Quote:
Originally Posted by Martina
I grew up with Evangelical aunts and cousins, but fortunately not parents. I grew up in small town Ohio, so not a coastal elite. And I STILL find it hard to understand how people can accept these beliefs, versions of Christian nationalism. I don't understand how people who believe in demons were able to look at Donald Rumsfeld and not see Beelzebub. I don't get it.
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It really is about obedience and conformity. We were literally brainwashed as children, exposed to so much horrifying rhetoric, that there is a visceral repulsion that rises up when one of us is put in a position where we might find ourselves at odds with the way we were raised.
It is not rational. And people who are outside of it tend to dismiss it or roll their eyes because it seems so babyish. Outsiders think critical thinking or common sense should be self-evident to us, but there are literal blind spots built into our brains from birth.
There are things which are placed beyond question, and this process is largely concluded before we even start school. We have no idea those blind spots exist and we have no way to see them working when they are active.
Facts and logic aren't going to help, because loyalty is stronger.
Converting these people cannot be our goal, but it would behoove us to do outreach and show them that the government we want is not a threat to them. When we roll our eyes at their ignorance or dismiss them as a vote we can afford to lose, we support the rhetoric-- rhetoric that is pouring into their ears 24/7 and blasted from the pulpit every Sunday-- that says we are coming to destroy them.
We ignore most of this rhetoric, because it is ridiculous. When we're not ignoring it, we try to argue from their terms, quoting scriptures that should clearly contradict that rhetoric. Neither of these tactics are ever going to work.
What we need to do is create a viable substitute rhetoric. Democrats need to show that the government we will build includes a respected position-- and a valuable and valued role-- for faith communities, and we need to build a productive channel for their energy. It may not be anything they will ever support, but it can be something they needn't
fear.
When they hear from the Pastor that we want to destroy them, and then hear from us that we want their help, the result we are after is not to change their vote, but to
suppress it through paralyzing cognitive dissonance. We need to continually be dumping sand on the fires their leaders are trying to feed.
Yes, i said voter suppression. The method of voter suppression i outlined above seems ethically fine to me. Maybe I'm wrong.