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    BobbySeriousAshley Feinberg
    10/23/15 12:02pm

    Modern day conservatism meets nearly every standard to be labeled a cult.

    1. Persecution complex
      Us against them mentality. Therefore, when someone (inside or outside of the group) corrects the group in doctrine and/or behavior, it is interpreted as persecution, which then is interpreted as validation.
    2. Control
      Control of members’ actions and thinking through repeated indoctrination
    3. Isolation
      Minimizing contact with those outside the group. This facilitates a further control over the thinking and practices of the members by the leadership.
    4. Special Knowledge
      Only they know the truth, everyone else in the world is brainwashed
    5. Indoctrination
      The teachings of the group are repeatedly drilled into the members, while outside sources are demonized as evil and are never to be trusted.
    6. Cognitive Dissonance
      Avoidance of critical thinking and/or maintaining logically impossible beliefs and/or beliefs that are inconsistent with other beliefs held by the group.Avoidance of and/or denial of any facts that might contradict the group’s belief system.
    7. Shunning
      Those who do not keep in step with group policies are shunned and/or expelled.
    8. Gender Roles
      Control of gender roles and definitions.Severe control of gender roles sometimes leads to sexual exploitation.
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      KittyReavenBobbySerious
      10/23/15 12:07pm

      Remember, a cult isn’t a cult if it’s accepted by a lot of society.

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      kamla deviBobbySerious
      10/23/15 12:13pm

      Exhibit A:

      http://gawker.com/i-dont-know-ho…

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    ManchuCandidateAshley Feinberg
    10/23/15 11:59am

    This poll just goes to show that Iowa GOPers are 110% stupid.

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      cuntybawsManchuCandidate
      10/23/15 12:02pm

      Around three per cent of them are not sure how they feel about you saying that about them.

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      BurntttManchuCandidate
      10/23/15 12:06pm

      That’s too simple! You can’t just say “they’re dumb” and move on.

      That’s too easy. I don’t think it’s ever constructive to say “Well they’re just different than us, and also wrong, and that’s all there is to it.”

      Don’t you want to know why?

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    OMG!PONIES!Ashley Feinberg
    10/23/15 12:00pm

    On the other hand, Carson’s revisionist history of the Holocaust makes me think that he’ll get along just fine with fellow Holocaust-revisionist Binyamin Netanyahu.

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      blameitonthecroutons goodbye tourOMG!PONIES!
      10/23/15 12:05pm

      It’s pretty easy to get along with Israel as long as you give them everything they want

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      ideasleepfuriouslyblameitonthecroutons goodbye tour
      10/23/15 12:06pm

      especially firearms...

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    Kenhe LoginAshley Feinberg
    10/23/15 12:32pm

    Carson is a lunatic, but he’s soft-spoken and seems reasonable unless you actually listen to what he has to say.

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      AnnieBodyKenhe Login
      10/23/15 1:13pm

      See but that’s what I cannot get about his popularity. He is the very opposite of charismatic: he always seems like he’s either about to nod off or just woken up. How he inspires this fervor in the Republican base is beyond me! At least Trump has some quality of magnetism and energy but Ben Carson always sounds like he’s so damn boring he’s about to put himself to sleep.

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      Kenhe LoginAnnieBody
      10/23/15 1:18pm

      I believe that part of his appeal is his race. His supporters can pretend they’re not racist because they support a black candidate, but I think the biggest reason for support is how stridently pro-life he is.

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    blameitonthecroutons goodbye tourAshley Feinberg
    10/23/15 12:05pm

    Why is the Hitler question even there? Is this something that people seriously speculate about and have an answer?

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      Fleet Admiral Joshblameitonthecroutons goodbye tour
      10/23/15 12:18pm

      Yeah, it’s a pretty popular belief among the gun rights group that if the Jews (and Germans at large) had only been armed then they would have risen up to stop Hitler! They seriously believe this.

      Never-mind that:

      a) Hitler made gun ownership for your average German easier, not harder (although he did ban gun owner ship for Jews)

      b) There were a couple of armed Jewish uprisings, which were quickly crushed because the Nazis had fucking machine guns and tanks.

      Of course, neither of these facts is evidence against their belief that if only had the Jews been armed!...

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      okiedokieokieFleet Admiral Josh
      10/23/15 12:46pm

      They have to believe that there were no Jewish uprisings that were crushed due to the Nazis having superior weapons and technology. Because that would mean accepting the fact their own stockpiles of guns would be useless against our own military should the need arise. You know, the same military that they love above all yet hate and fear more than anything all at the same time somehow.

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    lobstrAshley Feinberg
    10/23/15 12:02pm


    (the “3” is in the “Very Unattractive” column) ...
    Yes, indeed, inspirational personal stories are a total dealbreaker — give us candidates with uninspirational stories!*

    (*I guess that’d be yer Donald J. Trump, huh?)

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      TheLastConformistlobstr
      10/23/15 12:06pm

      I think candidates with boring life stories are probably better at the nitty-gritty, genuinely boring, details of governing than candidates with “inspiring” life stories, all else being equal. Doesn’t mean an inspiring life story is a bad thing, but it isn’t a reason to vote for someone.

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      Ben Carson's Missing Spongelobstr
      10/23/15 12:12pm

      “I AM PRESIDENTBOT. I WAS BUILT IN A LABORATORY. ASSEMBLY WAS COMPLETE ON... JUNE... SIX... TEEN, TWENTY... FIFTEEN.”

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    phunkshunAshley Feinberg
    10/23/15 12:53pm

    I’d take a career politician over any of these fuckheads any day of the week. Some of the greatest advancements we’ve made in civics has been due to career politicians.

    One of the biggest fucking ruses that has ever been pulled on the mouthbreathing American public is making people believe that the chops that are needed to be a business leader are equivalent to the chops needed to be a civic leader.

    In terms of representative democracy, nothing could be farther from the truth except in the most basic concepts of leadership. The former favors authoritarian despots and the latter demands coalition building and compromise.

    But we’re generally too fucking stupid to realize this.

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      AnnieBodyphunkshun
      10/23/15 1:05pm

      One of the many delightful paradoxes of the modern conservative movement is how their politicians run on the platform of: Washington is the problem, government is evil, and politicians are abhorrent human beings who can’t do anything right - vote for me ladies and gentlemen for the government position in Washington!

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      Erik Lonnrotphunkshun
      10/23/15 2:18pm

      Who would have thought, people who are experienced at something are generally better at it than people who are not. For some reason politics is the one field where people seem to think that this is not true.

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    Montauk MonsterAshley Feinberg
    10/23/15 12:17pm

    I posted about this elsewhere, but a cousin (that I’m not close to) shared a link on FB about Ben Carson where the headline was something like “I Won’t Tell Lies to Get Elected.”

    That’s all it takes for some people. It hurts my brain and my heart in equal measures.

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      KittyReavenMontauk Monster
      10/23/15 12:36pm

      I guess in theory he isn’t telling lies. Being a jackass isn’t lying.

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      Montauk MonsterKittyReaven
      10/23/15 12:40pm

      Yeah I will agree with her in that he seems quite truthful. He is very honest about his ignorance.

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    benjaminalloverAshley Feinberg
    10/23/15 12:09pm

    I always assumed folks’ fierce anti-intellectualism was something they’d lie to themselves about. These people, however, are open and proud.

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      Fleet Admiral Joshbenjaminallover
      10/23/15 12:28pm

      Na, these people essentially don’t trust anything they don’t understand. They don’t understand evolution? it’s not real. They don’t understand global warming? It’s fake. They don’t understand the nuances in different beliefs within Islam? They’re all evil.

      An expert arrives to better explain why what you think is wrong? Well, I still don’t understand what he is saying so fuck him.

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      benjaminalloverFleet Admiral Josh
      10/23/15 12:35pm

      How do you marginalize and exploit the freest people on earth? You convince them that it’s patriotic and good to be dumb and hostile to both new information in general and those who possess it. It’s utterly astounding, just astounding. I would find this a bridge too far if I read it in an Orwell or Vonnegut novel. I can’t totally wrap my head around the attitude.

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    ReburnsABurningReturnsAshley Feinberg
    10/23/15 12:09pm

    I hate that “common sense” has been hijacked to disguise people being anti-intellectual and/or a very shoot from the hip approach to complicated problems.

    I’ve always thought that common sense meant that you knew the difference between simple and complex things, and had the wherewithal to be practical about the simple things and cautious about making sweeping statements when it comes to complicated things.

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      Maj. MalfunctionReburnsABurningReturns
      10/23/15 12:23pm

      Common sense is useful for deciding if you’re going to eat the leftovers in the fridge that have turned green and fuzzy.

      Common sense is useless when deciding how to spend trillions of dollars of other peoples’ money, or whether to send young Americans to die, or whether to murder the citizens of other nations with drones, or which people in the U.S. should be citizens, or whether all U.S. citizens should have the same rights, or how we should police ourselves, or how our students should be educated, or how we should take care of the weak, infirm and elderly, or how we should grapple with our long, ongoing history of endemic racism.

      Complex issues require a lot more than just common sense. They require extraordinary research, consideration, consultation and compromise.

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