The most frustrating thing about things like this is how seemingly most people dont learn.
Like getting suckered or being wrong once, fine, maybe. But I feel like people just double down instead of dealing with the mildly uncomfortable moment of admitting fault.
Not only not admitting fault but somehow making it the fault of the very people that told them exactly what would happen.
Don’t put your hand in the fire, johnny, it’ll hurt. johnny stares you in the eye as he puts his hand defiantly into the fire Ooooow, it burns! Why did you make it burn me?!?
I just finished reading Harry Potter 4, goblet of fire to my kid. The last chapter, despite all the evidence and good people telling him Voldemort has returned and (spoiler after 20 years?) killed Cedric, etc. the minister of magic, Fudge, struggles mightily against their statements and eventually, instead of admitting the truth and accepting what he must do, decides to make enemies of those who wield the truth to shelter himself from the discomfort, fear and pain and decides to pretend Voldemort isn’t real. It’s a pivotal moment in the series and one that sets the tone for the rest of the books, the very adult/political/media battles of the mind, perceptions, and propaganda…by a leader who was a good person overall I think but couldn’t face the music.
I was explaining to my kid that sometimes people just want to avoid reality, and when they are in important roles, it can be devastating. I also told her all people have the same instinct, to avoid conflict, pain and discomfort, but that by learning to go through it you realize it’s far better than the alternatives.
sometimes people just want to avoid reality
This is what I have accepted in the last 5 or so years. No matter how much information I can provide about climate change, people just brush it off like it doesn’t matter.
It’s a defense mechanism. When you think about the amount of things they would have to learn and change their mind on, and then weigh those against “do whats easy”, it’s not surprising people change their minds less as they age.
Fudge specifically says how terrible it would be to upset the order and calm that has been built in Voldemorts absence. Keeping his safe place is his priority.
Hmmm, is this just human nature at work? Is it a function of the conservative mind like it’s never their fault?
Actually… yes, it literally is. They focus on what is effective, and if the pushy behavior works for them to get what they want, they do it. And it does. So they do.
They’ll keep doing it as long as supposedly good people fail to stand up to them.
Guarantee most that pipe off so much would grumble and huff off if they were laughed at and told to fuck off. At least unless they were there to do something, like protest a children’s book reading.
I think many conservatives are “good” (to the extent that any of us are, really), kind-hearted people. The movement itself is not, but the people who believe in it tend to fall for certain types of errors, e.g. being gullible.
Though many are not that way, and liberals also tend to fall for different types of errors, ironically also being gullible if we think our leaders give a damn.
The important thing is that our overlords want to keep us at each other’s throats, as if it is two parts of the common man that are fighting against one another, when really it is the wealthy who regardless of which side wins the election, swoopes in to buy the political players and get their own interests, at the expense of the common man.:-(
The right wing the world over is in for a lot of this. Like shitting the bed and then just rolling around in it and going “no i didn’t”
They never will admit they were wrong. It’s like climate change. We’ve been saying we need to do something since the 70s and they’ve been denying reality since.
Now we’re on to the “it’s too late to do anything” stage of conservative thinking.
- That’s not real
- It’s real but it’s not our fault
- It’s real and it’s too late so stop talking about it
There are still Brexiteers won’t admit they were wrong and doubles down, calling Remainers as Remoaners, in spite of recent surveys stating 56% of British now would not want leave but return instead. Of course, why wouldn’t the Brexiteers admit it? They don’t want to hurt their own ego by admitting errors. They’d rather hurt the national ego instead.
Yeah that sounds like a 7% raise since the brexit vote, I would have guessed that far more people would have changed their minds since then
Brexiters are always annoyed.
It’s not by chance that the word “Gammon” became a common way to describe them (because of the color of that kind of ham is a pretty good match for the color of the furious-face on a pale white old man or woman)
