Most people prefer to follow the masses rather than think for themselves.
Liberals/progressives have strong authoritarian tendencies, which tended to emerge with access to power.
The information superhighway hasn't made the masses any wiser in detecting propaganda. The media regurgitates government talking points so effectively it's baffling to see how effective propaganda still is in the modern era.
People believe government acts in their best interests even when elected officials couldn’t care less about you or your family. Most, if not all people working in government at every level, are easily corruptible. The media, scientists, public health institutions, and pharmaceutical companies are not exempt from this rule.
People double down on things they know to be wrong about rather than admit their mistakes.
"The Science" is the new religion of progressives.
Virtue signaling is more about looking like you are doing the right thing rather than doing it.
Most people value safety and security more than freedom and liberty, even if said "safety" is merely an illusion.
When you appease the masses, they won't revolt. When you keep people in constant fear and confusion, millions can remain docile.
Too many are acquiescent and lack vigilance when sufficiently frightened. People will not only accept authoritarianism from government leaders when they are fearful, but demand it.
Thought-Provoking Articles:
NPR's Brilliant Self-Own - National Public Radio complains about a media figure who tells people "what their opinions should be" and uses political "buzzwords
Broadening the Conversation on Police Violence - with John McWhorter
‘Welcome 2 America’: The Oral History of Prince’s Lost Album - A previously unreleased 2010 Prince record arrives this month. His collaborators look back on the sessions and offer a glimpse into the icon’s private world
My Strange Relationship with Prince - With the anniversary of his death upcoming, A look back at interactions at the beginning of his career and mine.
A Taxonomy of Fear - There is a pattern in the way speech is silenced. Understanding it can help us stand up to the illiberalism of this moment.
Something Interesting:
Clayton Craddock is a father, independent thinker, and the founder and publisher of the social and political commentary newsletter Think Things Through and host of the Think Things Through Podcast.
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The Top Ten Things I’ve Learned In The Past Year
Swap out 'frightened' with 'prospering', and 'fearful' with 'doing just fine and mean to hold what I got', read through #10 again, and you've got Oklahoma in a nutshell. I love it here. Best folks I ever had the honor to call neighbors, and some of the most frustrating (!)
(where was I?)
Seven gives me a kind of warm-fuzzy in one big way, because the signaling of virtues is just about the first thing anyone in the Five State Area can spot, from the age of five or so, that gives away whatever game it is you're tryin' to play here, and mostly that sort of thing is just ignored as the virtue-signaler keeps playing it on themselves. Nobody likes to be around nor knows how else to act when somebody they got no business with is spoutin' off, so it isn't really happening. Astonishing, the degree to which a person may be simply absented from a scene without ever moving an inch, around here. Don't encourage them, nothin' to do with us, he'll just move along onaccounta he ain't gettin' the attention he wants. It's actually quite a civilizing trait as an everyday code of etiquette observed by (nearly) all, and I've come to admire it and thrive in it. But damned if it ain't frustratin to try and get past it, when you have a point and you have to make it but first you gotta capture folks' interest in it. If it's not any of their business, why are you bothering them? My grandson is eight years old and he knows better'n to act all high and mighty with folks. Grow up.