We were--and are--being manipulated towards disaster by methodology that is easily recognized, once it is pointed out. It involves convincing people, who may or may not have a real grievance, that they have one, and they need to hate someone, in some way connected to that "grievance." This is reflected in what might be called The Blame & Envy Cocktail. That, for example, is one of Obama's stock-in-trades.
Another technique, closely related, which has been a common tool of would-be tyrants, and is clearly very evident among those who despise traditional Southern culture--which was actually the most tolerant in the Western World--is in what I would describe as The Compulsion For Uniformity.
I have been fighting these techniques since graduating from High School, and deliberately enrolling in an historically egalitarian oriented college, which was famous for promoting hatred of the Old South, since its founding in the 1830s.
One other point. The arguments that I employ have all been tested many times, through the decades, against the deceptive methodology that I refer to. Properly employed, those destroying the American heritage, have no real answer but to hiss insult.
It is unfortunate that too often we humans are susceptible to appeals to our emotions more so than our ability to reason. I see the same sort of problem cropping up here at Free Republic all the time.
Another technique, closely related, which has been a common tool of would-be tyrants, and is clearly very evident among those who despise traditional Southern culture--which was actually the most tolerant in the Western World--is in what I would describe as The Compulsion For Uniformity.
This is one of the techniques which they have been successfully using to marginalize inquires into the legitimacy of Barack Obama. The media set the standard and the GOPe decided that they needed to fit in with the Media narrative. Anyone questioning his legitimacy was thereafter outside of the herd.
I have been fighting these techniques since graduating from High School, and deliberately enrolling in an historically egalitarian oriented college, which was famous for promoting hatred of the Old South, since its founding in the 1830s.
I think this goes right to the characteristics of human nature. These techniques work because they prey on the more primitive aspects of people. They work on the reptile brain level.
These things you describe, my and several of my friends have taken to calling "Monkey logic." This appellation is based on the study with monkey's cucumbers and grapes. We realized that the perception of unfairness is a basic human characteristic, and we also recognized there are many other similar concepts that resonate on a similar primitive level.
I have come to realize that many arguments which are considered logical fallacies, (tu quque, ad hominem, ad vericundiam, etc) are valid arguments when looked at from a "monkey logic" perspective. Even though they are logically fallacies, they are persuasive because they touch our emotions on a very basic level.
But I think you've developed a similar understanding.