Programmed People

Programmed People

 

Ever had a conversation (or tried to have one anyway) with someone who couldn’t focus on one main point if their lives depended on it? Chances are it isn’t just ADD. Too many people today react like Pavlov’s dog whenever important topics like politics or religion are brought up. Instead of an honest thoughtful exchange of ideas, so many people today regurgitate prepackaged responses to important questions like a Tourretes patient stuck on a spasm of talking points. Critical thinking and basic logic is a lost skill set.

It is nearly impossible to have an important two way conversation with someone like that because no matter what you say, it just isn’t registering with the gray matter between their ears. They aren’t thinking critically about what you said. What’s worse is that they aren’t just repeating words. Any one of a dozen push button topics will not only launch them instantly into insulting personal attacks, but they will believe the absolute worst about you without any evidence or further discussion.

Case in point: After the recent election, a friend and I were lightly joking about how stressful the night was for both sides until they brought up something their neighbor did that, in their words, “really pissed [them] off”. The next day after the election their neighbor had hung his American flag upside down to show his disapproval. My friend was incensed that someone would use that legitimate military signal for life threatening distress as a sign of their political opinion. They said they were angry because they had friends in the military that they felt would be highly offended by what they believed was a casual use of that vital signal of a life threatening situation.

Maybe there are some in the military that would be offended to see their sign of distress used for political posturing, but there are also some veterans who have done the exact same thing. There are many who believe that our country is at such a critical point that it isn’t just about the economy anymore, but about our core liberties, and yes even life threatening political policies that are destroying this country from the inside out. Try as I might I could not get them to see that. Being self-blinded to the serious liberty and life-threatening policy differences that do exist; my friend fell back on the baseless charge of racism to explain their neighbor’s behavior. My friend asserted that they knew I wasn’t a racist for my opposition to Obama, but that so many other people really only opposed Obama because of his race. My friend could see no other explanation for it.

Racism? Seriously? Nobody was charging liberals with racism when they called Bush a Nazi or a war criminal. Nobody was calling Jimmy Carter’s detractors racists back in the 1970’s when he employed some of the exact same policies that Obama has now. My friend had previously qualified the statement about their neighbor by saying he seemed nice. My friend made no mention of race or his neighbor’s thoughts about race previously. My friend said they had liked their neighbor before, but as baseless and insulting as it was, racism had to be the answer for why he turned his flag upside down.

Hearing the get-out-of-jail-free caveat that my friend just knew I was not a racist, I tried to offer my explanation for why their neighbor did what he did. I lowered my voice and considered my words carefully. Trying to both ease my friends concerns and relate to their situation, I first admitted that I too had turned my flag upside down for a brief amount of time when Obama won his first term in 2008 because of what I knew his policies would do to this country. My friend’s face collapsed. It was like a switch flipped in their heads and nothing I said next mattered. I was one of them.

Every example I cited of Obama’s direct involvement in the loss of our constitutional liberties was ignored and countered by unrelated or untrue accusations about Obama’s political adversaries. They just laughed when I cited Obama’s 6 trillion dollar increase in the deficit in only 4 years. My friend was stuck on the image of that flag being upside down and not why. “Yeah but Romney would not have changed that” was another repeated riposte. They even brought up Arizona’s immigration enforcement law and falsely asserted that it was somehow an example of racism that conservatives, like myself, allegedly tolerated as if it was a relevant counterpoint to the Obama TSA’s daily violation of the 4^th amendment. I even cited Supreme Court cases (which garnered nothing but glazed eyes). Finally I cited the chief example of why my friend was so upset about that flag being up-side down; Obama’s recent cover-up, lies, and abandonment of our people… even our Navy Seals in Benghazi, Libya whose calls for help went through to the White House situation room multiple times over hours. If they had been a part of a unit on a battlefield their flag would have been up-side down because they were cut off and dying. Their pleas for help were denied, they were murdered as the White House watched and then lied about it, and my friend refused to consider it as a valid reason why their neighbor might not be a racist just because he hung a flag upside down.

My friend, if they are still my friend, hasn’t said a word to me since. They are programmed. They are spring loaded to shoot off in a pre-planned spastic reaction to politics. Even when presented with undeniable, current, widely-reported facts, they can’t let go of the narrative. This is why people tread lightly around friends and family over politics and religion. Sad day. Guess, all I can do is pray for them now. Maybe they will listen to God.