Edit: There’s a lot of people in the comment section who clearly didn’t read the article so let me clarify that no, this is not about Judge Aileen Cannon. Read. The. Damn. Article.
Edit: There’s a lot of people in the comment section who clearly didn’t read the article so let me clarify that no, this is not about Judge Aileen Cannon. Read. The. Damn. Article.
MAGAs are being swindled and don’t know it.
If you tell them they are being swindled, with proof, they won’t believe it and take it out on you instead for suggesting it.
They’d rather be ignorant than be proven wrong. This is also why phone/computer scammers keep going after the same people. The victims never want to believe they were duped until it’s too late.
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan
I love that quote. We need more Sagan’s and fewer Rogans.
Humanity has been victim to that for thousands of years in the form of world religions
I believe this is from Carl Sagan’s book The Demon Haunted World. A fantastic read, and one I recommend to anyone who will listen.
Til: to bamboozle is a real verb
“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”
― Mark Twain
“The entrenchment of a person’s belief is directly proportional to how wrong it is.”
– Me
See, this doesn’t work as a truism because the "wrongness” or immorality is typically just a common coincidence taken advantage of by conmen (like Trump and other demagogues).
It would be more accurate to say, “The enrichment of a person’s belief is often directly proportional to how self-serving it is.”
Christianity provides a good example of this: believe in Jesus, and all of one’s sins are forgiven, basically writing a person a blank check to be a monster for their whole life, knowing that they’ll be forgiven when they die because “Jesus will forgive me.”
This is what my mother believes and why my entire family refuses to ever speak to her again.
My sympathies to you and your family … I have a handful of people like that in my family but not to that extreme … they half heartedly believe in a bunch of evangelical bullshit but then aren’t smart enough or fundamental enough to debate anyone about it.
I’m Indigenous Canadian and I grew up with a traditional land based mindset … my parents were Catholic but our belief system is heavily influenced by our old traditional ideas about the land, animals, and life in general. We didn’t need a book, a preacher or a big giant expensive church with men in dresses to tell us that we need to be good to people, definitely don’t kill anyone for any reason, treat everyone with kindness, don’t destroy the environment and every bad thing you do will eventually come back to haunt you or your descendants. We aren’t perfect either … but at least we don’t loudly proclaim how wrong we are.
Amazing that people think being forgiven of sins is a free pass to make more sins, when the reality is, being forgiven requires that you make your best effort to do good and not sin again on purpose.
People that sin on purpose because they assume to be forgiven… well, they won’t.
Is that explicitly stated in the Bible someplace? Because I don’t think it is. The part about Jesus always forgiving no matter what, however, is. It’s also widely taught.
It is true that the forgiveness covers it all, but, if you claim to be a follower of God (and by extent, Jesus), you must behave to his standards to continue to be forgiven. Standards such as “return evil for evil to no one”, “love (kindness) your enemy and those persecuting you” (with examples of treating your enemies with deceny and respect as you would and should your neighbor), and so on. Include “he who lives by the sword shall perish by it” as a warning to those that feel the need to be fighters, vigilantes, and so on. Replace sword with gun for a more modern interpretation.
Or… not do that and just ask Jesus for forgiveness, who always forgives. Abrakadaba! Sins begone!
See, it’s just a loophole so Xians have a free pass to be monsters with the belief that they still get into heaven when they die.
Your mistake is attempting to apply logic to a belief system based on myth, magic, and nonsense.
Those kinds of “once saved always saved, so I can do anything I want” people will most certainly not get a heaven ending. They are on the way to the Destruction ending.
Removed by mod
That’s a phenomenal quote
Mark Twain was a phenomenal American. Everyone should read his books and writings.
I have my complaints about America but there are great things about the country … and Mark Twain is one of them.
I have read a couple. It was many years ago. But I do remember a few gems.
They’re not being conned, they’re in on the con. Notice how there is nothing consistently rational about the messaging. The issues they’re concerned about and what they say they want done about them all change daily. But they all point in one direction.
They’ve identified themselves as the in-group, they’ve identified the out-groups, and they want to stomp all over those out-groups and take everything they’ve got. Their money, their dignity, their lives. Whatever proves that they’re on top.
Remember the second part of that LBJ quote:
They know the consequences and they’re willing to risk it. Calling them idiots does not prepare us to deal with the situation in which we find ourselves now.
Absolutely this. Trump doesn’t need a coherent message. He’s whipped people into a frenzy with the help of a media empire designed to do exactly that, and no matter what he says or does his voters stick with him because no matter what else he does while in office he’ll let them hurt the people he’s made them afraid of. It doesn’t matter what he wants to do, they know that if he gets elected they’ll get to do what they want to do, which is establish a state that kills anyone who makes them uncomfortable. They’re not stupid. No one involved in this is stupid. They’re evil and they need to be stopped if we hope to survive.
Sunk cost fallacy is real and MAGA is all in on their shitty investment of tearing the system down, repressive policies and generalized white & hetero supremacy
And Putin and Xi laugh all thr way to the bank. Well maybe not putin he’s a little busy