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In reply to the discussion: I've learned an important lesson from this election [View all]paulkienitz
(1,374 posts)Most of them are perfectly capable of behaving kindly and decently. But inside their minds the dots are left unconnected, and they don't understand, or don't let themselves understand, that what they're voting for is in conflict with the way they like to treat people around them on a personal level. They think they're voting for freedom when they're supporting oppression, they see themselves as embodying kindness yet they enable cruelty, they identify themselves as upholders of the law while they break it, and they have no idea why anyone would ever think they were racist. The people in the Jan 6 insurrection seem to have mostly been wrapped up in some Walter Mitty heroic fantasy; many of them came to a horrible realization later on when they comprehended what they had actually done. (Being dragged into court and charged with a felony does help encourage this realization.) There's always a disconnect, always an element of self-delusion. You'd think that this would only affect a minority but it seems to be the norm among them. I'm guessing that for a lot of them this comes out of being raised with the kind of religion that demands to be believed in without evidence, so their minds are primed for believing lies in any area where the truth would create any conflict with their community. They end up supporting oppressive authoritarianism, yet if the day ever comes when they find themselves subject to authoritarian oppression, they'll be astonished and shocked and have no idea how it could have happened. They won't let themselves understand what they are doing.
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