Voter idiocy

[Valjean]

OK, let's see if this link works: BBC News - Why do people often vote against their own interests?
I don't know how to extract quotations from links, so you'll have to click to read it. :sorry1:.

I read this on the BBC site a few minutes ago. It seems relevant; telling.
What a bunch of idiots we are.

Thoughts?

 

[Buttercup]

Regarding health care reform, I sincerely think Fox News and similar sources have scared the crap out of many average Americans, people believe what they hear on the news. If you didn't vote for Obama, then you're more stubbornly opposed to any idea coming out of his mouth.

I thought this was a telling snippet:

"You vote to strike a blow against elitism and you receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our life times, workers have been stripped of power, and CEOs are rewarded in a manner that is beyond imagining.

"It's like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy."

 

[Tiapan]

I guess americans cant see the forest because of the trees.
From here in Oz they look like they have shot themselves right in the foot.

Cheers

 

[Sunstone]

I don't think Drew Westen or Thomas Frank have done the exacting research that would be necessary for them to say with any great confidence why voters often vote against their own interests.

Instead, I think the two are flying on hunches here.

I do agree with them, though, that voters often vote against their own interests.

 

[Reverend Rick]

I do agree with them, though, that voters often vote against their own interests.

I believe more often than not, people still vote for the person who will give them the most.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Republicans do it all the time.

 

[Alceste]

Not a bad article, but kind of ignores the hundreds of billions of dollars spent brainwashing people to vote against their own interests, doesn't it? I don't share the authors' faith that Americans are doing their own thinking, particularly since every health care myth they repeat and every "rally" they attend is fairly easily traced to the PR firm or lobbyist that conceived of it.

I hope nobody takes it personally, but I feel much better about humanity in general when I don't pay much attention to what Americans are up to.

 

[Buttercup]

I hope nobody takes it personally, but I feel much better about humanity in general when I don't pay much attention to what Americans are up to.

I can't imagine anyone taking that statement personally even though the majority of forum members are American.

 

[Alceste]

I can't imagine anyone taking that statement personally even though the majority of forum members are American.

I kind of mean the ones who make the news. I'd be chuffed if a large contingent of leftist RF Americans made the news for once. We're always seeing this kind:

 

[Buttercup]

Chuffed?

I've seen that dude several times, pretty scary stuff. I don't blame you.

 

[Alceste]

Chuffed?

I've seen that dude several times, pretty scary stuff. I don't blame you.

Chuffed = very pleased

We get a lot of US news in Canada. Watching it is like watching a ship sink with everyone sitting inside yelling at each other instead of proceeding in an orderly fashion in the general direction of the lifeboats. It's painful to watch but there's nothing I can do about it, so lately I've begun to avoid it.

 

[Sunstone]

Not a bad article, but kind of ignores the hundreds of billions of dollars spent brainwashing people to vote against their own interests, doesn't it?

You put your finger on something that was giving me reservations about the notions of the two authors. Neither guy mentions the money and effort spent to brainwash people.

...I feel much better about humanity in general when I don't pay much attention to what Americans are up to.

Join the club.

 

[Father Heathen]

Some people are easily manipulated to act against their own interests by appealing to their religious and patriotic sentiments. They would vote for a chimp if it held a bible in one paw and an American flag in the other.

 

[Smoke]

I don't think Drew Westen or Thomas Frank have done the exacting research that would be necessary for them to say with any great confidence why voters often vote against their own interests.

Instead, I think the two are flying on hunches here.

I do agree with them, though, that voters often vote against their own interests.

I agree with this, but I have a notion their hunches are correct.

 

[Smoke]

I hope nobody takes it personally, but I feel much better about humanity in general when I don't pay much attention to what Americans are up to.

So do I, and I'm an American.

 

[Reverend Rick]

Some people are easily manipulated to act against their own interests by appealing to their religious and patriotic sentiments. They would vote for a chimp if it held a bible in one paw and an American flag in the other.

You forgot the chimp needs to have a gun somewhere too.

Now that we are in agreement, how does that boil down to voting against my interest?

 

[Valjean]

The major media -- newspapers, magazines, TV and radio are all owned by a handful of corporate conglomerates that use them as propaganda tools. Americans don't realise the remarkable degree of censorship in their media; how narrowly they're focused. The news media don't seek to inform; they indoctrinate, they incite, they deceive, they obfuscate, they scaremonger, they cow.

 

[Alceste]

You put your finger on something that was giving me reservations about the notions of the two authors. Neither guy mentions the money and effort spent to brainwash people.

Yeah - it's a shame. I think John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton's books should be part of the high school curriculum. That and Century of the Self. If I was a social studies teacher, I'd certainly include them. I'm willing to bet they don't mention the propaganda industry because they are simply not aware of how extensive its influence really is. One good teacher could have changed that.