General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThey are here...from the Heritage Foundation and Cato... ..What do you think?
They are here..hard to believe, but I think they come here to study us, so they can attack us better.
They read the best of our ideas, and formulate their attacks based on some of what we say?
I believe it is true. No, I am not a conspiracy nut..
Why? it is a cheap, easy, efficient, way of finding out what the opponents think?
What do you think ?
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)As liberals are of thinking like conservatives.
Stuart G
(38,365 posts)Just take the most selfish, self-serving positon, (seemingly patriotic)
.. that is them..
karynnj
(59,475 posts)Have you ever been in a redder area of the country? If you have, think of how the people act toward each other - on completely not political or social hot button issues. While some will be obnoxious, as is true of any large group, most will be basically good people doing what they think (and have been socialized to think) is the right thing to do - although they will sometimes fall short.
In their case, to understand what they think on political issues, it would be best to actually listen to them speak among themselves. In addition, it is good to listen to what they get as input - from an echo chamber. (The echo chamber defeats many who do want to "double check" something - but they hear the same Heritage and AEI talking points from multiple sources and don't see that they are not independent!) If I did not have the natural links to even passively be at gatherings of conservatives, I think that I would look to discussion boards. However, I would ignore Free Republic and look at maybe Fox News comments. There, I would ignore the more reactionary. I would look for the more thoughtful threads where people here are speaking of their values and the policies they then support.
I think part of the reason for the deep divide is that there have always been two main visions of society in America. The one that leads to liberalism/socialism is one that is communal - that we are all connected and have a governmental responsibility to others. The other is the frontier, rugged individualism that leads to Republican/libertarian views.
Gman
(24,780 posts)Then I'd slip in some some innocent sounding rebuttal with a couple of sound facts. You know you stuck a chord when no one responds. They will ignore that which they know is true but they don't like.
it's really easy. It's easy to do it here too. There's always a meme. Learn the meme and you can fit right in. Right wingers also do it here all the time. You can spot them fairly easily here too. Read some of the instructions they give to their trolls on how to fit in and you'll see they follow it to the letter. In fact they will overdo it which makes some very easy to spot. Anyone that starts a post with "I've been a liberal all my life but..." then goes into a slant on a right wing meme is highly suspect. They are taught to establish their "liberal" credentials.
I read somewhere once that they were taught if they're here to run up their post count by posting a lot of simple posts like "LOL!" and other quick things to make theirselves appear to be established. There are other techniques they're taught. But eventually they get tombstoned.
I quit doing it over at FR because it's no fun anymore. It's no fun because RimJob has run off everyone that had any intelligence above that of a toad. There used to be some lively discussions there with the sane arguing with the insane and not understanding they are arguing with the insane. Over time, all the sane ones got banned.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)But it's not possible to actually think like the other side, which is why trolls are usually pretty easy to spot, like OMC for instance, a blatantly obvious troll that nonetheless lasted for years here.
Gman
(24,780 posts)as long as you don't go overboard breaking the TOS, you can survive here. OTOH, at FR, all that has to happen is to rub RimJob the wrong way. And it doesn't take much. Supporting Romney will get you banned, for example.
LeftishBrit
(41,192 posts)While FreeRepublic is too much for me, I admit that I do at times go onto the British 'ConservativeHome' to find out what our Right are up to.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)Blog wars and professional warriors are not exactly a new phenomena.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)and were being promoted by conservadems for the last two years. I can only pray that Ron Paul and all of his bastard children make that trend unpopular here again. It's been a heartbreaking couple of years if you are a DU teacher.
Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts)Can I alert on a post that jars us into reality, even though we'd prefer to continue sleepwalking ??
The Heritage and Cato ideas are being pursued with reckless, mindless, irresponsible abandon by our "own" Democratic administration.
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)They have no scruples or consistency so they can just copy something wholesale we said about conservatives and flip it round on us (sometimes it's as simple as replacing the word "conservatives" with "liberals", a sort of "cut-n-paste projection" technique).
I'm sure they teach that in Rovian Tactics 101.
SpiralHawk
(32,944 posts)"We overpaid RepubliWankers against America doesn't not do no eevil sneaky occult spying stuff and shit like that, and we are not hear nowhere monitoring you or no eevil crap like that 'cuz we are busy bees and stuff. Sneer. Smirk."
- Cato Heritagers (R - 1%)
sendero
(28,552 posts).... they've been here a long time. And not just watching but floating their bullshit answers to our concerns.
If the left had any sense and any sense of the big picture, we'd fund analogous organizations that do nothing but get our ideas out there. At this point in American history people are ready for a new message, the shit these assholes are peddling is a complete and utter failure for 95% of Americans.
spanone
(135,636 posts)Response to Stuart G (Original post)
HereSince1628 This message was self-deleted by its author.
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)that matters.
The Rovian tactic is all about projection. You project your weaknesses onto your enemy.
annabanana
(52,791 posts)I have never assumed otherwise. If you were them, wouldn't YOU be here?
gkhouston
(21,642 posts)Dewey Finn
(176 posts)"best of our ideas" you mention?
Mimosa
(9,131 posts)Stuart are you trolling for them?
That org is Loserville. And YOU started a thread to encourage people to visit a long dead conservative website. *Hmmm*
jpak
(41,742 posts)YUP