Subliminal Political Religious Somnambulism

Partisan politics is like religion. You promote your beliefs and deny all forms of contradictory information. Facts and testimonials that refute your wishful agenda are either ignored or sidestepped by character assassination of whichever message bearer most conveniently fills that role. One is not automatically intelligent because they are not a rightist. I know republicans who are in most other ways quite intelligent and resourceful, but they listen to Rush Limbaugh (some will say "just for the entertainment value", but when I challenge them on it and ask why they think it is funny, and they let all the race cards fall out of their deck, then I am able to say...so it isn't for the entertainment value - that is how you view women and minorities). Very large and powerful structures exist designed to tell people what they want to hear. Other structures exist within those that artfully engineer what people think they want.

Imagine you go to a cafe. There are two items on the menu: Pork chops and clam chowder. You do not like either. Before you got to the cafe along the way there were a variety of subliminal advertising schemes aimed at you as to preferring pork or chowder. So much so, that - by the time you sit down at the cafe, you are thinking, gee, what do I want, pork or chowder (forgetting that you do not like either and would normally only eat them if it was being served at your grandmother's insufferably hot apartment). The next great step is to chose one lest you look indecisive or leave since you have been convinced of your own hunger. So...chowder it is! Eventually, you run into someone who hates chowder as much as you do and says "I hate chowder, I ate pork!" Well who do these fuckers think they are, anyway, acting like they are too good for chowder! But for an "h" it doesn''t matter what you ate. So it is like religion. You are born into this crappy belief system just like the guy who walks into the crappy cafe. Jesus, wow, he sounds good, but what about the Prophet, blessed be his name, or gosh, look down here at the curved side of the menu at this Buddha dude, and who holy moly - who is this Shiva, anyway? Trouble is it is usually fed to you before you can even talk and say "Why do you believe this shit?" Nothing against Jesus, orThe Mahdi, nothing against clams or pigs, either. But people start taking it personally and that is when it gets serious. Religion does to politics what Call of Duty does to remote warfare. Normalizing extreme behavior does not happen in the crappy cafe, but it makes it possible by making sure that people who are unhappy with the choices are not given an alternative and not even served and that people who swallow what they hate learn that it is best to defend it rather than explain how they ended up with luminous worms crawling in their feces before they flushed the toilet. I've always been a chowderman, always will be! Stupid pork eaters, can't they see what stupid fucking idiotic morons they are? God, my stomach hurts. Why are my stools so gray? Godamned leftist communist takers, fucking freeloaders. Idiotic low information right wing brain washed fascist zombies. To hell with pork!

I know you smartassed pig eaters think I'm stupid but deep in your hearts you know Chowder is the best, you really do. And fuck you if you don't like it! chowder, christian, atheist, republican, pork ribs, democrat, Rosicrucian, kumquat, veggie dog, it's a war of ideas being fought over the illusion of your right to choose! Those who actively engage seem mostly to be limited to changing hypnotists or, if they aren't insured, developing a taste for their own vomit and moving on from there.