Tag: Political Laziness

Teaching Pigs To Sing

I have always thought that it was part of my DNA to help others what is happening around them….educate and agitate….my grandfather use to get onto me for my obsession….his words we “when you teach a pig to sing you waste your time and piss off the pig (exact words).

Regardless I continued and continue to try and help people understand the situation…..and there are those here that agree with my grandfather that I waste my time….it is after all my time to waste and I do not like the defeatism that is prevalent.

There is always someone point a finger and trying to get people like me to stop what we are doing….

Mark Twain once quipped, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” The problem is that we rarely question our own beliefs. Once a false assumption takes hold, it becomes a default lens we use to interpret the world—and dislodging it becomes incredibly difficult.

One very basic assumption that lies at the heart of many change efforts is that information is power—the notion that if you arm people with the right knowledge, they will act on it. That’s why so many change programs are rooted in education and training, because they assume that the right information will change people’s behavior.

There’s even a name for this assumption: the information deficit model. Decades of research show that it doesn’t hold up. The truth is that we rarely change our behavior after being exposed to new facts. When confronted with evidence that contradicts our beliefs, we’re more likely to question the evidence than to update our views. Our brains prefer stability to change.

The core assumption of the information deficit model is that when people lack basic knowledge, exposing them to new evidence will change their opinions. But that assumes that their minds are blank slates, which is rarely true for most subjects and contexts. We all have preconceived notions of how the world works and will tend to cling to our views.

For example, people who believe in a flat earth don’t simply lack knowledge of a round earth, but have a model of the universe in which the earth is flat. In order to change those beliefs, they would not only need to accept new evidence, but also to discard old beliefs that they have relied on to navigate the world.

To do that they face a number of barriers they will need to overcome, including the synaptic pathways built up in their brains that are devoted to their existing model, the social pressure of people in their community who hold similar views, and the switching costs involved in changing their behavior based on their new knowledge.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91517078/stop-trying-to-educate-people-into-changing-science-proves-it-doesnt-work

The unreasonable idea is fed by stupidity not ignorance.

So to all those that feel I am wasting my time I say with a heart felt….BITE ME!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

This Apathetic Nation

It is like deja vu all over again.

Recently I gave my thoughts on this since the election of Joe Biden……read my thoughts here……https://lobotero.com/2021/02/01/the-apathy-is-deafening/

People, at least those here, were so concerned about the direction under the Trump leadership(?)…..and since the election of Biden the sound of crickets is prevalent.

Look at the past week…..the Super Bowl was the most important topic for discussion….like however won the game would change the face of the nation…..it did not and all it accomplished was the possibility of a super spreader for the pandemic that we all are trying to avoid…..well apparently NOT all.

In 1995 I gave up writing for a decade because few could see the direction of the country was spiraling downward and few could care less….was like people thought that since they had shelter and food the whole country was in great shape…..social issues meant nothing to these people.

After a decade of silence on my part I could stand the deafening apathetic attitudes of the American people and in 2005 I started trying to educate about the problems that were building just under the skin of the republic.

For example the rise in GOP led policies that try and limit voting by people that might vote Dem…..

Since former President Donald Trump failed to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, Republicans in more than two dozen states have introduced over 100 bills to restrict voting access, an alarming development that voting rights advocates have pointed to as yet another reason for Democrats to abolish the filibuster, an anti-democratic tool currently allowing the GOP minority to block the enactment of a suite of popular pro-democracy reforms.

Mother Jones journalist Ari Berman on Thursday reported on the GOP’s ongoing nationwide push to make voting more difficult—particularly for communities of color and other Democratic-leaning constituencies—and in some cases to empower state legislatures to overturn election results. He called state-level Republicans’ efforts “a huge scandal that should be getting as much attention as Trump’s plot to overturn the election.”

…

Already this year, 106 bills have been introduced in 28 states—including 17 under complete GOP control, where passage is more likely—to undermine access to the franchise. According to the Brennan Center’s report, “These proposals primarily seek to: (1) limit mail voting access; (2) impose stricter voter ID requirements; (3) limit successful pro-voter registration policies; and (4) enable more aggressive voter roll purges.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/05/downright-scary-2021-alone-gop-introduces-100-voter-suppression-bills-28-states

And yet the minds are closed….and NO one gives a crap.

Another example…..about 12% of Americans live below poverty line and yet the nation is perfectly fine with CEOs getting multi-million dollar bonuses while wrecking the economy…..now that is pathetic if it weren’t disgusting.

This nation gets dumber and more apathetic by the year…shades of the movie Idiocracy.

I blame my generation, the Baby Boomers, for these problems….we brought about the Me Generation where my personal life was more important than the nation…..we have tunnel vision…..we think that if we give to the Red Cross (for example) then we have done our part….and we give only because it can be a tax write off not that it benefits the people of this country.

After 15 years of trying to wake people up I am having the same apprehension I had back in 1995…..NO one cares anymore.

My grandfather had the perfect saying that expertly describes these dark days…..”When you teach pigs to dance you accomplish two things…first you waste your time and secondly you PISS off the pig”.

Maybe I would be more pleased if I just learned to “give a shit” like the majority…but sadly I was taught better than that….so for now I will continue to lecturing and point out the manure we are creating for ourselves.

 

 

 

Dirty Politics?

By now everyone, at least those interested in the country, have heard the debacle of the bridge in New Jersey……and because you have heard all the hoopla you have formed your opinion on the matter.  To some it is yet another scandal.  Others will see it as what some have called ‘dirty politics’.  And yet others may see it as some sort of retribution, politically that is…..

We all hate dirty politics and the art of political retribution because it makes our governmental system look corrupt……guess what?  IT IS!

Let me explain.

There could be NO bi-partisanship without it.  LBJ did it to get his programs passed.  Unfortunately, if you want it to change (there’s a word that gets overused) then the only good answer is change the system…..we will do that for a whole array of reason but the simplest one is because we don’t wanna.

Now you ask why, right?

Well since I am tired and want to make sleep I will turn you over to another…..

Chris Christie’s career in bullying is over: After Bridgegate, “Christie can’t be Christie anymore,” writes David Plotz at Slate. “That’s a shame,” because we need more corruption in American politics. It’s how things get done, Plotz notes: “Minor forms of corruption—votes bought with earmarks, traded favors—create a political flexibility that keeps the entire system from collapsing in moments of crisis.” Indeed, the end of earmarks under John Boehner has rendered the House less effective. Earmarks allow politicians to effectively buy the votes they need to push legislation through; President Obama got Arlen Specter’s stimulus backing through an earmark, and LBJ spent his presidency using them. Meanwhile, the ban on earmarks prevented Democrats from getting the votes for gun control reform. The real trouble with Christie: “The closing of the George Washington Bridge lanes was so stupid, so heavy-handed, so public,” and he was caught. “It suggests Christie actually isn’t an effective practitioner of kneecap politics,” Plotz writes. Click for his full column.

Whether it is favors, retribution, a ‘hit list’ or earmarks………It is called doing business as normal.  Get over it or do something about it!  Americans are too docile to change things…we had rather rant and rave then let the ‘tools’ go about their work a day lives doing business as usual……we are afraid of change…..we bitch about it and write about it but deep down we fear change….it is that simple!

Better Later Than Never

Yes, I will be talking about the doings in Wisconsin….and yes…again!

There is a report on a poll out today about the governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker…….

Wisconsin voters already have buyers remorse about electing Gov. Scott Walker (R).

In a PPP poll released Monday, a majority of registered Wisconsin voters say that in a hypothetical re-do of last year’s gubernatorial election, they would vote for Democrat Tom Barrett, whom Walker defeated in November. That finding comes as Walker continues to stand firm on his budget proposals that would strip most state public employees of long-held collective bargaining rights.

Fifty-two percent of respondents said they would vote for Barrett if the election were held today, while 45% said they would vote for Walker. That’s almost exactly the opposite of what happened in the election, when Walker won the governorship with 52% of the vote to Barrett’s 47%.

The huge shift comes, not surprisingly, from union members. In releasing the findings, Tom Jensen at PPP wrote:

Thanx to Talking Points Memo for the update…….

All I have to say about this is…..see what happens when you are lazy and depend on morons on the tube to tell you where to vote?  Maybe, just maybe  you people should exercise your most important muscle….no not the abs or the pecs or the penis……but rather the BRAIN!  If you would have used it more maybe you would not have the massive problem you have now…..if you pay attention to what you are voting for then sneaks and thieves cannot easily influence you……

You have NO one to blame for this but yourself and your damn laziness!  Ignorance hurts, huh?