I’M FINALLY COMING OUT OF MY POLITICAL FUNK. HOW ABOUT YOU? OR ARE YOU STILL WITH YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND AND TRYING TO WAIT TO COME OUT UNTIL THINGS GET BETTER?
One of the things that helped me come back to the world of the living was to decide what actions I could take to fight the obvious screwed up thinking of many American voters. I started with a subject that I have written about previously which was Why Do People Choose to Do Things that Injure Themselves? Why would someone not take a life saving drug? Why do people vote for something directly opposed to their self interest?
The drug analogy came from an article that I read and also from my Ophthalmologist who has me on eye drops that slows and maybe even stops Glaucoma if taken every day. Malcom Gladwell wrote about this saying that, as I recall 35% of the people who need this drug, don’t use it every day. It is clear, if you use the drops you won’t get Glaucoma, if you don’t use the drops you will get Glaucoma because it has already been determined that you have the beginning signs of the disease. Blindness is the result. Isn’t that a heck of an analogy to our present situation!
Now we come to why people vote against what would be best for them. The basic answer I believe, is that they do not take the time to be informed about the facts of their decision. I was appalled at the latest news that the internet is allowing “false” news to be broadcast. Unfortunately, both CNN and Fox News were guilty of this. Most people now rely on the internet for their news. They expect the entity publishing the news to have fact checked it. If that were true, how did we get a report that Clintons had a child porno ring at their home? At least this was a news story that people might question. More insidious was the half fact/half truth stories that came out. They sounded real, and lots of Americans bought them.
Also the news media needs to be held accountable for making an obviously unsuitable candidate seem suitable by giving his campaign so much coverage. He didn’t even have to buy ads, because he was getting so much coverage. Also none of the media (except a few) did any fact checking before publishing what they found to be “news”. This was all done in the name of GREED for selling their product.
Bottom line however, as an example, is still why would people vote for closing down immigration and deporting millions and other stupid ideas? Americans all came here first as immigrants. Everyone single American, except the indigenous peoples, can trace their ancestry back to another country. Also, from this kind of legislation comes all sorts of bad laws that will affect our society. China, Japan and India will not be sending their best people for those high level jobs because of the new laws. We will all suffer a “brain drain”. Immigrants who have lived here since they were babies, live in constant fear. Families who have been here for sometimes 30 years, working, paying taxes and contributing to our society, will be separated and sent back to a country they escaped from and found a better life. Again, don’t be stupid, these people will find a way to come back to their US families, wall or no wall. If Americans were more informed about our present immigration laws, they would know that it is arduous to obtain a green card and certainly, if a immigrant commits a crime they are sent back to their country already! You can fact check this or take my word as a former immigration attorney….I insist you fact check!
So my job now is to stand up as soon as I see our beautiful Constitution being threatened and to hopefully find a way to harass the internet to be a strong proponent for the truth. I will keep you posted as I find out the most effective ways to do this.
THANKS FOR LETTING ME RANT……I FEEL BETTER ALREADY.