More Right Wingery

So a nice right wing lady had this to say about my characterization of the right-wing mind.

 Why not write a book? your "great" analysis is lost here. So what? "Reality" is in the eye of the beholder and your reality is different than mine. "Magical thinking" is saved for progressives that insist that Socialism will work, even as Venezuela starves it's people and hospitals have no drugs. there is no magical thinking within my reality....the fact you even write about it is crazy! Give me an example of Conservative magical thinking----😝

I am not making this up.  She really did say: "Reality" is in the eye of the beholder and your reality is different than mine. 

My response:

If my great analysis is lost on you, it's because you aren't willing to do the hard mental work of acquiring information, digesting it, and using rational thought processes to drive your conclusions.

We all have opinions. A rational, thoughtful person puts some effort into having those opinions correspond as closely as can be achieved with actual observable reality.

Magical thinking is the notion that thinking, believing, or hoping for something makes it true, irrespective of evidence.

Examples of conservative magical thinking:

The unregulated free market is the best market - there is "an invisible hand."
Tax cuts for the rich help the economy.
Tax cuts pay for themselves.
Every other aspect of supply-side trickle down economics.
Having a business man run government will give the best results - because he's NOT a politician.
A Border wall is a solution to immigration and/or smuggling issues.
Mexico will pay for the wall.
Man's action can't affect climate because God is in control.
More broadly, all climate change denialism.
God chose Bush and/or Trump to be president.
White race superiority.
Trade wars are good and easy to win.
Alliances are easy to form and maintain.
Tariffs imposed here are paid for by other countries.
Vaccines cause autism.

But you summed it up perfectly, yourself: "Reality is in the eye of the beholder and your reality is different than mine."

As if your subjective notions and opinions are just as good as my facts, data and empirical observations. That is magical thinking in a nutshell.

Thank you for proving my point.

.

Right Wingery

I've been engaging right wingers in various contexts for over a decade now. Here is my view of how their minds work - and it's stereotypical: you see the same things over and over and over.

The foundation for their belief system is fear and a deep negativity.

Their world view is based on -
- ignorance
- prejudice
- reality denial
- magical thinking

This is supported by cherry picking favorable bits of data and information, while ignoring the larger picture -- epistemic closure. The flip side is steadfastly holding on to ideas that are demonstrably not true - the entire genre of ridiculous conspiracy theories.

Their technique of argumentation is -
- deny
- delay
- distract
- deflect

Hence their tendencies toward what-about-ism, changing the subject and personal attacks.

They manifest all this with the trifecta of right wing behaviors -
- projection
- an often stunning lack of self awareness
- tone deafness to irony

Be on the look out for these things. It is how they always operate. Because when when facts, data and all the other aspects of reality are not on your side, what else are you going to do?