Win or lose in November, more than 70 million Americans will likely cast their ballots for Trump. Most of them know who Trump is. They hear his vile words and heinous promises—and they like what they hear. They are the reason the election will be close.
Because people are dumb. And I don’t mean that in some flippant, off-hand, snarky way. I mean that in all dead seriousness. People are dumb.
The truest line ever written was from Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black.
“A person is smart. But people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.” The novelization of the film actually takes it a bit further and adds “A mob is only as smart as it’s dumbest member.”
Long story short, group-think skews towards the simplistic and instinctual. This election is close for the same reason that one scared cow will turn into a stampede even though the rest of them have no idea what they’re running from…because we’re wired to see that if other people are running, maybe we should be too…it’s a matter of survival.
A smart person can see past that and resist when they’re alone. But get them into a crowd of like minded individuals and we aren’t smart anymore. And people like Trump take advantage of that.
You had me up until the point that you assigned a “side”.
The reason so many find it terrifying that this is a close race is also because the internet has fed the crap starved minds of people who live to see themselves as oppressed. And when one in a mob yells “Nazi”, the rest of the mob yells “Nazi”.
Fear is a fantastic motivator. And if you can scare your base into believing the worst will come if you don’t vote a certain way, well, you get each side terrified and voting.
They really are. I saw a documentary where some chick infiltrated a bunch of these Turning Point and Proud Boys types clubs for boys, and they were doing literal Heil Hitler’s to open their meeting. Some fucking ice breaker.
Because people are dumb. And I don’t mean that in some flippant, off-hand, snarky way. I mean that in all dead seriousness. People are dumb.
The truest line ever written was from Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black.
“A person is smart. But people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.” The novelization of the film actually takes it a bit further and adds “A mob is only as smart as it’s dumbest member.”
Long story short, group-think skews towards the simplistic and instinctual. This election is close for the same reason that one scared cow will turn into a stampede even though the rest of them have no idea what they’re running from…because we’re wired to see that if other people are running, maybe we should be too…it’s a matter of survival.
A smart person can see past that and resist when they’re alone. But get them into a crowd of like minded individuals and we aren’t smart anymore. And people like Trump take advantage of that.
You had me up until the point that you assigned a “side”.
The reason so many find it terrifying that this is a close race is also because the internet has fed the crap starved minds of people who live to see themselves as oppressed. And when one in a mob yells “Nazi”, the rest of the mob yells “Nazi”.
Fear is a fantastic motivator. And if you can scare your base into believing the worst will come if you don’t vote a certain way, well, you get each side terrified and voting.
We’re only yelling “Nazi” because the other side is yelling “heil Hitler”.
They really are. I saw a documentary where some chick infiltrated a bunch of these Turning Point and Proud Boys types clubs for boys, and they were doing literal Heil Hitler’s to open their meeting. Some fucking ice breaker.
MuH BoTh SiDeZ
fuck off Russian troll.