Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

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Bob Butler
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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Post by Bob Butler »

Well, I did not invent the phrase ’tribal thinking’. Joseph Henrich can be blamed, a professional psychiatrist and author of The Weirdest People in the World. It was derived experimentally. If you disagree with the concept, read the book and we can converse about the true nature of xenophobia. Read the processionals? If you are going to present yourself as an expert on xenophobia, you might as well become familiar with recent thoughts on the subject?

Neanderthal thinking? Biden used the phrase recently. I don’t know if it was anything but a throwaway line at the Republican habit of taking no precautions against the virus. MSNBC asks why adopt habits which would kill you just as the COVID finish line is becoming visible? It seems a very poor choice to me too, though I suspect using the phrase is somewhat unfair to the Neanderthals. The best MSNBC can come up with is that Texas and Mississippi governments did such a lousy job at preparing for cold weather that the governors needed to change the subject. Sure, there are enough people in those states to be expendable. What are a few deaths as weighed against the governor’s own personal power?

So far as I know off hand, the neanderthals were pretty ignorant of germ theory. Republicans have no such excuse. But I would agree this is one of the dumber aspects of the Republican subculture. To date I have not worried too much about the anti vaccine thing. If some people don’t want the vaccine, the sooner I will bubble to the top of the vaccine list. Eventually, though, it will become a critical factor in fighting the bug. It would be a mild pain if Trump’s bad decisions had a lingering effect on ending the problem. Bad enough that he exasperated it.

But I have never used the phrase ‘neanderthal thinking’. Getting hyped about the phrase seems not worth it.

But I don’t hate your list of people. That would be tribal thinking. You build up xenophobia about groups you dislike and oppress them. I’d rather look at lists of problems a culture has and solve them. Somewhat different.
Last edited by Bob Butler on Thu Mar 04, 2021 1:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

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I have been predicting for some time that the conservative values will collapse. This comes from turning theory. In the past, loyalty to the king, slavery, no regulation of the economy, and isolationism were popular if conservative ideas. After the crisis, they were obsolete. The old values were replaced by the new values that solved the crisis and became hallmarks of America. Democracy, freedom, regulation and the world’s policeman role became much more accepted. The culture would shift with the crisis and be enforced in the conformity of the high.

But how would this manifest this time around? Was it going to happen?

Recently, I tuned in the TV to catch up on one source of the news. Rachel Maddow opened up with a little unusual news. In January, for the first time, she had become the most tuned in cable TV program, eclipsing even the entertainment programs. Whee. Celebrate.

It happened again in February. MSNBC also for the first time became the most popular cable network.

Right. It is happening.

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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

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** 04-Mar-2021 World View: More Neanderthal thinking from the corrupt Stalinist Democrats
Bob Butler wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 12:25 pm
> Neanderthal thinking? Biden used the phrase recently. I don’t know
> if it was anything but a throwaway line at the Republican habit of
> taking no precautions against the virus. MSNBC asks why adopt
> habits which would kill you just as the COVID finish line is
> becoming visible? It seems a very poor choice to me too, though I
> suspect using the phrase is somewhat unfair to the Neanderthals.
I don't buy any of this crap. Biden is 78 years old. He grew up in a
KKK-Democrat community, with people still alive who remembered the
Civil War and were still absolutely infuriated that the Republican Abe
Lincoln had freed the slaves, and where it was common to refer to
blacks as "Neanderthals." In fact, I even vaguely remember a news
show from the 50s where that subject was discussed. I don't remember
who was speaking, but I assume they were KKK-Democrats. And of course
Biden was a great admirer of Robert Byrd who was a KKK-Democrat as a
Grand Kleagle or Grand Beagle or something like that, and Biden was
undoubtedly surrounded by lots of Grand Geegles.

So when the doddering Biden uses the phrase "Neanderthan thinking" to
describe the people of Texas, then it has a very special meaning to
him from his childhood. There are lots of words he could have used to
describe to describe the people of Texas. He could have accused them
of "Deplorable thinking," for example. But when he accused them of
"Neanderthal thinking," he must have been thinking of something more,
and I believe he was reacting to the fact that new reports this week
reveal that more blacks and Latinos are supporting Republicans, and
there are a lot of those in Texas.

And this occurred just after the Amazon component of the corrupt
Stalinist Democratic regime banned Clarence Thomas in a new "High-Tech
Lynching," which was totally ridiculous because it was during Black
History month.

If you want to know what's going on, just look at this picture:

Image
  • Clarence Thomas, his wife Virginia Thomas, and Anita Hill.


One look at that picture and you can see what's going on.

Black women are FURIOUS when a black man marries a white woman, since
that means that there's one less black man to marry, and it means to
black women that he considers white women to be superior to black
women. Just do an internet search, and you'll find plenty of stuff
online that discusses this.

And of course Democrats are still FURIOUS that Republicans freed the
slaves, and that Clarence Thomas is a black man that they can't
control. When Thomas accused the Democrats of a "High Tech Lynching,"
he was specifically alluding to black men who were falsely charged
with raping a white woman and then were lynched and hung from a tree:
> "This is not a closed room. There was an FBI
> investigation. This is not an opportunity to talk about difficult
> matters privately or in a closed environment. This is a
> circus. It's a national disgrace.

> And from my standpoint as a black American, as far as I'm
> concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any
> way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have
> different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an
> old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched,
> destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. -- U.S. Senate,
> rather than hung from a tree."
None of this is surprising. The vile things that Democrats said about
Tea Partiers during the Obama administration are now gathering steam
in the form of the corrupt Stalinist Democratic regime attacks not
only on Trump supporters, but also on blacks and Latinos. And that's
on the same path as the Nazis, as described in Hannah Arendt's book on
the history of Nazi Germany.

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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

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The local towns put up street lights. These do limit people’s freedom but save lives and make life more orderly. While I have spent my portion of time sitting at red light when not another care is visible, overall I think this is the thing to do. That is what government is for. Piling unexpectedly into an intersection, not winterizing your electrical grid or water and not taking precautions against COVID are just dumb. I know there is a big disagreement on where exactly the line ought to be on regulation. Perhaps the red and blue will never agree on that. Still, I am not at all impressed by the governors of Texas or Mississippi.

Now neanderthal could mean typically Republican, stupid, or black. My vote goes towards stupid. As I said on my last post, this is vaguely insulting to neanderthals.

I had not heard of the word neanderthal being used as a racial slur. I don’t doubt your memory. You are the expert on xenophobia after all. You would know all about racial slurs. Not my thing I just am not sure it applies well in this day and age. Calling two white governors by a racial slur normally directed at blacks would seem to rile the blacks. The for the most part blacks are with the Democrats and the science. How dare anyone accuse them of thinking as poorly as a Republican?

At any rate, I am not concerned with flame posts. Please move your two prior posts to the junk thread.

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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Post by John »

You're right. I can't find any support for the claim that
Neanderthal is a racial slur.

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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Post by Bob Butler »

FullMoon wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 7:33 pm
You and Bob both think we're in or near the worst time of the turning and it will get better. Myself and others are just less optimistic, seeing over a longer timeframe the trajectory and rate of decline pointing to something unimaginable. You call it doom and gloom. We call it realistic probability increasing at a rapid rate.
We just have a crisis government focused on solving the problems ignored in the unraveling: COVID, the economy, systematic racism, red violence and global warming. If you focus on real issues rather than imagine problems which don't exist, it is easy enough to see that the intended solutions may well work.

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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Post by John »

** 06-Mar-2021 World View: Crises
Bob Butler wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 8:25 pm
> We just have a crisis government focused on solving the problems
> ignored in the unraveling: COVID, the economy, systematic racism,
> red violence and global warming. If you focus on real issues
> rather than imagine problems which don't exist, it is easy enough
> to see that the intended solutions may well work.

Or antifa-blm violence, or systematic hatred of Trump supporters, or a
corrupt Stalinist Democrat regime censoring 74 million Tea Partiers
and Trump supporters, or an explosion of illegal migrants at the
southern border so they can vote for Democrats, or the most insecure
southern border in decades after Trump made the southern border the
most secure in history, or letting prisoners out of prison so they can
vote for Democrats, or making America energy-dependent on Saudi Arabia
after Trump made the country energy-independent, or structural racism
with 75% of black babies born without fathers, or attempts to
systematically rig all elections to favor Democrats as they did in
2020, etc. I could go on. Biden is America's Stalin, creating a new
disaster for this country every day.

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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Post by Bob Butler »

See what I mean by imaginary problems?

Anti Facist violence was minor and directed at Nazi and KKK groups. I’m not crying for them nor cheering for Antifa. The BLM protests were real, and attracted many red violent and Boogaloo Bois violent groups who used them for cover. Note that many of those red violence and white supremacy groups were present on January 6. While red violence is indeed a problem, using non violence to change the culture is not the same thing. Oddly, while the Boogaloo Bois are deliberately trying to start a civil war, I have heard no reports of their joining the Jan 6 insurrection. You would have thought…

There is no censoring going on. There are lots of red complaints about Dr Seuss being censored, but it was a decision by the publisher not any Democratic or cancel culture movement. It was just a decision by the publisher to pull a few books which presented some dated material no longer in good taste. Using social media to plan the commission of a crime, sure, the companies involved are taking action, but if you don’t want to be held an accomplice, that goes with the territory. Are you in favor of violence?

Can you provide an example of censorship other than your censorship of me? When addressed by name in the other thread I responded very briefly without flame, and still censorship. Is it possible to express ideas without being censored?

Various leaders of various parties have been much disrespected. You could include both Obamas, both Bushes, both Clintons, Rove, McConnell, and whomever. Trump and his family has deserved it as much as anyone else. If you don't like heat these days, stay well away from the kitchen.

What explosion of immigrants? Source?

I quite believe people are being let out of COVID infested prisons, at least if they aren’t writing books about Trump, and even then if a judge has anything to say about it.

Biden is addressing the crisis problems: COVID, the economy, structural racism, red violence and global warming. There have been no crisis wars by major powers. Nobody has collapsed. There has been no nuclear war. The people at this site are barking intensely up the wrong tree. Problems with racism should be addressed rather than promoting domestic xenophobia. (Racism.) Real problems should be addressed rather than imaginary ones. I realize you have to use your imagination to ignore the repetition of conservative values collapsing in a crisis heart, but in the process you are divorcing yourself from reality.

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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

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Cool Breeze wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 5:33 pm
What if there is just slow degradation and we all lament the shitty, anti-Consitution state of US affairs, but at least we have an out from monetary repression? If you are a GD guy and doomsayer, God is your only way out. He's the only way out anyway. If you all are wrong on the quality of the collapse (just bad decline, on and on) your future without BTC is much, much worse.

This is so obvious I would have let it go if you all weren't so insolent, but now I'll be dunking in your face when it gets to 100k and beyond.
Well, the anti-constitution state is mirage. It is only a problem if you believe the Great Lie, and Trump’s lies have a shelf life. Obama was not born in the US? Mexico will pay for the wall? The virus is a hoax? The lie that there was fraud in the 2020 elections will in time become obvious. Trump’s legal problems will likely enough mount. The conservatives will eventually have to divorce themselves from Trump. I can only hope that they go back to the Tea Party ethic of not trusting the Republican establishment, of wanting to reject the tendency of the GOP to be allied with elites.

Which is a problem as so many people are clinging to the big lie. They will defend their values, and for the values to continue intact, the Big Lie seems the way to go. Again, there is no evidence to support it. It lost in the courts fifty to one. It will buy a few more months at best.

But that is the GOP war between the Trump crowd, the Republican Establishment and old time conservatives. I can hope for America’s sake that it is the old time conservatives that come up on top. It does not seem certain in the short term. That’s fine with me, as I want the Democrats to have an edge in the short term. The Trump crowd is the majority of a minority, which will give them little power outside of the reddest of states and neutralize the GOP most elsewhere.

There was a linkage in the unravelling between the Republicans and the elitists and racists both. The Tea Party initially rejected the elite before they fell for Trump. The racists gave the Republicans enough votes to be dominant in the unravelling. In order to hurt the minorities, it seemed obvious to not give benefit to the working poor. It was possible to do this while enriching the elites. That was, in a nutshell, the unravelling.

The central idea now is that hurting the working poor hurts everybody. The unraveling policies of cutting wages, weakening unions, trimming benefits, shipping jobs over seas, increasing the imbalance of wealth, all hurt both America and the GOP image. If the GOP keeps on ignoring bills that are tremendously popular, if the Democrats continue to help the working poor, if the rejection of racism that was so visible last summer do indicate that promoting racist positions is no longer cost effective, the GOP is in trouble. Another progressive period similar to FDR through LBJ could be pending.

Now, few here will want to see it. Holding on to existing values is absurdly common. For enough people to shift values to change the default culture is rare. It happens only, well, let’s see, in a crisis when the old values totally fail a bunch of folk, when the problems that were ignored by don’t change anything unraveling become severe enough that a fix the problem crisis government takes hold.

So, I don’t expect people to recognize what is going on, but many groups into turning theory have entirely different conceptions of what is happening.

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Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Post by Bob Butler »

John wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:49 pm
You're right. I can't find any support for the claim that Neanderthal is a racial slur.
I just spent a little time looking on the internet, and found nothing either. This might just be because the word’s usage as a slur significantly precedes the creation of the internet. It may have never got documented on line. It could also have been a Texas thing and not gotten north.

I suspect the red allergy towards regulation came from one example of regulation they just didn’t like. The banishment of slavery comes to mind. Other examples? At any rate, they seem to have taken it to extremes. There have been other more recent examples of cold snaps getting that far south other than those you mentioned. There has been at least one pandemic during World War I. The allergy to regulation seems to have overcome the ability to benefit from lessons learned. Granted, the pandemic was beyond living memory.

Of course, living near Boston, protecting yourself from cold weather snaps is an obvious precaution. There are so many of them.
Last edited by Bob Butler on Sun Mar 07, 2021 8:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

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