Phil Landmeier @shuttersparks@qoto.org

@feverspell He berates certain groups (immigrants, foreigners, POC, gays, liberals...) and that makes his base feel good about themselves. If you make people feel good, you will succeed as a politician. Truth and results have nothing to do with it.

As I mentioned in another post today, as Lyndon Johnson put it: "Give a man someone to look down on and he'll empty his pockets for you." He'll love and follow you forever. That's what Trump does, constantly.

@feverspell Yes, it's a great insight into human mass-psychology. Roughly half the human population cannot be relied upon to act rationally. However, they can be relied upon by people like Joseph Goebbels and Edward Bernays.

@TruthSandwich @freemo @wdlindsy Same here, although at my age I no longer hesitate to question the usage. I know how easily these things can become deeply engrained unthinking habit. There's one I've had since I was a teen that STILL comes to mind and I have to catch it. It really pisses me off. I won't repeat it here.

Some of them originated in the elementary school / junior high crowd, such as "that's gay" as a negative expression. Fortunately, that one seems to have disappeared from language over the years.

@freemo I was making a little joke.

@freemo I made a different guess, for the halibut.

@TruthSandwich @freemo @wdlindsy Yep. You and I both grew up at a time where, even in a place like Los Angeles, bigotry and racism were not rare. Language was different. One heard the "N word" and other expressions and it wasn't frowned upon like it is today. I heard all the different stories about how this and that cultural or racial group was a certain way.

The problem for me was that my personal experience with all these groups didn't agree with and often contradicted the stories. I kept an open mind because a lot of these people who expressed bigotry were often very smart.

I'm the sort that needs for everything I know to make sense and hang together in my brain. My open-mindedness ended when I was about 19 years old, when I had learned enough about human nature to understand how this nonsense could exist. How could an obviously smart guy like Nobel Prize winning William Shockley spend the rest of his life and eventually destroy his reputation attempting to prove that whites were superior to blacks? Well, humans have some pretty big flaws. Not all people are as self-critical and willing to admit mistakes as I am.

@TruthSandwich @freemo @wdlindsy Exactly. I was going to point out my own process of growing up that mirrors this.

@freemo @TruthSandwich @wdlindsy Hah! I saw that quote the other day. Yeah.

@TruthSandwich @freemo @wdlindsy Yes. The solution is education and exposure from an early age to diversity.

@wdlindsy @freemo @TruthSandwich Yes, race isn't actually a thing. It's not even a category in science.

My point goes beyond race. You can use any aspect of humans to rile up a crowd. It can be race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, whatever. You can use anything you like to divide people and it's a really strong reaction that often lasts for generations. For example, here in West Virginia, the old hatreds between Irish and Italians still runs strong in certain families. It's a hot button that creates instant "hot under the collar" anger that can flash to violence in an instant. The whole thing is silly to me but not to those who were raised that way.

@wdlindsy @freemo @TruthSandwich "and the alacrity with which people in very many places swallow white supremacist ideas" -- Here in the West, the focus these days is on white supremacy. But I think this is a general "feature" of humans that can be exploited by bad actors and has been for thousands of years.

This has been said many times by various smart people. I like Lyndon Johnson's version: "Give a man someone to look down on and he'll empty his pockets for you."

It's one of the easiest ways to rile up a crowd and get them to love and follow you: give them someone to look down on.

@wdlindsy Born into a wealthy white family in apartheid South Africa, no one should be surprised at this.

@BillySmith @Urban_Hermit @Computeforloot @RobertDaleParker They probably haven't. There's something "meta" about banning a book that's about burning books. o.O

@knittingknots2 Lawn darts were not protected by the Constitution. Until we amend the Constitution, this insane circus will continue.