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Authoritarianism in Oklahoma
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2024
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US Authoritarianism
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I'm no conservative, but John Oliver does more to perpetuate the "smug liberal" stereotype than anyone else.
You know what message most of conservative America has received and rejected?
"Shut up you ignorant cow and do what I told you, because I'm obviously smarter and better informed than you are! Just listen to the facts!"
It works really well when delivered with a British accent. Trevor Noah and John Oliver are helping polarize many potential progressive voters.
Can we not find an intelligent Midwestern or Country progressive to bring humor and information but also IDENTIFICATION and UNDERSTANDING?
Ah but fuck them, right? Who needs their votes, if their unable to see past world culture?
We do. We need their votes. Don't be a dumbass.
So... I will admit I'm not the best at interpreting things sometimes, but, your post almost sounds like you are saying intelligence and fact-finding is making people feel stupid and attacked? Do documentaries make people feel stupid and attacked too? I'm confused, is this what you were getting at?
Edit: I have watched John Oliver and Trevor Noah not a big fan of Trevor Noah, but, I never really got this message from them I never felt like they were trying to be hostile with their message
Your right, and OPs claim boils down to, uneducated people get upset by not understanding what educated people are talking about. That's why Republicans want to continue degrading the education system, because uneducated people are easier to manipulate and control.
In case your statement wasn't actually carefully crafted to make your point (kudos if so!): Yeah, you got it right.
That was a post correctly identifying the problem of the decades long rising anti-intellectualism cultured amidst the populace (See Carl Sagan's excellent and chillingly prescient "I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time..." quote).
Said post then really had the gall to not just take all agency from the willfully ignorant alongside their responsibility, but it then goes further to state that the fault lies with the non-willfully ignorant.
Then it suggests that the non-willfully ignorant are in fact being willfully ignorant to the fact that they have to (I had to pause and re-read here, the weight of the author's cojones was throwing me off) locate simpler and/or rougher folk more like 'The Midwestern' to do the messaging in a more "relatable" (air quotes) way.
I admit, my born and raised through the abject poverty and bare unfinished construction found the world around from the Favelas to the heights of Appalachia was quite "ready to slap a smarmy ass city fucker" by the end there.
But then I realized: If not maliciously posted then clearly they may not realize it. They may actually think that the miseducation, furthering divide, and increasing tensions amongst those who consider themselves team "knows better about feelings" and those who consider themselves team "feels better about knowing" have anything to do with the direct interactions between the two groups, and not the reality: The messaging being bought and paid for.
Who benefits from the poors not realizing that the scope and limits of their wits are quite the same human potential as the inhabit of any gilded tower?
That post was saying that intelligence and fact-finding is making people feel stupid and attacked, but it failed to correctly attribute that to the fact that people are being told and taught to feel that way, as part of the ever present real issue.
That is what being willfully ignorant of the fact you're carrying water for the sick and mentally twisted Billionaires who remember the human mental potential and must live constantly suppressing it in terror of the alternative, looks like.
"Willfully ignorant"...
There's your problem. You don't recognize the PRIVILEGE you have, being the intelligence you are. 2/3s of IQs are between 85 and 115, one standard deviation each way. I'd say almost ALL of the people here on Lemmy have IQs in the teens. Maybe you don't grasp the VAST CHASM between 115 and 85.
IQs fall on a bell curve. 100 is average. It will always be average, because it's adjusted to be average. 70 and below is intellectually disabled, and 79 and lower is borderline intellectually disabled. Not because they're "willfully ignorant." Because that's the limit of their ability.
Someone with a lower IQ isn't REJECTING your presentations of fact and logic, or the witty sarcasm of progressive late-night hosts. They physically CAN'T UNDERSTAND THEM.
Try teaching a special needs class and tell me about "willful ignorance". Or just fill a classroom with failing students and teach them something political.
Maybe you think they won't be trying hard enough? Maybe you think they're just lazy?
That sounds a lot like conservatives talking about poor people.
So uneducated people are upset because they don't understand concepts that educated people are discussing. Unfortunately, the country can't put complex matters on hold to write it out in crayon for all of the Republicans.
America still has universal suffrage. They also get to vote, and treating them like knuckleheads only affirms the ‘coastal elites’ or ‘flyover country’ memes.
So we can say “they’re too dumb to be informed voters” but they still get to be voters. Act accordingly and try to reach those who haven’t fallen too far down the rabbit hole, or the Republicans get to herd them all as a group
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and half of them are stupider than that!"
George Carlin
You need stupid people to win an election. What can I say? That's my premise.
The people Oliver and Noah are making fun of aren't the centrist conservatives; they're not shitting all over the ones that can be reached and could be expected to learn and grow as humans.
Who hurt you?