0 comment Thursday, May 29, 2014 | admin
In the past, I asked my readers if any of them had in recent years had any kind of epiphany regarding the realities of race, or an experience that made them question or reject the politically correct belief system. That was some time ago, and I pose the question again for those who were not reading the blog back then, or for anyone who has something to say.
The question came up in the context of a discussion about how to 'reach' people who are still caught up in the web of PC, how to open their eyes. Quite naturally, it would seem logical to ask if anyone here had had their minds or hearts changed by any kind of argument, or by the written word, or whether direct experience alone seems effective in causing people to become realists.
It does seem that those who are politically liberal are by definition the kinds of people who do not value logic and reason, and who instead govern their lives by emotion, gravitating to feel-good slogans and mantras which lend themselves to providing a sense of moral superiority for the true believer. However there is the rare kind of leftist or multiculturalist who is capable of understanding a good argument, or who is willing to listen to differing ideas. These people are few and far between, and it could be said that such people are not true believers in the church of leftism anyway.
I think the tougher nut to crack is the mainstream Republican types, those who are convinced they are already 'conservative' but who still accept the PC platitudes and political correctness in general. Those types are often encountered at Free Republic or other such Republican forums, as well as in abundance in the 'real' world. These are the kinds of people who loudly say 'I'm not prejudiced against anybody; people are individuals.' Or 'it's liberals that cause all the race problems in the world; they keep the blacks on the Democrat plantation and encourage them to be dependent.''
This is partly right; liberals and leftists are responsible for many of the race problems in that they actively foment racial grievances. They are the talebearers that fan the flames of resentments and hatreds for reasons of their own. Still, believing that if liberals suddenly left the earth to found their elusive utopia elsewhere, race tensions and divisions would disappear is naive, to put it mildly. Racial divisions exist because races exist, and races exist because differences are real and inborn. We can't change nature. So no, liberals are not the creators of all racial division and strife.
The politically correct conservative type is a challenge; they raise the alarm at any sign of political incorrectness in a discussion; they are like the class tattletale who calls for 'teacher' whenever they see anybody stepping out of line.
Some people on the Internet claim to have had their eyes opened by reading articles here and there, say on AmRen or other such 'moderate' realist sites. Some say that a particular news event opened their eyes, such as the O.J. Simpson trial verdict and the response, or the L.A. riots.The aftermath of Katrina seems to have been a wake-up call for some, though now that series of events is being systematically erased and denied.
I suppose it's possible to see a national news event as being almost as valuable as real-life experience, although even real life experience fails to change some people's politically correct cluelessness.
Speaking from personal experience, it took many years of cumulative negative experience to fully de-program me from political correctness, because the latter is so strongly reinforced in our society from so many directions.
I think I undoubtedly would have rejected PC sooner or later because I do have memories of the pre-PC era, and I was raised by realist parents and grandparents. All my older relatives, on both sides of the family, held realist attitudes, even my Yankee relatives. Most people today don't realize how uniform attitudes were throughout the country in the pre-PC era.
As to what approach works best to try to lead people away from the brainwashing, as I've said previously, there is no one-size-fits-all approach; it varies according to the person involved and the circumstance.
One thing I have discovered: it often does not work to try to persuade based on one's own past negative experience; at one time, I was explaining my own change in outlook to a young woman who, when she heard a recitation of my personal experiences, simply said with a tone of sympathy, 'oh, so now I see why you feel the way you do.' And she was saying, in effect, 'too bad you've had bad experiences, but that's just your experience; you've just been especially unlucky.' That was the implication I got from her response.
It's very much like when you argue with a liberal or a leftist, postmodernist type and they will dismissively say: "it may be true for you, but not for me." There's no penetrating that mindset.
So ultimately I don't think anecdotes do much to persuade most people; your interlocutor can just counter with their own little kumbaya anecdotes, which they often do. They will proceed to tell you how they have only good experiences with everybody, regardless of race, creed, national origin, or sexual orientation.
One wonders if this is really the case, or do they suppress the memory of any not-so-pleasant interactions they have had, or do they, by their smarmy appeasement of everybody, actually have more pleasant experiences? I tend to think they simply have selective memories, caused by an overriding need to see only the good in certain groups of people based on their place in the victim hierarchy.
As I say, I don't have an easy answer to the problem of the mass delusion that seems to keep many people blinded. I just believe we have to keep on refusing to go along with the PC system, and to speak the truth when and where we can in whatever words are appropriate to the setting and the audience.
I would, however, like to know if anybody out there has undergone a change of mind in recent years, and how exactly it came about. I know it does happen.
Some people were absolutely sure that the outcome of the election was guaranteed to cause a widespread change of mind and heart; I remain skeptical of that, but we will see, over time, who was right. I certainly hope that a mass de-programming is possible, however unlikely it seems.
The question came up in the context of a discussion about how to 'reach' people who are still caught up in the web of PC, how to open their eyes. Quite naturally, it would seem logical to ask if anyone here had had their minds or hearts changed by any kind of argument, or by the written word, or whether direct experience alone seems effective in causing people to become realists.
It does seem that those who are politically liberal are by definition the kinds of people who do not value logic and reason, and who instead govern their lives by emotion, gravitating to feel-good slogans and mantras which lend themselves to providing a sense of moral superiority for the true believer. However there is the rare kind of leftist or multiculturalist who is capable of understanding a good argument, or who is willing to listen to differing ideas. These people are few and far between, and it could be said that such people are not true believers in the church of leftism anyway.
I think the tougher nut to crack is the mainstream Republican types, those who are convinced they are already 'conservative' but who still accept the PC platitudes and political correctness in general. Those types are often encountered at Free Republic or other such Republican forums, as well as in abundance in the 'real' world. These are the kinds of people who loudly say 'I'm not prejudiced against anybody; people are individuals.' Or 'it's liberals that cause all the race problems in the world; they keep the blacks on the Democrat plantation and encourage them to be dependent.''
This is partly right; liberals and leftists are responsible for many of the race problems in that they actively foment racial grievances. They are the talebearers that fan the flames of resentments and hatreds for reasons of their own. Still, believing that if liberals suddenly left the earth to found their elusive utopia elsewhere, race tensions and divisions would disappear is naive, to put it mildly. Racial divisions exist because races exist, and races exist because differences are real and inborn. We can't change nature. So no, liberals are not the creators of all racial division and strife.
The politically correct conservative type is a challenge; they raise the alarm at any sign of political incorrectness in a discussion; they are like the class tattletale who calls for 'teacher' whenever they see anybody stepping out of line.
Some people on the Internet claim to have had their eyes opened by reading articles here and there, say on AmRen or other such 'moderate' realist sites. Some say that a particular news event opened their eyes, such as the O.J. Simpson trial verdict and the response, or the L.A. riots.The aftermath of Katrina seems to have been a wake-up call for some, though now that series of events is being systematically erased and denied.
I suppose it's possible to see a national news event as being almost as valuable as real-life experience, although even real life experience fails to change some people's politically correct cluelessness.
Speaking from personal experience, it took many years of cumulative negative experience to fully de-program me from political correctness, because the latter is so strongly reinforced in our society from so many directions.
I think I undoubtedly would have rejected PC sooner or later because I do have memories of the pre-PC era, and I was raised by realist parents and grandparents. All my older relatives, on both sides of the family, held realist attitudes, even my Yankee relatives. Most people today don't realize how uniform attitudes were throughout the country in the pre-PC era.
As to what approach works best to try to lead people away from the brainwashing, as I've said previously, there is no one-size-fits-all approach; it varies according to the person involved and the circumstance.
One thing I have discovered: it often does not work to try to persuade based on one's own past negative experience; at one time, I was explaining my own change in outlook to a young woman who, when she heard a recitation of my personal experiences, simply said with a tone of sympathy, 'oh, so now I see why you feel the way you do.' And she was saying, in effect, 'too bad you've had bad experiences, but that's just your experience; you've just been especially unlucky.' That was the implication I got from her response.
It's very much like when you argue with a liberal or a leftist, postmodernist type and they will dismissively say: "it may be true for you, but not for me." There's no penetrating that mindset.
So ultimately I don't think anecdotes do much to persuade most people; your interlocutor can just counter with their own little kumbaya anecdotes, which they often do. They will proceed to tell you how they have only good experiences with everybody, regardless of race, creed, national origin, or sexual orientation.
One wonders if this is really the case, or do they suppress the memory of any not-so-pleasant interactions they have had, or do they, by their smarmy appeasement of everybody, actually have more pleasant experiences? I tend to think they simply have selective memories, caused by an overriding need to see only the good in certain groups of people based on their place in the victim hierarchy.
As I say, I don't have an easy answer to the problem of the mass delusion that seems to keep many people blinded. I just believe we have to keep on refusing to go along with the PC system, and to speak the truth when and where we can in whatever words are appropriate to the setting and the audience.
I would, however, like to know if anybody out there has undergone a change of mind in recent years, and how exactly it came about. I know it does happen.
Some people were absolutely sure that the outcome of the election was guaranteed to cause a widespread change of mind and heart; I remain skeptical of that, but we will see, over time, who was right. I certainly hope that a mass de-programming is possible, however unlikely it seems.
Labels: Free Speech, Groupthink, Multiculturalism, Political Correctness, Propaganda