04-22-2020, 04:38 PM
(04-22-2020, 10:55 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(04-21-2020, 06:53 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: They are parochial and provincial in their outlook, which perhaps results partly from being involved in those activities; but I suspect that's not the reason, because therefore blues hunkered down in cubicles are just as involved in their activities.
No; insular, parochial and provincial red attitudes result from their restricted views of the world, being stuck in set ways of regressive thinking, inherited and enforced by your parents and/or local community. Blues are aware of the larger world, and thus see the bigger picture, are less authoritarian and more willing to question and see new conditions, and thus are also far less xenophobic than you Trump supporters are, by a long shot. Living on the coasts and near the waters and more urban means we blues are exposed to more kinds of people and ideas than you reds. And of course, more exposed to this virus problem too, although it's everywhere.
Seeing the big picture as we do, we are able to see the virtue of sacrificing for the greater good of society, while conservatives are less able to see this. By and large though, some conservatives are seeing this now too.
Not only am I indeed not the type who could do those things to animals, I am not the type who would. Thus I would not even take the time to learn. My opinion is, let the poor creatures alone and let them live. They can take care of themselves if we leave them alone. Nature now is to be preserved, not exploited.
I would suggest the red are closer to nature, the blue more civilized. They represent different places in man’s cultural evolution. The red are not the beginning, are well civilized. The blue have not reached the end point, are moving on continuously. If both could leave each other alone and not see one as superior to the other, we might be better off. Unfortunately the federal government likes one size to fit all, and the two wind up bumping heads.
That depends on how you see Nature, these days. It is not just that the reds are closer to Nature and the blues are more civilized. It's more that the reds live in areas that live off the land through exploiting Nature; while blues are the hikers and adventurers who love Nature, but mostly just visit it and don't live off of it. Reds don't give a flying fuck for the most part about pollution and climate change. Although they depend more on Nature, they are less concerned with preserving it and only care about their property rights.
Blues are largely superior to reds. The latter are at a lower level of evolution, because they have restricted viewpoints on things based on what their family and small community believe: traditional religion, and favoring self-reliance, at least in their minds, rather than "dependence" or being supported and helped by government. Reverence for family, "God" and "country," including support for war and the military. Content with traditional limited pursuits in life, and much inclined to favor and restrict themselves to their own kind rather than willing to associate more-often with, or at least tolerate, people different from themselves. Reds look down on education as elitist or leftist brainwashing, and are not curious about the world. Reds generally don't like hippies and other alternative cultures and lifestyles, even though hippies often like to escape to communes in the country, and even though nowadays it is the reds who most abuse drugs (the opiate crisis).
And of course, where you Bob sympathize, reds are hung up on their guns, and think their "liberty" depends on being armed. That's partly because some rural folks do still depend on hunting and ranching for their livelihood and want to keep the wolves and such off their property, as well as not having police as handy to lower the crime rate. There's also violent "honor traditions" in Dixie, and hotter tempers. And some reds join militias because they don't trust the government to keep the level of order they want, and to oppose gun control, and some dream of civil war or race war and overthrowing or resisting the government.
But this way of life is shrinking, and those who pursue it in red states and counties are tending to get left behind. They are resentful of this, but thanks to gerrymandering, the senate and the electoral college they have power in the USA out of proportion to their numbers.
We still need some rural people, of course, and people who work the land and its flora and fauna. And living in the country appeals to people on both sides. Some reds even prefer city life. The question is how much of the rather-recent extreme ideology that is now dominant in the red states and counties of the USA needs to continue. I say, very little of it.