What Does The GOP Ideal World Look Like?

Well-put, as usual.

Of course, systems of reward and punishment make a mockery of the individualism many such people profess to. Why is it that instead of people being naturally compensated for already doing what was beneficial, it inverts to people needing to be bribed into doing anything worthwhile? Why do they complain that voluntary sex work is “prostitution” when the entire work ethos of the country is prostitution of literally everything else?

If hard work is so important, then why are people so worried about being “uncomfortable”? Isn’t some discomfort a natural consequence of most rigorous activity?

We could go on like this indefinitely.

And I think this is also the reason why they need to be taken to task both in the media and in the streets. It is such an ideologically shaky house of cards that facts are hardly even necessary to highlight its own internal contradictions.

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There’s a rather ugly irony in the fact that maintaining belief in a just world requires inflicting more injustice than almost any other theory, including a bunch of outright cartoonishly evil ones.

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Psychologically, it’s a stress-reducing viewpoint for the holders–rather than live in fear that some random occurrence might destroy them out of the blue, they can console themselves that they’re safe from bad things, because bad things only happen to bad people in their worldview.

This, of course, directly leads to victim blaming and a host of other vileness…

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A lot of people grew up spending more time watching these shows than doing other things in life, so the Hollywood feel-good milieux was more of their perception than reality. And those shows portrayed a very peaceful, happy, easy-going life. (How stressed are people at their jobs in Andy Griffith? They’re standing around reading magazines, chatting with customers, and playing checkers!) No one ever had to worry about money or other problems that couldn’t be solved in half an hour. Worst-case, the whole community would pitch in to help someone out and everyone would cheer about it. That’s the life that people want - what they think things used to be like. What they grew up thinking things had been like a generation before them.

Of course, it’s not just TV. Older people remember the good times and suppress the bad and tell stories about the good old days, how much better things were back then. Younger people, facing the hardships of reality, hear those stories and want some of that.

The GOP ideal world is safe, secure, comfortable, and relaxed.

A lot of gold-bug survivalists/preppers trend libertarian/conservative/republican to varying degrees. The idea of central banking and paper money controlled by the federal government being unconstitutional fits in with a lot of far-right-wing beliefs.

(I will endeavor to keep it mercifully brief)

Or to anyone who cries that the use of money is a life-or-death issue for them, because it gives entrenched capital lots of control in their lives. Anyone who has to do many, very socially irresponsible things because they prostitute themselves for money. I would argue that “characterizes” as an acute problem for nearly everyone.

The difference might be that some on the right (even there a minority) actually try to give their ideology (such as it is!) some teeth. Meanwhile, the position of the center-left over the past few decades has been that other elite people have the real economic and political power, so our recourse is to petition them for fair treatment. Needless to say, that’s had mostly superficial results.

If you use tools given to you by plutocrats, those tools will mostly serve the interests of those plutocrats. So you don’t do it, unless you are fine with losing your kids, your time, and your ethics to a real-life game of monopoly.

Last time I mentioned something about being wary of statism, somebody kept saying that I was some sort of crypto-capitalist. I’m quite far from it, so let’s not go there. Many of the commentariat like to throw militant leftists under the bus.

And that’s all I am saying about that.

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How does it look? For a vanishingly small proportion of people:

For everyone else, the state of nature: “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

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That can’t be the GOP’s vision of the ideal world.

Look, the little girl is beating the boy at a game!

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Woody Guthrie actually.

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Unfortunately Woody’s no longer with us. Pete Seeger was on the Studio 360 episode talking about the song’s background. I should’ve made that clearer.

No, they’re playing by GOP rules. She can’t win just by playing better than him…

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Pete’s gone too, as are most of those old school lefties. I knew a family with close connections to that circle, now there were some really conflicted folks. They were leftists who got very wealthy in the folk boom of the 50-60s.

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The GOP Ideal world would look something like this song from Alt-Lennon:

This had been kicking around in my head every since I saw the title of this post and I finally had a chance to type it out.

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Here’s another contender for the GOP theme song:

LYRICS:
Motherhood, family
Baseball and basic courtesy
Picnics in the park
And real Christmas trees

Folks put 'em down or say they’re quaint
But you and I both know they ain’t
So when they tell ya “time to move along”
Tell 'em back “no siree!”

Times may change, but important values? Never!
Tradition needs to be maintained forever
We can do it together

A lovely figure, smiling face
Graceful and quiet and knows her place
Always ready with a double scotch and a BLT

Tender hands to rub your back
Angel in the kitchen, devil in the sack
When the ladies say it’s better now
Ya’ tell 'em back “No siree!”

Safe and quiet neighborhoods
Where everybody speak-a-da English good
No lower-class or Catholic types
Next door to me

Folks took pride in shining shoes
And a whole separate country club for the Jews
When they tell ya things are better now
We both say “No siree!”

Me and you, pal, makin’ the future brighter
Wholesomer, respectfuller, and whiter

Everybody tryin’ to change things 'round
Bring 'em on; together, we’ll take 'em down

Them trigger-happy low-downs, a-fixin’ for a showdown
Hoods and punks and foreigners, slackin’ on the corner
Dirty hippie losers, reefer-weed abusers
Commie pinko fairies, thinkin’ they can scare me
To them we’re gonna say…
“No siree!”

To quote the person who posted it at YouTube: “If you find yourself agreeing with any of the sentiments in this song, congratulations! You’re a terrible person!”

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Clever but, do us a favor. Please leave John’s title and key word ‘Imagine’ out of that. Try the word ‘think’n’ instead. The word Imagine is waaay to imaginative for alt right pricks anyway.

Thanks.

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The Horst-Wessel-Lied would only need a cosmetic name change and 45s cabinet already know the tune.

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I’ve noticed something similar: I ask republicans what it would take for them to turn on Drumpf; What would he have to do, for them to realize and admit, “Holy SHIT, we screwed up.”

I’ve suggested reasonable, genuinely possible scenarios: Drumpf caught on cell phone video ala Romney’s “49%” gaffe, where Drumpf is laughing with his inner circle about how he can’t BELIEVE how easy it was to take republican voters for suckers, how they’re all “losers” who DESERVE what he’s going to do to them;
Drumpf being caught on video, creepily coming on to a congressman’s nubile teenage daughter - Or a screaming, naked girl fleeing one of the Mar a Lago outbuildings, quickly followed by a stumbling, naked Drumpf, bellowing threats after her if she tells anyone;
Smirking about how “taxes are for suckers”;
A document surfacing, or a phone tap intercepting, something utterly incriminating about his relationship to Putin -

Nothing. Silence. They never, EVER answer. EVER. Appearing disloyal or doubtful is, after all, the road to eternal damnation. I’ve seen them get extremely uncomfortable, as if those same scenarios have occurred to them - But they absolutely will not say anything that would suggest that there are cracks in the foundation.

To me, it’s a reminder of how many Drumpf supporters are also deeply religious - They’ve been taught all their lives to keep their mouths shut and to go along, to not think or notice the contradictions - With never-ending suffering as the only outcome if they dare to disobey.

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Well, a significant portion of his supporters are Authoritarians, and that’s pretty much directly inline with Bob Altemeyer’s research on them.

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Fixed it!

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Sorry, can’t Like that. I appreciate the effort, but despoiling a classic song like that is not something I could ever Like.

Hey, what’s wrong with baseball (don’t answer that), courtesy, and picnics?

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