(08-28-2018, 10:19 AM)David Horn Wrote:(08-27-2018, 12:14 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(08-27-2018, 10:49 AM)David Horn Wrote:(08-26-2018, 04:33 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: Where the population density is lower, problems seem less. When people live further apart, they place their own problem solving above distant communities. I know I just said why I am generally with the progressives and why, but the conservatives have good reason sometimes for what they hold true. Sometime the great issues are not in play. Sometimes it is just inertia that determines approach, or the mythical common sense. One should at least listen.
I live in a very Red area, and the rules of political discourse are firm and inviable: Red viewpoints can and should be stated loudly and proudly; contrary viewpoints are fighting words. It makes political discourse impossible. Since I live in a pseudo-enclave around a recreational lake, there are people from outside the area living here as well. If they come from the north, or even northern Virginia, they experience some degree of culture shock pretty quickly -- even if they consider themselves to be conservatives. It's less politics than culture, and culture doesn't change easily.
More culture than politics is bad, but because the problem exists for many red does not justify it for the blue.
There is a point where everyone feels put-upon. The Red culture seems to have reached this point decades ago -- if not longer. Religion certainly plays a part, but patriarchy is just as important. There is a reverence for the Red Elites (for lack of a better description), and a rock-rib belief in the sanctity of work (unless you belong to the elite class, of course). Hence, a man who works two or three jobs, is never home and often dies young is honored, but working smart is considered sloth. This is one of the bugaboos Red culture has against Blue culture: they're "lazy". Add atheism (assumed) and communism (they want hand-outs instead of work) and you have a belief system that can't be breached.
I just don't see that kind of bullheaded nonsense in the Blue world. Are many Blues misguided? Of course, but not to the point of taking up arms: an integral part of Red world if you are allowed to see it. Since Trump, it's openly on display.
The man who is working three jobs is hurting his children who will miss his influence. Working smart is wise, and good for personal well-being. It is to be done if at all possible, as such allows one to work one job and be adequately rewarded. That's why we have colleges, trade schools, and formal apprenticeships. Raw labor has always been ill-rewarded and treated callously in every society that has ever existed, which may even explain why people become capitalists.
Machines can work dumb, and they are taking away the unskilled and semi-skilled industrial and labor jobs.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.