Paul Ryan is blaming mental illness for mass shootings. Do you agree?

[El_Machinae]

Obviously, people care about being rational. But whether they're actually able to view their political theory rationally is a different question. We notice harms and benefits differently, and thus our political view is what gives them their proportionate weights.

Research? That sounds like cultural Marxism to me

The March of Dimes was one of the largest and most valuable successes of all time, and it's very easily seen through the lens of conservativism as 'a good thing'. Private charity making the world better, but helping those 'close' to you disproportionately. If mental illness makes political hay for the anti-gunners, help tackle the underlying issue. Or at least, that's the plea that I make

 

[Lexicus]

Ah okay. So they are human and do care. It's just that the only thing they care about is their own identity and not other people, or indeed even being rational. Okay, that's much better. I apologise.

Is this really your good-faith attempt to parse what I wrote?

 

[metalhead]

Obviously, people care about being rational. But whether they're actually able to view their political theory rationally is a different question. We notice harms and benefits differently, and thus our political view is what gives them their proportionate weights.

It comes down to values. If a given person values cultural markers more than action on policy, then it is rational to vote based on those cultural markers as opposed to policy outcomes. What I take issue with is the lack of self-awareness people show when they argue or rationalize in terms of policy, but then their political behavior appears not to match their arguments.

2016 is a perfect example. The popular wisdom seems to be that it was a "change" election, that Trump rode a wave of distrust of the media and political establishment to victory. But Congressional incumbents did better than usual in keeping their jobs. Did really, really well as a matter of fact. Now, if you ask people who support Trump why they do so, you frequently get this anti-establishment, anti-corruption, drain-the-swamp reason. But that is proven to be a bunch of malarkey when you consider the very high rate at which incumbents kept their seats, and the unusually corrupt swamp-dweller they voted for.

So what is really going on? Not an honest attempt at sticking it to the establishment, surely.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Is this really your good-faith attempt to parse what I wrote?

Sorry, I didn't realise we were doing good faith, I just thought we were doing sweeping judgements.