Disagree About Iraq? You're Not Just Wrong -- You're Evil

[Undertoad]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...031101439.html

What is interesting about the clash from a psychological perspective is not that supporters and critics disagree, but that large numbers of people on both sides claim to know the motives of people who disagree with them. When was the last time you heard people say that those who disagree with them on the Iraq war are well-meaning, smart, informed and thoughtful?

A wide body of psychological research shows that on any number of hot-button issues, people seem hard-wired to believe the worst about those who disagree with them. Most people can see the humor in such behavior when it doesn't involve things they care about: If you don't care about sports, for example, you roll your eyes when fans of one team question the principles and parentage of fans of a rival team.

"We are really bad about putting ourselves in other people's places and looking at the world the way they look at it," said Glenn D. Reeder, a social psychologist at Illinois State University who recently conducted a study into how supporters and critics of the Iraq war have come to believe entirely different narratives about the war -- and about each other. "We find it difficult to grant that other people come to their conclusions in good faith if they reach a conclusion that is different than ours," he said.

"People" are idiots.
If you choose not to reason, you are an animal.

[tw]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

"People" are idiots.
If you choose not to reason, you are an animal.

Exactly what happens when extremists create so much animosity that it becomes difficult for the intelligent people to remain as moderates. That is what has happened in Israel to destroy the Oslo Accords. That is what happened when American extremists germander election districts so that only extremists can get elected. That is what happened when Hitler disparaged the bourgeois and intelligencia to obtain power. That is what Karl Rove has been so good at to make the lesser intelligent Americans even promote lies characterized by phrases such as "Freedom Fries".

Those with intelligence should have seen the expression "We are where we are" means - that we must destroy ourselves because that is what we are doing. And yet America is now become so dominated by extremist rhetoric (Limbaugh lies and some foolishly think Fox News is news) that ... well how many knew about soldiers lying in their own urine in Walter Reed ... known this almost a month ago. That too is no longer important. More important is the political agenda attached to that fact. So instead we deny it or blame it on the Army.

As if those enlisted men brought those dog collars with them to Abu Ghriad.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

"People" are idiots.
If you choose not to reason, you are an animal.

You assume that two people reasoning will come to the same conclusion. Not so. When reasoning, you take all the facts you can get, then apply reason and prejudice to come to a conclusion

Prejudice?.. that's not reasoning!

Sure is, reasoning means putting the facts together, but your experience, background and opinion, that's prejudice, causes you to weigh the facts differently.
While its true some facts are more important, and giving them all the same importance is wrong, just how you weigh them, rank them, depends on prejudice.

[elSicomoro]

Anyone who supports the war in Iraq is simply a Goddamned pedophile...God told me so.

*ahem*...

[xoxoxoBruce]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

You assume that two people reasoning will come to the same conclusion. Not so. When reasoning, you take all the facts you can get, then apply reason and prejudice to come to a conclusion

Prejudice?.. that's not reasoning!

Sure is, reasoning means putting the facts together, but your experience, background and opinion, that's prejudice, causes you to weigh the facts differently.
While its true some facts are more important, and giving them all the same importance is wrong, just how you weigh them, rank them, depends on prejudice.

How did you come to the conclusion that I made that assumption?
That is a cool crystal ball ya' got there!

[KGZotU]

Originally Posted by sycamore

Anyone who supports the war in Iraq is simply a Goddamned pedophile...God told me so.

*ahem*...

Yeah?!? Well God told me that anyone who opposes the war in Iraq is a Goddamned pedophile!

Pederast.

Actually, I'm not for or against the war. I just find those against the war so much more abrasive than those for it, so I usually take the other side.

XOXO,
Joe

Edit: Properly, I should say that I am much more abraded by those against the war than those for it.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by KGZotU

I just find those against the war so much more abrasive than those for it

Perhaps it's because they are the ones who are not getting their way. So they have more to complain about.

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by glatt

Perhaps it's because they are the ones who are not getting their way. So they have more to complain about.

And perhaps their way makes a hell of a lot more sense.

[KGZotU]

Originally Posted by glatt

Perhaps it's because they are the ones who are not getting their way. So they have more to complain about.

I think that's a good part of it. There might be a lot of idiots out there who support the war, but for the most part the people that I see supporting it are old, calm, and rational. I'm exposed to many more idiots that oppose the war than those that support it.

I oppose passion and sicken at politics. In the current state, war opposers appear to instigate both. No judgment there, I'm not saying they shouldn't.

Shawnee: Supposing either side has the truth behind them, I think very few people manage to make sense.

--Joe

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by KGZotU

I oppose passion and sicken at politics. In the current state, war opposers appear to instigate both.

Um, yay for dispassionately killing Iraqis?

No way to say that the war isn't political, though.

[KGZotU]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Um, yay for dispassionately killing Iraqis?

No way to say that the war isn't political, though.

Sure there is, I meant politics in a different sense. I think my view on national politics is pretty well summed with something I heard on the radio that went like this:

Politics is a race. Now, there's no rule against having a good, moral, and just candidate in office. In the competition to get votes, however, a soul is dead weight and a candidate that carries one simply can not win.

I should have said that I sicken at 'politicking'. When Republicans are in power, Democrats play dirty. When Democrats are in power, Republicans play dirty. Whether or not either side is right, they're both playing dirty and that's what I sicken at. Because the Republicans have the inertia, Democrats just have to play it more openly.

And, just to say it again, I don't support the war. . .or oppose it.

--Joe

[Happy Monkey]

Ah, yes. All those Democratic dirty tricks over the last decade.

[elSicomoro]

Well, it's not like the Dems really have a great track record overall though.