Wednesday, May 12, 2010

T-baggers outrage against Obama



Cognitive Dissonance produces criticism



Under Obama's leadership Americans are paying less taxes than at any time since Harry Truman. Yet Republicans and the people in the video below seem totally unaware of this fact. They and the birthers, the accusers of Obama's socialism and anyone else who has a beef against the world have taken to the streets and are demonstrating. What they are demonstrating is little more than their own madness.

These criticisms of this president have no basis in reality. Quite the contrary: Those who see him as a socialist either have no idea of what socialism entails, or else they have drunk RNC Kool-Aid. Those who see him as a fraud are themselves fraudulent.

The mind can be a tricky thing.

Frequently, and especially, when we are filled with self-loathing, a common state of being since Christianity holds as a basic tenet that we are all sinners. We cannot deal with our own feelings of hatred and worthlessness, so we project these very real negative and therefore afflictive emotions onto the world. Rather than accept what is essentially our own responsibility, we go into a strange phenomenal response. Since such emotion is difficult to endure we attempt to ignore it. But as we are born with a mind which is innately honest, the unconscious mind cannot ignore it. But neither can the mind deal with it. Faced with this difficulty or threat to the integrity of one's own personhood, rather than lose control and self-destruct, we go into what is technically known as cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive Dissonance

is what happens when information comes in which does not jibe with our sense of how things ought to be. So the mind spaces it. But that unfortunately does not solve the problem. The accusation is still there, But rather than accept the guilt we project the emotion onto the world. Since Obama is largely an unknown person to us, we latch onto him and project the dilemma onto him. So if I am a fraud and my (Freudian) superego refuses to accept responsibility for being a fraud, rather than crack and destroy the ego, I will Accuse Obama of being a fraud. Result I feel much better about myself, but I scapegoat Obama for my own fraudulence.

We tend to see life not as it is, but as we are.

In the words of Saint Francis of Assissi:

"What you are looking for is what is looking."


From that perspective, these are unhappy people who have lost their sense of self. It may be said they have lost their identity.

If you look at Obama and see only fraud it's because you are the fraud. Your hatred is just a projection of your own self-loathing. Unfortunately most of the folks who fear and hate Obama as a fraud, are mostly suffering from clinical delusional paranoia.


3 comments:

  1. ThanK YOU!
    for Your Contribution!
    NiCe Not to Feel alone!
    We MUST Gather & aMPLIFY!
    Good Thought, to OverCome the Heathens wrapping themselVes in "Righteousness"... WhaT a BAD JOKE!
    HaY'SUS!
    Would Have Planted the Sandal Where Needed...
    Sad.
    b.
    *^D
    Keep up Your end, I'll Keep on Mine.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If this film trailer is representative of the delusional mindset of thousands, perhaps millions of Americans, we are in for a long hot summer of hate, where ignorance and fear rule over reason and sanity. It is troubling enough that so many of these Tea Party groups are also supporters of the NRA and racist white power freedom militias. Cognitive dissonance pushed to the extreme leads to acts of violence (for example, John Lennon's assassination) and from watching this Youtube video, one must conclude that we are a deeply paranoid country.

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  3. Hello,

    First, I want to thank you for your kind comment you wrote on my eye-on-washington blogspot. It was well appreciated, especially after reading the pieces that you have written here. Great blog.

    I have two neighbors who are Obama haters, and Teabaggers of sort. It does appear that they are frauds themselves, and do hate themselves for the kind of people they are, but try to pretend to be something else.

    One neighbor is just a hypocrite, former union man, who now, although in denial, hates working people because he is voting for conartist Pat Toomey, of PA, and believer in austerity to be placed upon the backs of workers, and the un-worker.

    I cannot stomach them much anymore. They rarely engage with me now because I tell them what I think and they have no arguments.

    The nation is spiraling downward. For now, it cannot be stopped. There are too many ignorant, and hateful people.

    thanks, jerry

    ReplyDelete