Do You Think Southerners & Conservatives Realize Just How Badly They're Being Played?

[kpete]

[Dawgs]

1. "Southerners" or Rural? I see folks like this all over America.

Not just in the South.

[onehandle]

3. Yep. Decades ago when I started traveling outside the South...

...I quickly noticed that 'rednecks' are in rural areas from coast to coast, border to border.

[el_bryanto]

4. I think that's true. But the South stands in for rural a lot of times

At least in Hollywood.

Bryant

[Lex]

5. EXACTLY.

[TeamPooka]

24. The two examples used are Southern but the problem applies nationally.

[bullwinkle428]

27. I'll vote for "rural". I've lived in Iowa for 26 years, and

clearly we've proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that there are plenty of liberal/progressive thinking people in this state given the results of the last two presidential elections, but there's no shortage of Duck Dynasty/Larry the Cable Guy-worshipping people out there as well, given my own personal experiences with them.

[onehandle]

2. Same thing with Bush. He was a Silver Spoon Northeast Elitist.

And adopted a 'Texas' persona to become 'successful.'

[SummerSnow]

29. Remember when..

Romney tried to go " aw shucks" too when he was campaigning .People didnt like it. I think he claimed to his audience that he ate grits or something.

[Mariana]

33. And the split second he left the White House he sold his "ranch"

and immediately moved into the city. The "ranch" was nothing but a prop so he could pretend to have something in common with rural voters.

[CoffeeCat]

6. Duck Dynasty is one of many "cons" perpetrated on right-wingers

Right-wing elites, who are billionaires and corporatists, figured long ago that they needed to find a base of useful idiots who would be ignorant enough to buy into their nonsense.

They knew that educated liberals, who aren't sociopaths or freakin idiots, wouldn't be suckered.

The elites and corporatists first began with their "family values" moniker. They used religion to cull votes from a very ignorant herd. Anyone really believe the greedy corporatists and psychopathic CEOs who will die before paying workers a living wage---actually give a rip about spiritual matters? They are ruthless sociopaths. Religion is their device. It's how they grew a "base" for their sick causes.

And they convinced these fools every time. They convince lower and middle class folks to cheerlead for: Taxbreaks for millionaires; cuts in Social Security; expensive wars that enrich defense contractors. They have convinced them that global warming isn't real and that energy companies who are destroying our water supply and our environment need more tax breaks and less regulations--because it's the 'Murcian way! Hell, I had a right-wing nutjob scream at me once after the 2008 mortgage implosion--because he said the banks needed LESS regulation! These people are f'n ignorant and they are proud of their ignorance!

These fools can be convinced of ANYTHING--if Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity lays out the talking points, they're all suddenly parroting the talking points.

So yes--I think these fools are easily conned. By Duck Dynasty, by right-wing radio personalities, by religion charlatans. By lots of things.

It's depressing.

[on point]

8. In a nutshell you have them pegged

[CoffeeCat]

17. I know...

...I see these nimrods making such stupid comments on their Facebook pages. They are so convinced of their brilliance and so proud to publish their ignorant comments to everyone.

But that's another ploy from right-wing radio. These ignorant fools (such as people who love Duck Dynasty) used to be society's outcasts. Bigots and haters used to hide their ignorance. They were shamed by society for their stupidity. Right-wing radio and tv provides a water cooler for these useful idiots to gather 'round and say, "Gee! I thought I was the only one who hated the gay!" or "I've know that non-whites were bad, but I never said nuthin, until you people showed me that I'm not the only one!"

Seriously. Right-wing radio makes bigotry, hatred and ignorance acceptable because these rats are all galvanized and feeling accepted.

Of course, these talk-how hosts play on their egos, telling listeners that they are smarter and more clever than liberals or the media that won't tell them the truth. These horrendously ignorant fools run around believing that they're smarter than the rest of the world and are privy to right-wing "truth" that the stupid liberals, scientists, researchers and intellectuals just can't possibly fathom. Again, these people used to hide their foolishness. Now, they are excited by it and proud of it.

It's sickening. It's making our society sick.

[daleanime]

26. +1

[Laelth]

9. +1. n/t

-Laelth

[Populist_Prole]

19. I see this ALL the time and I just CAN NOT understand it!

The unionized workplace I work at is teeming with die-hard republican "christian" voters and all they ever talk about is guns, sports, and whatever the corporate media's talking points are for the day. They act as they're the only ones who deserve the money they make and that everyone else is lazy and over paid. They're selfish scum and I want to kick each of their heads off their shoulders.

I have a friend elsewhere in the country who is no-doubt certifiably poor, and he knows it. What's really annoying/puzzling is that while he is somewhat of a "values voter", those are just side issues; that is, he isn't just some fellow traveller who tolerates the GOP's oppressive plutocracy in deference to "values". His #1 reason for supporting the GOP and being a Conservative with a capital "P" is their economic stance. He believes in supply-side/trickle-down that much more absolutely for the amount it shits on him...and get this: He is a corporate bootlicker and he hates hates HATES unions....with a blazing white hot fury. He has to be mentally ill, no?

[negoldie]

20. Agreed

They have convinced the poor and middle class they aren't poor enough while the wealthy actually deserve more. Geeesh.....

[PADemD]

23. Mark Twain

Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

http://www.twainquotes.com/Fool.html

[TeamPooka]

25. "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."...

- Martin Luther King Jr.

[Dawson Leery]

31. +1

[Rowdyboy]

7. Ignorant stereotyping-always a DU favorite

[goldent]

11. I think it is human nature

There is a a desire to feel you are better than another group of people. Not sure if this is learned or innate.

[Rowdyboy]

13. You'd expect more on a "progressive" Democratic webite but 11 years of experience

has taught me, sadly, that is not the case. I've seen some of the most ignorant, childish, middle-schoolish stereotyping imaginable right here, some by long time, established members. They seem to wear their stupidity as some sort of odd badge of honor. Eventually you either mock it or ignore it as the mood strikes.

[goldent]

15. I think a person's politics is not a good indicator of what they are like overall

I'm often surprised to learn of a person's politics, after I have known them for sometime (e.g. at work).

[cordelia]

18. Thanks for this. n/t

[pecwae]

35. You can depend on it.

Some groups/individuals are immune, others are frequently targeted.

[Rowdyboy]

37. Years ago when I still gave a damn I loved to respond by posting a picture

of a big steaming pile of horseshit right in the middle of their thread. But that just gave them what they so desperately wanted-a reaction. So now I just laugh.

You'd think we'd all have finished middle-school by now but apparently some are having a tougher time than others.

[Mopar151]

10. In these cases, I question who's being "played"

Beleiving that facial hair and the color of a T-shirt say much about anyone's essential carachter is very much a "city-boy" thing.

In ralated news, Dan Whitney's "Larry the Cable Guy" carachter was a pervert in the 80's, and his "commentaries" were closer to ol' Bob Boudelang than to the RushBlimp.

[Uncle Joe]

12. It's all part of the corporate media propaganda package playing to stereotype

for dividing and conquering purposes, image is everything.

If you can identify with the image, you're more likely to accept the message.

Too many people are fooled by this superficial B.S.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[dawg]

14. No, they mostly don't realize it. In that respect, they are just like ...

the Northerners and "moderates."

[sorefeet]

16. Beverly Hillbillies

Jerry Springer, Bill Cunningham and how many other shows exploit the dysfunctional, down trodden and ignorant to get rich.. Bill Cunningham is a friend of Sean Hannity and his shows are almost ALWAYS black or Hispanic. Racism pays good wages to these folks.

[Turbineguy]

21. Maybe these guys give people a respite

from their exessively complicated wretched existence. And instead of doing something about their existence these people spend their time escaping to this. On a personal level it's fairly harmless, on a societal level we get a GOP congress which makes these people's lives more complicated and wretched, which means we need more backwoods, ignorant, stupid, aw-shucks southern buffoon character entertainment.

[aikoaiko]

22. Just as much as you're being played....

...since you didn't mention Jersey Shore, Alaska Frontier, Kardashians, Real World, Survivor, Amish Mafia, or any of the Housewives of... franchise.

Surely, you don't think people identifying with reality tv shows is a Southern or conservative thing?

[progressoid]

28. Yup. +1 n/t

[Rowdyboy]

30. Shhhhh....They don't like you to point out the obvious fallacies in their stereotypes....

It just ruins the hate.

[cordelia]

32. Astute observation.

[pecwae]

36. Some just have this

compulsive need to make themselves feel better through mocking and stereotyping. You sort of have to have a little pity on those so shallow as to require such activity for life enrichment and self esteem.

[Go Vols]

38. +1

[doc03]

34. Don't have a clue n/t

[Egalitarian Thug]

39. Just look at what most of the replies in this thread focus on and you have your answer.

There is apparently no limit to what most people will believe as long as it's presented to them in a way they find acceptable.

[Skittles]

40. I don't know, but they embarrass America greatly

[Enthusiast]

41. They do not have a clue..........nt

[DerekG]

42. We're all being played, liberals and conservatives alike

The folksy Reagan and Bush play the Mayberry act; the urbane Clinton and Obama purport to feel our pain.

None of them gives a damn about us.