How do you explain the koolaid?

[FormerRepublican]

IMO, for what it's worth, I think it's classic brainwashing. CIA techniques, Nazi techniques, etc. to control the thinking of the masses.

The world is absolutely going to heck in a handbasket. It's hard for me to understand how the koolaid drinkers can go around with blinders on, completely oblivious to the destruction. They're brainwashed into thinking down is up, and up is down. They don't think at all - they just follow the propaganda. Like lemmings over a cliff...

What could explain the koolaid?

[babylonsister]

1. Faux, Rush, O'Lielly, Cal Thomas, to name a few.

Edit to add: churches who aren't keeping separation of church and state separate.

[MichiganVote]

2. Think of the Titanic. All people ever said is that it was 'unsinkable'

so of course, it must be. Big marketing campaign that killed thousands. Same day, different issues.

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. Since the dawn of the age of television, America has led the world in

developing advertising techniques to fit the medium. The lessons learned and skills gained from decades of hawking everything from dish soap to dinner plates is now being used by BushCo specifically to manipulate, influence, confuse and guide the American public. The trillions of dollars that corporations have spent in the twentieth century is absolute proof that these techniques work. Ironically, it might be the skills learned by corporations to sell adult diapers that ultimately flushes us all down the crapper!

[Nomen Tuum]

4. Religion can explain the kool-aid

Millions of people have been turned into Jesusbots by the Republican Party. They no longer think in the long term, they await their rapture in a week or 2.

All of my family are now Jesusbots. I try and talk to them, they will not listen. Nephews and nieces do not care about bettering themselves. I beg them to go to college, they tell me they see no reason to go to a 4 year school because Jesus will rapture them next week. Nothing I can do or say can get them to open their eyes. Jesus has completely blinded them.

[bperci108]

10. A slight correction....

"Jesus" has done nothing to them.

What has been perpetrated on them is a scam, run by cynical poseurs who claim the mantle of Christianity, but practice few, if any, of it's tenets. The "Rapture" is a doctrine created by western protestants in the mid 19th century and propagated by frontier religious yahooism and their decendant cults in the 20th century. :puke:

The "rapture" is as foreign to Christianity as Rev. Moon's doctrines. :crazy:

But don't try to tell any of the Fanatical Fundie Freaks and Christo-Fascist Zombie Brigade folks that...it's all just clicks and whistles to them.

There's not a critical thought or historical perspective to be found among the Fundy-gelical "faithful" (or Faith-LESS, as the case may be...)

:eyes:

[omega minimo]

5. How do you explain compulsively overstating the obvious?

:thumbsdown:

[Faygo Kid]

6. The Kool-Aid drinkers will always be with us: FReepers on the ports

Everyone - and I mean everyone, even them - knows that if Bill Clinton or Al Gore posited turning running our ports over to UAE at this point in our history, Limbaugh and O'Reilly would be foaming at the mouth. (Hannity will support it unconditionally soon; Savage is nuts.) Yet, check out their poll and posts. If Godhead Bush says it, it is The Truth. Period. That's about 60% of those at Free Republic. Another 20% are ideological right wingers, but not necessarily BushBots, and the last 20% are a motley lot of assorted creationists, Lincoln haters and unidentifiable incoherents. Here is one for those of you FReepers of the 60%. Please, don't fall to your knees, make a burnt offering to this image and weep for joy all over your keyboard. Wait till the Mel Gibson movie comes out.

[bperci108]

12. I think a more apropos picture might be....

...Abe and George carring Duhbya high overhead, preparing to fling him onto the Great Dungheap Of History, where he properly belongs, along with Tricky Dick, Il Duce, Herr Schicklegruber, Jim Jones, Ferdinand Marcos, Generalissimo Francisco Franco (who is still dead...), Stalin, Duvalier, Pol Pot, etc....

The most worthless excuse for a president in US history.

The clothes truly have no Emperor.

:puke:

[Faygo Kid]

15. Couldn't agree more, beautiful post. The clothes have no emperor, indeed.

Or vice versa. Whatever.

[madokie]

7. Maybe jim jones and Guyana

the mass suicide's 900+ best I can remember. I think that is what the kool-aid is all about. the followers drank poison kool-aid.

[leftofthedial]

8. "heck," hell!

we're in hell

and you are right.

Since Watergate, the neocon-corporate right have taken control of virtually all mass media in this country. Many of the public have been systematically taught that their baser instincts are praiseworthy, that reason is untrustworthy, that dogma trumps truth.

through hate radio and the CIA-neocon takeover of the corporate media, they have been "untaught" how to think, with a barrage of faulty logic laced with just enough "truthiness" to sound reasonable (and to reinforce those baser instincts).

[TallahasseeGrannie]

9. The media serves of the Koolade

24/7. Without them no brainwashing. Just think of the minute-by-minute coverage of a briefcase blowing up on the tarmac. They keep the fear at a fever pitch. They have ever since 911, because fear induces us to watch...for our own safety, you know. Plus, it's interesting and if we watch long and hard enough we might get to see something actually happen.

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. The kool-aide is spiked

Since Cheney's hunting accident, we now have proof that these folks are drinking a little more then straight kool-aide.

Check out this pic of Katherine Harris and her friends, that I found on her official website.



I see at least one bottle of wine that's been polished off and two more open bottles. That's a fair bit of wine for a group that looks like they are just starting to eat lunch.

[Emit]

13. It's been in the making a good long time

This is rough, mind you, and likely will not be all inclusive, but in a nutshell, IMHO:

Some of these diehard Bushbots have been waiting for the return of this brand of conservatism (Not to be confused with traditional conservatism, of course). I think many are 'prolifers' who were waiting for 'their guy' to get in there and screw with choice issues. They've put up with so much from Bush & Co. because it's all been as a means to their end -- the hopes of turning over Roe v Wade. They knew the time was ripe for this, given the upcoming chances for SCOTUS nominations, etc.

Many of these prolifers are also end time believers, who have been brainwashed to support Bush & Co. for all the varied reasons that are associated with their self-fulfilling biblical prophesy. This group might also include dominionists and reconstructionists, who believe that a Christian-based country/government will rid the evil from our society (among other things, such as creating a Christian society for Christ's return, etc.).

Some are still pissed at the Vietnam antiwar movement. Here's a quote from Rise of the Vulcans, a book that often discusses the history of persons in this administration in relation to their views on foreign policy, military might, etc. (ie., detente v strong military stance, build up and such):

In both symbolic and tangible ways, Ronald Reagan moved quickly to restore morale in the armed forces, attempting to overcome the legacy of Vietnam.

The previous year a retired army sergeant named Roy Benavidez had been belatedly awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery in saving eight members of the Special Forces in Vietnam. ... During his final months in office, President Carter had been asked by the Pentagon to award Benavidez his medal, but he delayed and finally left office without doing so. On February 24, 1981, Reagan presided over an elaborate White House ceremony for Benavidez, read the Medal of Honor citation himself and added some pointed words whose meaning could not be missed. "It is time to show our pride" for those who fought in Vietnam, reagan declared. "...They came home without a victory not because they were defeated, but because they were denied a chance to win." ... The Army officer who quietly orchestrated this even was Brigadier General Colin Powell. At the beginning of the new administration Powell was serving as a military aide to his third consecutive deputy secretary of defense, Frank Carlucci. President Carter's failure to hold a ceremony for Benavidez "epitomized fir ne ab insensitivity to the military during tis time," Powell later wrote. p. 117

Lastly, you have folks who are more in the camp of a strict authoritarian view of the world as opposed to an authoritative approach. These definitions were applied by George Lakoff in two of his books that discuss the differences between liberals and conservatives (MORAL POLITICS: HOW LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES THINK and DON’T THINK OF AN ELEPHANT! WHAT EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT VALUES AND THE FRAMING WARS.) Here's an excerpt from a discussion with Lakoff:

Back up for a second and explain what you mean by the strict father and nurturant parent frameworks.

Well, the progressive worldview is modeled on a nurturant parent family (authoritative). Briefly, it assumes that the world is basically good and can be made better and that one must work toward that. Children are born good; parents can make them better. Nurturing involves empathy, and the responsibility to take care of oneself and others for whom we are responsible. On a larger scale, specific policies follow, such as governmental protection in form of a social safety net and government regulation, universal education (to ensure competence, fairness), civil liberties and equal treatment (fairness and freedom), accountability (derived from trust), public service (from responsibility), open government (from open communication), and the promotion of an economy that benefits all and functions to promote these values, which are traditional progressive values in American politics.

The conservative worldview, (authoritarian --Emit) the strict father model, assumes that the world is dangerous and difficult and that children are born bad and must be made good. The strict father is the moral authority who supports and defends the family, tells his wife what to do, and teaches his kids right from wrong. The only way to do that is through painful discipline — physical punishment that by adulthood will become internal discipline. The good people are the disciplined people. Once grown, the self-reliant, disciplined children are on their own. Those children who remain dependent (who were spoiled, overly willful, or recalcitrant) should be forced to undergo further discipline or be cut free with no support to face the discipline of the outside world.

So, project this onto the nation and you see that to the right wing, the good citizens are the disciplined ones — those who have already become wealthy or at least self-reliant — and those who are on the way. Social programs, meanwhile, "spoil" people by giving them things they haven't earned and keeping them dependent. The government is there only to protect the nation, maintain order, administer justice (punishment), and to provide for the promotion and orderly conduct of business. In this way, disciplined people become self-reliant. Wealth is a measure of discipline. Taxes beyond the minimum needed for such government take away from the good, disciplined people rewards that they have earned and spend it on those who have not earned it.

edited to add link: Lakoff: http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:_Gz9p_mFF1oJ:www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml+authoritarian+authoritative+Lakoff+politics&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2

[Dr Ron]

14. Rationals make it easier for them

Want to pay less taxes? They come up with economic theories to say that cutting taxes brings in more money.

Deficits? If Democrats are in, they say deficts are bad. If Repubicans are in power, deficits don't matter.

We've seen all their theories on the war. Pre-war: We'll be greated as liberators. We are threatened by WMD. Now: There was WMD but Saddam hid it in Syria. Only a handful of insurgents are behind all the violence--the rest of them love us.

Health care? The falsely claim confuse Democratic ideas with "socialist medicine" or claim Democrats have no ideas. Then they claim that schemes like high deducible plans with health savings accounts are solutions, when they actually worsen the problem.

Then there is the way they regularly misstate what liberals believe. They claim Republicans are the defenders of capitalism while liberals are a bunch of socialists. Never mind that Republican crony capitalism is the real threat to capitalism.