The Social Regressive
03/15/07 12:08
A good friend of mine forwarded one of those
hate-mongering e-mails to me today. She included me
in a large list of recipients just to spin me up, and
of course it worked. It was one of those idiot
feel-good-because-you're-a-Christian,
but-keep-hating-on-the-Muslims pieces that make me
want to scream. I had to resist a strong temptation
to go crazy on it, picking out all the lies and
distortions, and then hitting Reply To
All, but one of my motivations in starting
this blog was to stop doing rude things like forcing
my opinions on others, so I just replied to my friend
only, pointing out a few discrepancies in the e-mail.
Those things aren't really much of a challenge
anyway.
It did get me to thinking about the people these little electronic hate campaigns are aimed at, though. These are the people about whom the phrase "ignorance is bliss" was coined. They are essentially people who never developed critical thinking skills and therefore rely on various authority figures to make all their decisions for them. They are dubya's base, the 30% of Amurka that believe every word that comes from between his smirking lips. NotYourMama over at Coyote Angry calls them Social Regressives and since I find the term very descriptive, I have stolen it.
So, how does one get to be a Social Regressive? I think it starts with religion because, let's face it, that's where most people first learn the concept of unquestioning belief. The idea that one should make a conscious decision to believe in the existence of something for which there is no visible supporting evidence of it's existence, while purposely turning away from abundant evidence contradictory to that existence. It is an intentional turning off of the mind, a cessation of rational thought. For most believers this lack of rationality only exists in the area of religion, in all other aspects of life their mind functions pretty much the same as that of non-believers. This is not so for the Social Regressive. Whether due to laziness or a lack of education or simple genetics, they exhibit the same close-mindedness toward all things social and political. This is what allows them to be led by the right-wing noise machine to vote against their own interests and to believe things that are patently false.
Some characteristics of Social Regressives:
They believe America was founded as a Christian nation (despite the lack of mention in the constitution) and god has somehow been removed from our government and our schools and must be returned there. In short they believe in a non-existent past. They see the separation of church and state as persecution of Christians.
They believe dubya's War on Terra is an existential battle pitting good and decent and righteous Christianity against evil Islam, and they therefore have nothing but hatred for those who seek peaceful solutions. They believe what we are doing in Iraq is making the world a better place, and they believe liberals want to surrender to the terrorists and let al-Qaida win.
They believe the bible is the undisputed word of god, but most of them really haven't read it.
They don't read books or newspapers either. It's this lack of intellectual curiosity that I find unforgivable and un-redeemable in both Social Regressives and our preznit. He validates their beliefs because they they see a part of themselves in him, they just don't realize that it's the part that is dumb as dirt and overly proud.
It did get me to thinking about the people these little electronic hate campaigns are aimed at, though. These are the people about whom the phrase "ignorance is bliss" was coined. They are essentially people who never developed critical thinking skills and therefore rely on various authority figures to make all their decisions for them. They are dubya's base, the 30% of Amurka that believe every word that comes from between his smirking lips. NotYourMama over at Coyote Angry calls them Social Regressives and since I find the term very descriptive, I have stolen it.
So, how does one get to be a Social Regressive? I think it starts with religion because, let's face it, that's where most people first learn the concept of unquestioning belief. The idea that one should make a conscious decision to believe in the existence of something for which there is no visible supporting evidence of it's existence, while purposely turning away from abundant evidence contradictory to that existence. It is an intentional turning off of the mind, a cessation of rational thought. For most believers this lack of rationality only exists in the area of religion, in all other aspects of life their mind functions pretty much the same as that of non-believers. This is not so for the Social Regressive. Whether due to laziness or a lack of education or simple genetics, they exhibit the same close-mindedness toward all things social and political. This is what allows them to be led by the right-wing noise machine to vote against their own interests and to believe things that are patently false.
Some characteristics of Social Regressives:
They believe America was founded as a Christian nation (despite the lack of mention in the constitution) and god has somehow been removed from our government and our schools and must be returned there. In short they believe in a non-existent past. They see the separation of church and state as persecution of Christians.
They believe dubya's War on Terra is an existential battle pitting good and decent and righteous Christianity against evil Islam, and they therefore have nothing but hatred for those who seek peaceful solutions. They believe what we are doing in Iraq is making the world a better place, and they believe liberals want to surrender to the terrorists and let al-Qaida win.
They believe the bible is the undisputed word of god, but most of them really haven't read it.
They don't read books or newspapers either. It's this lack of intellectual curiosity that I find unforgivable and un-redeemable in both Social Regressives and our preznit. He validates their beliefs because they they see a part of themselves in him, they just don't realize that it's the part that is dumb as dirt and overly proud.
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