Like many Americans, Carolina Giuliani was paralyzed over the prospect that Donald Trump — the man she blames for ruining her father and damaging her family — could be close to returning to the White House.
…
“It’s a hard phenomenon to understand. It definitely is,” Carolina Giuliani said. “I view Trump as a disease, and I think it’s really important to remember that with every disease, prevention is a much more effective strategy than treatment. … I thought we had cured ourselves of it the first time, but it doesn’t seem like we have.
“And I think if he becomes the president again, we may have a terminal illness in our country. And that really, really scares me.”
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The Trumpist members of my family are proud to be recalcitrant about it all. It’s at least three parts: first there’s the gulf between us, and then the knowledge of the breadth of it, and lastly the pride of standing so far away from everyone. It’s not just that they’re way past the orbit of Pluto. It’s also the fact that they’re so proud to be so far out.
People want to believe that they’re informed. Want to believe that they know things others don’t. That they are wise. And will push back when challenged. Because they don’t know the one thing every wise person knows. Just how much they don’t know. Fools are confidently wrong. The wise are cautiously correct.
45 years ago:
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”
― Isaac Asimov
You’re absolutely right. I’d just like to add on:
Wise people learn from the mistakes of others. They observe and take note of chains of events, and use that knowledge in order to guide their own decisions in the future.
Wise people question what they believe. If they feel cognitive dissonance, they don’t ignore it; they examine their ideas and consider the prospect that they may be wrong. They can change their minds based on new evidence.
Wise people are skeptical. When they learn about a situation, they don’t take immediate sides based on knee-jerk emotions. Rather, they examine all available information and come around to their own ideas in their own time.
Using all of the above points are what guide wise people towards “cautiously correct” decisions. They are more likely “correct” because they base their ideas on a greater pool of information, and are capable of discarding ideas even if the ideas “feel good” to believe in. They remain “cautious,” because no matter how sure they believe they are, they are well aware that there’s a chance they could still be mistaken.
recalcitrant
adjective
re·cal·ci·trant ri-ˈkal-sə-trənt
Synonyms of recalcitrant
1
**: **obstinately defiant of authority or restraint
2
a
**: **difficult to manage or operate
b
**: **not responsive to treatment
c
**: **RESISTANT
this subject is recalcitrant both to observation and to experiment—G. G. Simpson
I believe a large part of Trump supporters are that way due to some overgrown form of Oppositional-Defiant Disorder.
I certainly think it’s a part of it. As someone who knows some people I think have ODD, they’re easier to work on than true believers. You can find common ground in fuck this system talk, but guide that towards a better future instead.
Source: years of working with hearts and minds of people I care about. I identify with ODD. I probably could have been classified ODD at some point.
I’d disagree on that considering these people trend toward obedience in everything like police/laws, Christianity, “traditional values,” party politics, etc, etc.
I think it’s more a superiority complex where instead of being boring nobodies, they’re actually insiders with special knowledge that the rest of the masses don’t have. Additionally, right wing propaganda gives them scapegoats to blame for all their life problems (financial, social, personal). Add these two together and you have the modern republican base.
My grandfather, who is generally a good-natured but immature man, really ate up everything Fox News spewed at him about Trump. He and my grandmother always play the pity card that I don’t visit them, but they’ve been supremely unpleasant to be around for the last 8 years because they can’t leave politics out of it.
He wore a MAGA hat to my nephew’s 3rd birthday party and explicitly stated that he did it to make others uncomfortable. So no gramps, I don’t really want to visit you these days.
It’s amazing how little accountability exists for those spreading it.
Or those who believe it.
Like really, it is mostly bullshit.
time to scatter banned books all around the house when he visits and put on your WOKE AF tshirt --“oh, does that make you…uncomfortable? grandma?”
Your grandfather sounds like a dick, not a good natured man. Punch him in the face next time you see him.
I completely understand that reaction. When I say immature I mean a man who was abused by family so he ran away at 14 and kind of arrested his development at that point. So even things like this that sound completely insane don’t feel that insane to my family members.
I’ve had conversations with other family members to try to get them to imagine hearing this story without knowing who he was to really see how beyond the pale it was.
If you’re doing stuff to make people uncomfortable at a fucking 3 year oldest birthday party, yeah it’s time for you to stop getting invited.
Louder for the people in the back, thanks.
I believe its unfounded self-righteousness.
They are totally self assured and prideful, no matter how fuckstupid they are. They even pride their own ignorance.
The trumpets in my family, aunt and uncle, are different. they pretend to be affable and loving, act like they want to see us, but every time we get together they CAN NOT HELP themselves from talking shit about liberals or whatever the latest fox propaganda is. And they know my parents, my wife and I are left to varying degrees. So I finally said fuck it, clearly you do not respect me, so I don’t need your bullshit in my life anymore.