WHY CLOSE-MINDEDNESS IS A CRUCIAL NEED TO THOSE ON THE LEFT

      It has always confounded me how citizens of the left cannot see what is in front of their eyes. Riots, burnings, beatings, killings, destroying businesses and properties by the violent protesters of Antifa and the Radical BLM groups, does not seem to exist to them. How can this be? These situations are clearly seen on the daily news outlets, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media outlets. Mayors of these cities advocate defunding the police but have their own bodyguards, paid for of course, by the city they live in. The Mayor of Seattle allowing an autonomous zone that could lead to a “summer of love” which was not remotely a “love fest”. Incredible! In my search for an answer for my bewildered and confused mind, I found a wonderful article by James Taranto called The politics of Cognitive Dissonance.

Taranto began by talking aboutThe Little Blue Book: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic by George Lakoff and Elizabeth Wehling. Taranto describes why conservatives and liberals can’t seem to have the simplest of conversations. “Liberals intentionally refuse to address or even acknowledge what conservatives say. Since conservatives invariably frame their own statements within their own moral frames, liberal opponents will seemingly ignore what is said and instead come back with a reply literally out of left field. Thus, the conservative is the progenitor (forefather) of and primary advocate for the main reason why liberalism fails to win the public debate: Because it never directly confronts, disproves or negates conservative notions. It simply ignores them.”

So by refusing to meet head to head challenging or fact checking to prove or disprove, understand or acknowledge the conservative’s argument, the argument grows in strength and wins converts. This is hard to wrap my head around. I mean, I was raised to stand toe to toe with facts in a debate. So foreign to me, is this form of…I don’t know what to call it? It certainly is not debate. So why does it work for them?

Taranto says, “This is an important insight into the way the left debates and otherwise communicates, but into the way the left thinks – or fails to think. The authors of this book command their readers not only to act as if opposing arguments are without merit, but also to close their minds to those arguments. What comes across to conservatives as a maddening arrogance is actually willed ignorance.” No wonder I am confused, dumbfounded, puzzled, confounded and more!

So what about the intellectuals and politicians? Many intellectuals have been mind-manipulating students at our colleges and schools with socialist ideals encouraging ‘feelings over fact’. Hence, not debate, as we know it. Then there is one big difference between intellectuals and the politicians: “When an intellectual haughtily dismisses opposing arguments, he does so in part by resting on his authority as an intellectual.” I know a lot of intellectuals. Many have ‘some’ common sense but I have found the majority doesn’t – or at least they bask in the glory of the power that comes from their degrees and a false sense of their own superiority. Unfortunately, our young believe the professor and the politicians know this. They subsidize the schools in order to gain votes for their agenda. It is a win-win – the schools are happy and the politician is happy.

How does this work with professors and media manipulation? An example – “According to Lakoff, liberals should in no way challenge the claim that abortion is murder; in fact, they shouldn’t even acknowledge that such a claim is being made.” (Lakoff does not mention his position on this – of course) “It is a concept (murder) that every woman on some gut-instinct level knows is at a minimum somewhat true, if not entirely true. Of course, a fetus is human or near-human; the only valid question (which Lakoff forbids even asking) is when does it acquire individual human rights? Conception; birth; or somewhere in the middle?” So I guess ignorance, wearing rose colored glasses and living in denial is a happy place? Anyway, they can talk about “freedom of choice” and “woman’s independence” and “reproductive rights” all day long, but bottom line? They never ever address the fundamental question. Is it murder?”

Lakoff suppresses any countering arguments rooted in fact. It is self-imposed; the willingness to be ignorant of fact is in fact, a totalitarian mindset. If one forbids oneself from thinking certain thoughts or realities but is confronted by reality, which forces its way through, it causes cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is the mental anxiety that results from holding two conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes. People tend to seek consistency in their attitudes and perceptions. Quite uncomfortable, the mind makes a huge effort to minimize the feelings so will reject, explain away and avoid new information. No wonder my lib friends will not look at anything I send them.

            So what do I take from this? I am scared. We have a society that is being manipulated. Manipulated into accepting a socialist society – citizens willing, as they have been taught, to think in a totalitarian framework avoiding discomfort and anxiety. Unfortunately, they know not what they do. In their little worlds of denial, they will, if they vote Biden, find themselves living in totalitarianism and wondering what happened. The Cognitive Dissonance this will cause in them will send many into a tailspin.

Eleanor Byrd