We have a current thread about cognitive dissonance, and I recently saw an example here that was so pristine, that I think it deserves its own thread. Maca produced this little gem. I am actually kind of glad Maca is here. He is the hard right, completely unfiltered. I appreciate the authenticity, even if I think much of it is bollocks.

In a thread earlier in the week that unfortunately got nuked, so I will have to paraphrase, Maca said [as best I remember] "...feminists hate our representative government". Feminists are one of his favorite whipping girls for all that is wrong with the world, I was a little puzzled about what it was he thought they hated and was going to ask, but Maca rarely returns to defend his verbal mortal shells. He just lobs them up into the sky and wanders away. The thread got nuked in any case.

Today, in the thread about freedom to not get shot at, he posted this:

>This is why we need guns because of the demon party, that have too much power and they want to steal our stuff.


Well. So much for loving our representative government. If you lose the election, you are entitled to blow the opposition away.

There are people who find that attitude troubling.

I remember when a person used that exact logic to go in and shoot a judge in court because the judge had made a child support ruling he didn't agree with. And this was not some wacko off the street - it was a guy who had been on the city council, so he was sane enough to get elected to something.

He acted as his own attorney, and he claimed self-defense - he was defending his property, that the judge was stealing from him. He was convicted, and I don't know if he is still in prison or not. This guy was Maca before Maca was cool.

I googled the story, and discovered that this year is the 30th anniversary of that event, and the local paper recapped the entire improbable story. This incident, by the way, was the major impetus that got metal detectors in all courthouses in the US. It was, as they say in the northern Great Plains, "quite the deal."

If anyone wants to read the whole (rather long) story:
https://www.grandforksherald.com/you-dont-want-to-do-this-30-years-ago-a-grand-forks-judge-was-shot-during-hearing


Please, not another gun discussion. Don't cause CZ heartburn. My point was that the level of cognitive dissonance that some people can maintain is truly staggering, and kind of scary.

It is staggering. I saw some of those statements by Maca and decided they were so off the rails it's beyond tying to buy him any vowels.

I would love for Maca to define what exactly is a feminist in his mind, and why we for some reason hate representative government.

It must be so difficult to be a hard-right, racist, sexist, white male these days. Everyone wants to take something from Maca.

summer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Everyone wants to take something from Maca.

It's like robbing an empty bank.

Maca has nothing that anyone else wants. No one's coming to take away his swastika flag or his dog-eared copy of "Mein Kampf for Dummies."

Maca appears to be to me an inactive member who has trust issues with his leaders. The puzzling thing for me is how the prophets of the political right are a replacement for his lds prophets.

Probably not a surprise to anyone else but for me I can't understand how one could be so critical of those spiritual thought leaders. I think he wants a simple world where he has a religion with no left leaning. I don't think he knows the are lots of little cults he could join. I think he wants big corporate religion to fulfill all his needs.

Elder Berry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The puzzling
> thing for me is how the prophets of the political
> right are a replacement for his lds prophets.

You can take the boy out of the cult but you can't take the cult out of the boy.

Hey, go easy on Maca. I appreciate the crystalline clarity of his thoughts. Don't want to scare him off.

Actually, sometimes I agree with his premise, like a fair number of kids are poorly served by attending university, and learning a trade would be time better spent. Good point and trades like auto mechanics or even nursing are not going to be completely outsourced, though technology will have a large impact everywhere. A trade should not be treated like a consolation prize and too bad ya didn't get a real career. We do tend to get a little elitist.

Where I see him going off the rails is in then claiming that most universities, and most people at universities are a waste of oxygen, and similar anti-science anti-expert ranting.

So I keep hoping to get Maca to dial it back some. Occasionally there is a pony under all that horse****.

The states with the best universities, and the states with the highest GDP per capita, and the states that vote Blue are all by and large the same states with a few exceptions of states with few people sitting on large puddles of oil. It is ridiculous to act like they are about to turn the country into Venezuela. They are the states paying the freight for the Kentuckys.

I digress.

Cog Dis. It's not just for breakfast anymore.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2022 10:28PM by Brother Of Jerry.

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:

> Actually, sometimes I agree with his premise, like
> a fair number of kids are poorly served by
> attending university, and learning a trade would
> be time better spent.

Agreed.

But even menial laborers need a basic understanding of civics and civic responsibility as well as reasonable training in critical thinking. It is the exultation in ignorance, the willful irresponsibility that bothers me so much.

With Maca, you are dealing with someone who thinks all education (above his paltry level) is wasteful or even harmful. That is dangerous to society and it is why I have no interest in discussing education with him.

I agree. I wish there was a push to give free tuition to the trade tech people instead of forgiving college loans. I think we need to do more to reward and encourage all the folks who are not interested in university studies for the value they give in other careers.

Teachers are onboard with trade education, because we realize that's a great option for some students. Upper administrators for the school districts tend to push college, which is fine if you take community colleges into account (much if not most job training now happens at the community college level.) Bottom line, we want our students to have the opportunity to get jobs that pay well.

Maca has to be on this forum to vent his frustrations in life. I doubt his voices his views in person because he would quickly be labeled a wack job. I welcome all his views but just for once back them up with data and logic.

I get the impression that Maca posts as he does very deliberately, just to put something out for the reaction it gets. I don't even know that he truly believes what he posts. Its just to get the reaction to the far out commentary.

One reason I feel this way is because he never replies to the responses...just puts out one post and lets it blow in the wind.

Kinda like starting a dumpster fire, then hiding nearby so he can watch everyone deal with it.

I don't take him seriously.

Ah, so he is RfM's talk radio host?

Yep, pretty much.

Hi brother of Jerry and everyone, I enjoy your posts and recognize the valuable perspectives and points of view presented. Yes maca is on the hard right. That's for sure. As most of my posts go I think people are best living their own lives and are smarter in their own area of expertise than all the intellectuals, officials. and political celebraties who seem to think they are experts in solving other people's troubles. And in the process tend to make a bigger mess than what we started with before.

I think the educational institution is failing as well, too many secrataries and administrators its becoming top heavy, and the knowledge aquired is for jobs 50 years ago. and mormonism has its problems namely there isn't enough free thinking, validation for different kinds of people. No transparency of finances. And people's salvation should be personal not according to a list of questions.

In short I think people are smart enough to fix things. Less intrusion more responsibility.

> I think people are smart
> enough to fix things.

For sure!


But why do things get 'broken'?

And when people get 'broken', do they always know it?

If your appendix bursts, given the state of medical science today, you're not likely to have doctors arguing about what's wrong with you.  

But if you're ____, _____, or ghawd forbid, _____, there will no end to the disagreements regarding how to fix you.

Being in the minority is always risky business.

In short, I think people are "smart enough to fix things" but cannot as each sees what needs to be fixed from a different perspective and brings to the table their own past experiences and the life experiences that shaped their perspective that makes them believe they are right.

Smart is not enough.

Also, "less intrusion and more responsibility" ? That is about as vague and useless a suggestion as I have ever heard. Total political crap phrase.

8 Billion people believe their individual thoughts and smarts matter. They don't.

Forget Left and Right. The world is moving en masse just as the ocean did in that Gigantic Sunami years ago in Japan. The boats and cars and people being flung around the city like rice at a wedding. All individual elements from fish to wharfs to buses and buildings being forced to move in unison no matter their original purpose or intent.

What needs to happen is that selfishness needs to end and that will never ever happen. The survival of the fittest in our bones has become the dominance of the winners who will win at all costs enabled by all those who have those little town blues, whose own selfishness believes supporting the despots will get them a piece of the action.

Humans at some point MUST learn to swim parallel to the shore.

Representative government only is valid if it agrees with your point of view.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you a member of the minority that keeps winning presidential elections through unrepresentative institutions?