Do you need proof that people are unbelievably stupid in Wyoming?

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pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
13,633
8,521
136
Sociopaths can be very intelligent, they just lack empathy. Intelligent sociopaths are the dangerous kinds.


I don't know, the whole topic is complicated.

Empathy itself can be over-rated. People can have empathy and still be evil bastards.

After all, it's something that can be, and often is, deployed for political advantage - "I feel your pain" is a useful electoral tactic, and being able to do that is useful for constructing wider political strategies. Maybe it depends on _who_ one emphathises with?

Or maybe the question is whether it's voluntary or involuntary empathy (the latter can kick in when it's inconvenient for the empathiser).

In reality most people tend to empathise mostly with people like themselves, so it's not a particularly useful trait when it comes to justice and fairness.
 

kt

Diamond Member
Apr 1, 2000
6,015
1,321
136
This talk of sociopaths is misplaced.
10s of millions of people are NOT going rabid because of a lack of empathy.
It's propaganda. It's agitation. Free speech can be turned to poison, and our society is living proof.
I am not referring to "the people", more so the top GOP politicians.
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,483
8,344
126
I don't know, the whole topic is complicated.

Empathy itself can be over-rated. People can have empathy and still be evil bastards.

After all, it's something that can be, and often is, deployed for political advantage - "I feel your pain" is a useful electoral tactic, and being able to do that is useful for constructing wider political strategies. Maybe it depends on _who_ one emphathises with?

Or maybe the question is whether it's voluntary or involuntary empathy (the latter can kick in when it's inconvenient for the empathiser).

In reality most people tend to empathise mostly with people like themselves, so it's not a particularly useful trait when it comes to justice and fairness.

See my other part, victimhood. These people think they are the forever victims. Yes they can express basic forms of empathy. But it doesn't get much beyond themselves.
 
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kt

Diamond Member
Apr 1, 2000
6,015
1,321
136
I don't know, the whole topic is complicated.

Empathy itself can be over-rated. People can have empathy and still be evil bastards.

After all, it's something that can be, and often is, deployed for political advantage - "I feel your pain" is a useful electoral tactic, and being able to do that is useful for constructing wider political strategies. Maybe it depends on _who_ one emphathises with?

Or maybe the question is whether it's voluntary or involuntary empathy (the latter can kick in when it's inconvenient for the empathiser).

In reality most people tend to empathise mostly with people like themselves, so it's not a particularly useful trait when it comes to justice and fairness.
That's the thing though, sociopaths can fake empathy and they can do it easily. Sometime you see the obvious ones, but the more intelligent ones can be more convincing and that's what make them dangerous.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
64,208
12,526
136
Sociopaths are not intelligent, they are emotionally and intellectually crippled. You will never train me to abandon compassion and empathy, they are fundamental to retaining one's humanity and sanity.

I disagree. Sociopaths are usually highly intelligent...just lacking in empathy of "give a shit about other people."

We lived for a couple of years in western Wyoming. Yes, some of the people there have that "stupid cowboy" mentality, and most tend to be conservative as hell politically, but it seems like only since Trump have they gone off the deep end.
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
13,633
8,521
136
That's the thing though, sociopaths can fake empathy and they can do it easily. Sometime you see the obvious ones, but the more intelligent ones can be more convincing and that's what make them dangerous.

Not sure it's "fake" exactly, so much as selective and relatively controlled. For example, Trump was good, mostly (with occasional mis-steps, that he quickly pulled back on), at sensing what his constituency (of poorly-formally-educated, white, non-urban) voters were feeling.

I think a complete robot, who had no capacity for sensing others emotions at all, would be very unsuccessful as a politician. Conversely, I think calling these people sociopaths might be unfair to sociopaths, insofar as people who lack empathy can nevertheless sometimes be relatively moral (they just have to substitute abstract reasoning for emotional instinct).

I think the Homer Simpson comment "just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand" is relevant.
 

trenchfoot

Lifer
Aug 5, 2000
14,939
7,456
136
The truly educated are not easily deceived is my point. Depends on the interpretation of the word "educated." I'm applying a high standard.


For the fact that "being educated" is the antithesis of what the Repub leadership wants in their party rank and file, I'm pretty sure once the Repubs gain total control of the gov't, they're going to expand the use of the nation's very expensive private schools of the nation (thus keeping them way too expensive for the middle class and the poor to afford) to cultivate the conservative corporate and political leaders of the future while dumbing down the public schools as much as possible in order to make certain that the maximum number of children being put through that system will be compliant and obedient to the elite, thus minimizing the threat of organized resistance from them. It's essentially why Corporate America is dead set toward destroying as many worker's unions as possible.

How suspiciously odd it is that what I've just described is how many Repub controlled states are run, especially those that are heavily dependent on welfare assistance form the federal gov't. Of course, it's so easy to see how the business folks who run those Repub controlled states are making the fed gov't pay for things these corporations are supposed to provide in the way of better pay and benefits.

Nice rackets they got going there.
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,079
136
If it was on SNL the answers would not have been so slow and muddled. The actors on Saturday Night Live actually practice what they are going to say, instead of spontaneously searching for the "right" answer to make their fanbase happy.
 
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JTsyo

Lifer
Nov 18, 2007
11,817
952
126
I disagree. Sociopaths are usually highly intelligent...just lacking in empathy of "give a shit about other people."

We lived for a couple of years in western Wyoming. Yes, some of the people there have that "stupid cowboy" mentality, and most tend to be conservative as hell politically, but it seems like only since Trump have they gone off the deep end.
I like to think of social media like the environment we train AI using deep learning. In this case the AI is humans and the positive reinforcement is spreading the message. We've let it run for a few years now and the messages that got the most reaction have spread and encourged similar messages. The people are now trained with this data set and it won't be easy to override that training with new information.
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
15,284
13,581
146
I like to think of social media like the environment we train AI using deep learning. In this case the AI is humans and the positive reinforcement is spreading the message. We've let it run for a few years now and the messages that got the most reaction have spread and encourged similar messages. The people are now trained with this data set and it won't be easy to override that training with new information.
I have no doubt that when the robot uprising happens, our annihilation or reduction to chattel will be decided by Internet comments.
 
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gothuevos

Platinum Member
Jul 28, 2010
2,301
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Part of me finds it very amusing that Liz Cheney was an unrepentant asshole for her entire political career and she’s going to lose her seat for the one right thing she did.

Amusing until we realize these are the quality of people who are going to be ruling over us soon.
 
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Amol S.

Platinum Member
Mar 14, 2015
2,411
711
136
Part of me finds it very amusing that Liz Cheney was an unrepentant asshole for her entire political career and she’s going to lose her seat for the one right thing she did.
Sometimes I wonder..... why does the number of people moving to Teton County, Wyoming always remain in just the single digit thousands range. More people need to move there.

CensusPop.
Historical population
19302,003
19402,54327.0%
19502,5932.0%
19603,06218.1%
19704,82357.5%
19809,35594.0%
199011,17219.4%
200018,25163.4%
201021,29416.7%
202023,3319.6%
US Decennial Census[7]
1870–2000[8] 2010–2016[1]

United States presidential election results for Teton County, Wyoming[18]
1656812177444.png


But then I remember... how many people are as rich as Bill Gates to buy a home there.
Economy
A 2019 Bloomberg L.P. report (citing Bureau of Economic Analysis figures) found that Teton had the highest average incomes per capita of any county in the United States, at $252,000. This was partly attributed to the high incomes of Jackson Hole residents, where property owners include Bill Gates.[14]

As of the fourth quarter of 2021, the median home price in Teton County was $1,060,093, an increase of 17.8% from the prior year.[15]

More info over at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teton_County,_Wyoming
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,079
136
This talk of sociopaths is misplaced.
10s of millions of people are NOT going rabid because of a lack of empathy.
It's propaganda. It's agitation. Free speech can be turned to poison, and our society is living proof.
Actually, no.
We have something 325 million here, and based on what I've seen, its not unreasonable to think theres at least 10 million who completely lack any empathy.
I can totally believe it.
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
73,286
6,351
126
My bet is that if I were to investigate right wing social media sites I would find threads where majorities speak of the morons who live in Democratic majority states. I think they would be wrong but that the primary reason they do it is for the emotional support that comes from having team rally events, the need to feel self confidence as is granted by granted by the mob psychosis, the escape offered from rational analysis and careful unbiased reasoning, like I believe I am doing right here, as in 'anything to avoid any moral inhibitions of wanting to dump ones hatred of oneself on others for the sake of emotional release and relief'.

But the problem, of course, is that just as we see here in this thread, hatred and contempt cast without empathy on other, deplorable, worst-of-the-world, lacking in empathy types, so too there, we will see just such but in mirror image. And the whole process is derived and enabled by the belief one is justified to blame.

I call this programming, being asleep, imagining that ones unexamined and deeply ingrained bias, this way or that, is the actual truth when it is nothing more than the organ grinding of monkeys.

What if we had a rule> No casting of stones at sleep walking apes as long is you are responding out of programming yourself, that the rule is, Nobody is fit to criticize, to blame, to hate. What if we had real empathy, enough to know we are all the same.

And now that we are all in agreement and have seen our foolishness for what it is, what do we do now. I mean it isn't like these Republican robots aren't dangerous to others as well as to themselves. You don't have to be free of programming to see the obviousness of this. It isn't what we see that matters but our reactions to it. Do we see it with clarity or do we need our vision to manifest all manner of inner unpleasantness and hatred. Only you can decide that, or can't because of the programming.

What I am interested in isn't bellyaching about the Republican threat and giving it bad names. I want to see movement en masse as to how to stop it.

For one thing I don't think Republicans are stupid so much as that they are actively working to end Western Civilization and taking us back to the Dark Ages because they are riddled with guilt and fear, but as one is with Stockholm Syndrome.
 
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cytg111

Lifer
Mar 17, 2008
23,993
13,519
136
The Republican Party has lost control with the Republican Party.
No one at the helm.
So power structures pulling different directions, in effect creating an anarchist momentum. Just like Bannon wanted.
What is worse than a rabid pit bull? 10.000 rabid chihuahua's

Example:


No-one establishment GOP wants this. Why? Cause they'll never win an actual US election again.
Still, the dems should def. support this, push it, nudge it, champion it.


TexiT
Lets goooooo Braaaaaandon. Go go go go go go.

Get that civil war running inside the GOP.
 
Dec 10, 2005
25,053
8,333
136
Part of me finds it very amusing that Liz Cheney was an unrepentant asshole for her entire political career and she’s going to lose her seat for the one right thing she did.
I heard her referred to as having a reverse Cassandra curse: people believing all the crazy wrong shit she's pushed over the years, but then ignoring the one true thing she does.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
38,407
8,697
136
I heard her referred to as having a reverse Cassandra curse: people believing all the crazy wrong shit she's pushed over the years, but then ignoring the one true thing she does.
Myself, I don't know anything of what she did before but she did not prevaricate in that debate near as I could tell. In that respect she was unique.
 
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sactoking

Diamond Member
Sep 24, 2007
7,582
2,817
136
Regardless of what I think of Kinzinger, Cheney or any of her primary opponents, Kinzinger's quip that they're a bunch of "armpit farters" is one of the best political takedowns I've heard recently.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
38,407
8,697
136
There's not a single adult at the wheel in the GOP any more. We are sliding into an actual banana republic where it's nothing but screeching and feces flinging from the chimpanzees that have taken over.

To quote Lord of the Rings...The age of men is over.

Buckle up. This isn't going to get any better. Who know Idiocracy was going to be this prophetic this quick.
Saw on TV that Green Day performed the other day in Europe and that one of the members declared he was going to give up his American citizenship and become a citizen of some European country (or maybe it was to be a dual citizen, not certain). Then they played American Idiot.
 

HomerJS

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
36,730
28,907
136
Suggestion to the OP, change title to Republicans in Wyoming. I suspect most of the Democrats and Independents are at least moderately intelligent
 

MtnMan

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2004
8,960
8,191
136
Warning:

If you watch the Wyoming and Arizona debate clips in this thread, you will lose 10 IQ points minimum.