Why do groups of people do what they do and believe what they believe?
I have been watching the TV and I am completely amazed by the cultural divide and how both sides interpret events completely differently and in my opinion, completely wrong.
When I was in college I did a paper on the 100th Monkey. The study is now discredited but the idea was based on a study of monkeys on uninhabited islands. Supposedly when a certain number of monkeys on one island (one hundred) all started doing one behavior, then other monkeys on other isolated islands also started doing the behavior.
It was an idea of collective consciousness. Modern research does not support this concept but I wonder if it has merit. Especially after watching the progression of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
The Monkey Theory presumed there was no communication or observation, so the only way for the behavior to have been transferred was through shared consciousness.
I remember many years ago when I first played Sim City on my Machintosh SE. I stayed up half the night watching my city grow and trying to manipulate the Sims to move into my neighborhoods. The sound of Godzilla emerging from the ocean to wipe out my City still haunts my sleep. If you were to say, "Skywatch 1 Reporting Heavy Traffic," I would immediately recognize a kindred spirit.
Why did the Sims move in and why did the Sims move out? Obviously an algorithm in the game which I could never see.
I just read a post online talking about Oregon politics. Us conservatives go off on crazy liberals and vote by mail. Every lost election is a result of Vote By Mail fraud. I have been saying this as a joke for years but didn't realize Republicans actually believe this.
We as people believe things to be true based on something other than facts. In fact the very term, "The Cold Hard Facts of Life," (Check out Travis Chandlers version of this song) is biased to the perception of the person describing what they believe to be the cold hard facts of life.
The truth as I see it. (See what I did there)
We curate our intake of information to support what we need to rationalize our lives. We adopt deeply held beliefs for instinctive reasons that we don't understand.
What I find amazing is the manipulation of public perception. A major part of the public is convinced that ICE is arresting and deporting every brown skinned person they see.
Many people in my peer group believe ICE is only targeting criminals.
I have gotten in trouble for calling BS on this. Cops are cops and Feds are just cops with no accountability so they go after the low hanging fruit. They don't want to get shot going after gangsters, plus the gangsters probably have bought off someone higher up or the gang is a CIA front so gangsters are pretty safe. (Most Hispanics I know tend to agree with me)
So, being lazy, I asked CoPilot. "What are the statistics for number of innocents detained by ICE vs actual criminals." Note: I understand the phrasing of my question affects the answer of an AI source.
CoPilot gave me this statistic, "Current most authoritative data shows roughly three quarters of people detained by ICE have no criminal convections at all."
So I asked, "How often does ICE detain U.S. Citizens. CoPilot responded with a lot of incomplete statistics but I did manage to get this quote, "ICE's own systems have repeatedly misidentified citizens as, "removable aliens," leading to wrongful arrests and detentions."
The opposition says that only criminals are deported. Lars Larson gets to 100 percent illegal as he says every illegal is a criminal because they violated the law to get here. His usual lazy logic...
Well, that didn't go as expected...
I wanted to believe ICE was not as incompetent as I feared. I suppose now is the point where I question my sources and fall back on ideology. Plus, I have to go to work.
In conclusion...
1. Trump and Co. is screwing up the next election the same way he manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory six years ago. I was a little worried when I saw the Crazy MTG lady depart. The administration was tasked with deporting illegals. They failed to keep discipline and the usual Jackbooted Feds are doing what they always do. Going after the easy pickings.
2. I really dislike the Democrat establishment more than ever. Their cynical maneuver of open borders flooded us with illegals and switched our illegal immigration problem from individuals sneaking in at night, to cartels and major money in human smuggling and all the graft, corruption, drugs, and violence that comes with it.
3. Probably the only plan that the government is capable of carrying out with any success would be a lockdown of the border and general amnesty of people already here. However, it didn't work before due to an utter refusal by both parties to come up with a coherent immigration policy.
4. We are screwed...
On another topic
Why do the Cat and Dog always take my chair????
 |
| Animals do NOT belong in the house. |
Posts
Biggest problem I see is that we can't believe what we see or hear anymore with the "fake news" and "AI" taking over social media. Right now I don't see any political party worth voting for. They all annoy me in some way or other.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I have taken supposedly factual posts from both sides of this argument and put them into AI or a fact checker and found them to have twisted actual statements or events or they are a total fabrication. You can watch events happen in real time on line and see the spin in the reporting. Sort of like the USSR back when Democrats loved Russia...
DeleteImmigration reform has been in discussion for decades. There was a good bi-partisan bill under Biden that would have passed but DJT, as a private citizen, threatened all the GOP sheep and they stuck their heads in the sand. AI is confusing much of the media but I can affirm from observation that ICE is standing at the exits of restaurants, churches, hospitals, etc., and grabbing brown people. There are approximately 120,000 undocumented people in MN and over a million each in NY and CA. There are about 3000 ICE agents in MN, '47-day wonders' and as such have no law enforcement skills. Your reference to TDS is somewhat complex. Trump is insane. He is mentally ill. He has never had consequences for any of his actions. He's screwed employees, contractors, lenders and now MAGA voters for a long, long time. He's unfit. The Democrats have been idiots for a long time and failed to see the planning of the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025. Unfortunately Trump has destroyed the economy and domestic and foreign relationships, partnerships and economic agreements. To that end, we are all screwed. You attended college, read and write, and continue to do so. That's beyond most Americans. Fifty percent of Americans read at the 5th grade level or less. You can probably assume that 75% read at a high school level or less. Most could not read the schematic diagram of your broken machinery or read the instructions/parts list of have the 'hands on' skills to tackle repairs. Given that last thought, who the hell can fix the Democracy?
ReplyDeleteThe "bi-partisan" bill under Biden makes a good example of failed policy. It was a poison pill. It normalized an "acceptable," number of illegal crossings while at the same time setting a quota on immigration. There was no provision for detention or zero tolerance for crime. At the same time it locked in administrations favored immigrant groups and parole programs and subsidized the NGO's that are making their money off the immigration crisis. AND... They tacked on funding for Israel and Ukraine. Typical failure and and it was a BiPartisan failure. Fortunately DJT was there to herd the sheep!
DeleteI have no idea about ICE standing outside of Church. The local brown people that I have talked to don't seem worried. Except for the guy that is hiding an illegal. He is a little on edge. So if you have seen it then that is something I can't argue with.
Doing a quick search turns up lots of unverified claims that ICE has 3,000 agents in Minnesota and is staking out hospitals and churches. However, that is not verified officially. (Further illustrating my skepticism about anything I see online)
The whole Project 2025 conspiracy is just the flip side of the Conservative obsession with Agenda 21. I think the Democrats were just upset that they didn't have a good catchy conspiracy for fundraising. Although, after reading Project 2025, I am fine with much of it. I would like to see the Patriot Act repealed. The TSA eliminated and ICE should be abolished and the Border Patrol should be in charge of deportations. Also, wearing masks was the absolute worst PR move ever invented the PsyOps idiots in government. Unless, they want to sabotage the Trump administration and there is a plan to discredit immigration reform by being deporting the wrong people...