www.ac4lt.org Harmonious Raspberry

Shared by Linda

John make a great point about True Believers. And he's not talking about religious faith here but something far darker and much less wholesome. It's about misplaced faith. Faith is the belief in something you can't prove. These people persist in believing in things even when all the evidence proves them wrong. Fortunately, the vast majority falls into the category of Squeamish. Once they get past that, their attitudes change quickly. Those are the people we need to reach.
Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days usually has a happy ending.  Not so with last week’s.
Many episodes take a person with strong feelings about a topic and putting them in the other side’s shoes for 30 days.  In this episode (available in full on Hulu) a woman opposed to gay adoption lives with a two-dads family for a month.
Usually the fish-out-of-water ends the 30 days changed.  This woman, the mother of two adopted children herself, still holds by the end of her 30 days that gays should not be allowed to adopt children in spite of all the positive things she admits to seeing.  She holds her ground in spite of facts and other perspectives because of her religious beliefs.
The lesson here was for the gay parents; no amount of evidence will sway True Believers.  They thought that bringing a person into their happy home and caring community would change her mind, and they were wrong.  You can’t argue with these people, so don’t.  Don’t lose sleep over trying seeing their points of view; they won’t return the courtesy.  Be prepared to fight fire with fire.
The Political Mind:  Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century Politics with an 18th-Century Mind
A recent FLP Author Event podcast featuring George Lakoff ties into this perfectly.  He’s a cognitive science pioneer who describes in his latest book (and podcast) how social and political behavior is a product of how our brains work.  Lakoff identifies the same fundamental flaw in Progressive politics and those gay parents, this idea that presenting the facts can change people’s minds.
I hate to even bring Lakoff up on the eve of Independence Day since his central assertion is that Classical American political thought, as a product of the Age of Enlightenment, is based on the flawed premise of reason and self-interest as the compass for civic behavior.  He argues that emotion is more important than reason in politics, that it’s based on physiology, and that Progressives have to cast off the idea of Reason to effectively compete with the Conservatives.
It’s a sad thing to spend the nation’s birthday in the Cradle of Liberty knowing how many will really be celebrating their independence from the core ideal of American political thought, Reason.
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