Bob Butler wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 8:10 pm
JDav wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 6:19 pmBob, I always try to read what you write with an open mind, even though I don't understand a lot of it. I appreciate that we can at least disagree without name-calling and insults.
Appreciated and agreed. I assume those that resort to name calling and insults can’t respond with logic and fact. If they could, they would. I sort of smugly smile when I see someone throwing around insults as is see it as admitting he has lost the intellectual debate.
JDav wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 6:19 pmI don't have time to respond in full, and probably won't for at least a week, but I think it would be constructive to learn more about each other - where we come from, where we get our news, etc., because clearly our belief systems are different, our sources are different, just about everything about us is different. Most of my family and friends from all over the US see things more or less as I do, though I do have some 1%-er family and friends in the Northeast (I grew up in the DC area) who believe as you do. If you are open-minded enough, and willing to explore other viewpoints, when I return I challenge you to a sharing of new stories that shape your worldview - I will read yours, you read mine, and we can question each other (not debate or ridicule) about the content, its veracity, and its implicit biases. To start with, I grew up near DC, live in rural North Carolina, and my main news sources are Breitbart, ZeroHedge, The Gateway Pundit (though they tend to be snarky and I often seek confirmation of what they report), and occasionally NPR. And, of course, postings from this site. I do own a business so I really don't have a whole lot of time to spend on much else.
I am a retired software engineer who has lived and worked between Boston and Cape Cod. Retired implies I have time enough. Working on various defense communications jobs, I visited such places as Atlanta, Baltimore, Vandenberg, Silicon Valley, Colorado Springs and Montana, places where defense contractors and/or nukes congregate. Thus, I have encountered a little of other areas and perspectives.
The oddity in my career is that I worked projects associated with all three elements of the strategic nuclear triad. With it came a drive to understand the old Soviet Union, and that I was working on a necessary and proper thing. People here talk about violence and nukes. In an abstract technical way, I lived it. I helped create the tools that made Armageddon possible.
In my philosophy and role playing hobbies I attempted to explore alien mind sets, playing characters who thought little like most people yet ways that made sense in an unusual way. The Russian mindset was the first of many. My favorite character saw the world through the lens of many worlds quantum physics. She was quite insane by most standards, a cockeyed optimist with perpetual amnesia, yet I sill think that she came to see the world in the correct way. Coda resulted in my going to a real world parapsychology conference. There may really be a small chance of viewing the most emotional possible alternate future.
Chasing weird perspectives is what I do. You never know where thinking alien will take you. John has collected a bunch of folk that from my perspective think alien. The Republican Rural Religious mind set is just another alien way of perceiving things. I’m doing my best so figure it out.
My news media are mostly main stream. Of late this has mostly been MSNBC. This includes their coverage of the January 6 committee, yielding a mostly pure, uncut and unedited live feed. No lack of interpretation afterwards.
I have little to no experience with the news sources you mentioned, with the exception of NPR and this site. I just have the feeling that if you have not followed much of the January 6 Committee, your view of the issues the deal with would be very uninformed.
Trump did list several of the conspiracy theories. Attorney General Barr and an FBI investigator who had chased them down were able to firmly refute them. Trump chose to ignore the input, to continue the Big Lie after being told there was no evidence for systematic voting fraud large enough to switch a precinct, let alone the nation. The January 6 committee has sworn testimony of several folks who were in the room. Shortly after the conversation, Barr resigned.
Currently I am wondering how many conservatives are still following the Big Lie and why. People who answer with insults and name calling don’t count. I wistfully dream that most Republicans are not like that. People who do not watch media that covers the January 6 committee are just ignorant. Is it possible to know that Trump is being willfully ignorant and still sincerely believe the Big Lie?
FullMoon is correct that no one needs to respond. Most aren’t. But I really do want to know from the understanding alien minds perspective what people believe. So far, the bias is towards insults and name calling.