers or watch the news, just like hubby. Because " they have good people in the White House" to keep them informed.

What a bunch of nimrods.

Peace,
Teresa
www.votervirgin.com

[Khephra]

2. I don't know about reading, but for people with so many

hangups about sex, they sure can BREED.

:evilgrin:

[greyl]

3. Berkeley Study:

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/07/22_politics.shtml

snip"Conservatives don't feel the need to jump through complex, intellectual hoops in order to understand or justify some of their positions, he said. "They are more comfortable seeing and stating things in black and white in ways that would make liberals squirm," Glaser said.

He pointed as an example to a 2001 trip to Italy, where President George W. Bush was asked to explain himself. The Republican president told assembled world leaders, "I know what I believe and I believe what I believe is right." And in 2002, Bush told a British reporter, "Look, my job isn't to nuance."<snip

[WindRavenX]

4. Ouch

Well, all we need to do is look at Rush's army, the ditto-heads. Our entire CULTURE has become a culture of DITTO-HEADS! Once a small isolated diseased section of America, it has now become a cancer to America.
This type of thinking is damaging to us all.
Bush is a prime example of how our culture has simply forgotten to "think"- we accept whatever FOX NEWS or CNN tells us to.

[FloridaJudy]

6. Thanks for the link

That was fascinating!

[Piltdown]

5. I could read...

back when I was a Republican (Goldwater era), which is probably why I am not one now.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

7. In my experience (with Republicans)..

..the clear answer is: absolutely not. They cannot read. Or think logically for that matter.

[WindRavenX]

8. Read college Republican newspapers

For example, here at Boston College, we have a small, venemous group of dedicated racist Republicans that published a hack paper called "The Observer". They write poorly and they write entirely convinced that the opinion they hold is the only way to think.
This is the norm. These individuals on the staff of the paper also tend to be the absolute WORST Republicans- and I mean the worst in every sense- homophobic, racist, mysoginistic, you name it. The guys on the staff are not liked at all by Boston College students. Boston College is not that liberal either, but they are so far off in the deep end they completely isolate themselves by writing rants and raves...
sorry, I got off on my own rant there :)

[Phatfish]

9. This is why so many people hate liberals....

Some of us make (mostly in a joking sense) statements like this. Some liberals try to paint with a broad brush and talk down to people with conservative ideals. Yes, there are conservatives that don't look at situations with an open mind and believe anything that the leader of their party says.

But I've got some news for you... there are a lot of liberals that do the same thing. I really feel we need to get away from generalizations like this and talk about issues or specific individuals. We need to break this cycle of juvenile name-calling and treat groups of people with respect unless the whole of that group has done something to lose that respect. To me, your statement seems analogous to the following:

"Can black people abstain from committing crimes? The reason I ask is because 60% of penitentiary inmates are black while less than a third of the nations population is black. Why is it that white people understand and follow the laws of our country and blacks just end up breaking them?"

I know it is an extreme analogy but these comments seem just as extreme IMO.

[corarose]

10. Excuse me? Race has nothing to do with Political leanings.

Damn now I have heard everything.

[Phatfish]

11. one revisit my last post

as stated above:

"I know it is an extreme analogy but these comments seem just as extreme IMO."

If you didn't understand that I was talking about the way he was generalizing his POV then I really cannot help you. Of course those two sentences about blacks by themselves are complete bullshit but I used them as an A-N-A-L-O-G-Y to show how I saw his statement in a way that would enrage you all the same way.

[dani]

12. many of them can

think for themselves just fine and can discuss issues in an intelligent manner. But for the far right FReepish variety it's easier to just be spoonfed by Rush or Savage or Liddy or etc. I think it's the FReep hammerheads who have become the caricature of conservatives amongst lefties and us DUers.

[Piperay]

13. They are capable but

they DON'T read. I know this for a fact because this acquaintance of mine shoved this animal rights newspaper under my nose (this was while Clinton was President) and said "what the hell is Clinton in this for"???? I took the paper and I READ it and I said in a cold voice "Clinton is in this paper because the capition under the pictures READS that they are giving him an award for his support", duh. All she said was "oh" took her paper and walked off, proof that they NEVER actually read anything...even something that they are interested in! :crazy:

[piece sine]

24. oh that proves it then...

beyond any shadow of a doubt. All these Republican lawyers at our firm must have just bought diplomas from a street vendor.

And the difference between the crap on Free Republic and this nonsense in this thread is......?

Of course Republicans can read. They just read a statewide poll in Florida that puts Bush ahead of every Dem. candidate by 20 points...and Dean by 23 points.

So while you all chortle, like teenagers with a purloined six-pack behind the garage, about how stupid Republicans are, they are reading about the best places in stay in DC for 2004 Inaugural.

I'm embarrassed by my fellow Democrats flaying at imaginary windmills while we degenerate into a minority party because some of us wrongfully presume Republicans can't read! Ironic, because they read us the Riot Act after ever major election defeat WE suffer.

[Piperay]

25. I said they CAN they are CAPABLE

but many of them DON'T! Obviously when someone shoves a paper under your nose and demands that you tell them why something is in that paper, then they DIDN'T READ IT! WHY didn't they read it, because they saw the picture of Clinton and made the choice that they didn't want to acknowledge anything that might have been favorable about him. READ the post again and tell me where I said they CAN'T or they are INCAPALBE reading. :argh:

[piece sine]

26. read your post again...

and you keep repeating..."They don't read." Interesting, your comfort level with massive stereotyping. Somebody, once, doesn't read something (for whatever reason) and suddenly all of them -- every last one of them -- don't read. One of the things I pride myself on as a Democrat (but importantly, as a left-leaning liberal) is never making those kind of illogical generalizations, especially in public forums. They cloud one's view of how the other side thinks and acts.

[LibertyorDeath]

14. Yes they read but do they comprehend?.......... NO!

Have you listened to shrub speak.

[corarose]

22. That was my next question

Because something is wrong that they don't have a thought of their own.

[Hubert Flottz]

15. Reich wingers don't read books they burn 'em!

Someone somewhere is warming their arse as I type, on dAnn Coaltar's books!

[opihimoimoi]

16. The Flottz LIVES

Had given you up for dead.... road kill....

Books??, we don need no stinking books, burn them babies of Spawn and other ideas that promote equality, prosperity, and longevity.

Come, we need a quaff

[Hubert Flottz]

17. I is alive and kickin'!

Just been running the roads some! Hope Miz Opihi is doing well!

Come, we look for a real turkey at the WH, not some jive turkey!

[corarose]

19. Can I borrow the name Coaltar from you

Please? I LOVE IT!

[forgethell]

18. I think you

are making a mistake in thinking right-wingers cannot read, or think, on their own. In short, I do not believe that right-wingers listen to Rush or Hannity inorder to learn what to think. I believe they listen to Rush and Hannity because they ALREADY think the same things.

It used to puzzle me that I, and a political opponent could look at the same set of facts, define the same problem, and come to diametrically opposite conclusions. This continued until I stumbled across the concept of the world-view, a mental filter that shapes how we look at facts, how we place them in the context of a framework to make the world make sense to us.

It is not lack of intellect, education, knowledge, logic, or even compassion, that makes right-wingers think the way they do. It is the meaning that they attach to the facts.

The RW basically believes that human nature cannot be changed. The left believes that it can, for the better. So, if you have disagreements with a right-winger, it is foolish, as well as incorrect, to accuse him of stupidity, or ignorance. He may be smarter and more educated than you. Somehow he must be shown that his world-view is wrong. This is difficult, but by no means impossible. One way is to show him where policies that he supports don't work, or work in unintended ways that are not a desirable outcome.

See, if the progressives are smarter than the conservatives, how come they keep whipping our hind-quarters in elections? It's really no good to complain that they have control of the media, etc. How the heck did they get it? By being dumber than us? At one time, the Democrats controlled Congress and the Presidency, and had the Supreme Court. What went wrong? How did the conservatives take over dominance of the Internet, for example? Were we complacent and alseep at the switch?

I don't know exactly what needs to be done, except in a very general way. But calling our enemies "stupid" when they are not is a good way to "misunder-estimate" them again next years.

[opihimoimoi]

21. I hear you man

Them pubs have a diff perception on life in general. That perception has now gone collective in such a way as to gain more power, thus more dominance.

The Dems have it right but are fragmented in their approach, thus right but weak Vs the Pubs, wrong but strong.

Oh well, come, we go water ski

[VermontDem2004]

20. My grandma is a republican

On average She reads about 3 books a week. But I am sure as hell Bush doesn't read. :D

[smirkymonkey]

23. Only if its written in the original German...

;)