My dear sweet elderly mother just told me about a conversation with one of her neighbors. (They live in a small rural town in PA)
This neighbor is a white guy and ... he sincerely thought that my mom had "Obamacare" because Obama made it for black people only. Or something like that.
"Well at least you've got that Obamacare."
I want them to move back to NYC. I wouldn't trust that guy to call a damn ambulance. Mom insists he's nice. And to be fair he has done some nice things IDK. WTF
@futurebird I think people have an obligation to educate themselves, but clearly there are lots of folks who don't think so... especially in Pennsyltucky
@futurebird As Cippola said, stupid people are dangerous, mainly because they are understimated, more common than you think, and will cause utter havoc without personal gain.
@futurebird@indigoparadox I grew up in not exactly rural PA, my grandparents on one side were super far right, and yet I frequently discover new racist things that I didn’t know about.
The thing about this guy, who is a bit younger than my mom, but much older than me (think in his 60s...) is he isn't what I call unintelligent. He's really knowledgable about septic tanks and flood plains and the history of the little town.
I think he's also not really white, but that's a whole other story. When your family goes back 200 years in one town... you know things.
He just pays little to no attention to politics.
I really wish we didn't have so many sources full of nonsense.
@futurebird i think this illustrates the difficulty of holding people responsible for supporting fascists in our current disinfo shitstorm. these people are both the victims and perpetrators of malicious lies. if you sincerely believe a ridiculous thing like 'Black people get unfair advantages in medical care' or 'gay people are out to molest your kids and nobody is willing to stop them'...wouldn't you vote for someone who promises to put a stop to these things?
I guess it's hard to remember that some people don't need to think about these topics often or very deeply. When you don't think about a topic much your naive notions about how it works can be nonsensical. If you asked me to explain the rules of football for example... I could say some true things and some things that sound true. But I don't "need" to think about football.
White people don't need to think about race. Straight people don't need to think about being LGBT.
@futurebird there's a lot to feel discouraged about in the current political landscape. in a weird way it's actually a hopeful sign for human nature - to look at exactly how much money, time, and effort evil needs to spend to convince ordinary people to do evil. it takes a whole propaganda industry, and decades of devious political manipulation. even then Rs still lost in 2020, and they can lose again.
Propaganda is areal thing. We as Americans, especially white Americans have been raised for decades under the propaganda that white means good. That white is the cleanest, best, most sanitary, perfect.
Mormons assumed when the face of Caine was darkened after killing Abel that this meant anyone with skin that was not white was evil. Suddenly an entire race is exempt from ever being anything but perfect. The whiter the better.
Pass it down for a century and no one has to verbalize it any longer here in 'Murica, it is assumed. White is better...cleaner...closer to god.
So white people dont need to think about race and that blaze attitude is passed down from your great great great GPa right on down to your mother.
Spinrad says in one of his books that Americans are really nice people but that you should never, ever, under any circumstances, ask them about their political views...
@futurebird Victim of acute propaganda. Has no bearing on whether or not he's nice, though of course it means his actions will be tainted by what he's had inserted into his worldview...