Stockholm Syndrome Is the answer, that the Republican party and it's followers are suffering from.

It is the same demographic that is hostage to "Christian" cults (Southern Baptists et al) which only reinforces their hatred of Obama and all things good - it makes them feel superior and compensates for the huge vacuums in themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXA7GA9yntc Here is a great interview that gives insight as to how it works in groups . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9d8TF7DlyU Here is what children need to grow thought reflexes capable of assessing problems and solving them creatively . This single skill makes an individual less vulnerable to fear tactics . Adaptability equals resilience .

I kind of figured some people just like to argue just for the fun. HAHA! funny.

Terrible and stupid article.

Voted down.

doing something more uniting and less dividing you anti-Abraham Lincoln individuals.

So, becasue "we" think the government has overeached its power (yes the latter years of Bush also) we are stupid, deranged, weak minded, nutjobs e f...ing ctera. How convienent to stuff all of us that don't agree with YOU into a neat little box. Let me explain a simple economic aspect....if you borrow money you have to pay it back, as you pay it back the creditor charges you something called interest. In the Month of June we spent 106 BILLION dollars just for this interest. So call us what you may, but maybe someday you will understand, (or your kids will) we cannot keep spending like this. I will generalize all of you like you also did. You are selfish individuals that care more about everyoen agreeing with you than understanding what is the correct path for your country. Period

great post.

It makes perfect sense. The Evangelicals are a bunch of Patty Hearsts'. The GOP has very artfully convinced their "base" that they have something in common. They have gotten third generation share-croppers to vote infavor of the interests of the plantation owners. It's the ole bait and switch. For Example: George W. Bush was not "one of us". He was not even a Texan, clearing brush and doing manly things. He was the son of one of the most powerful poiticians of the day(head of the CIA). His roots are in Connecticut. He went to private prep schools in the Northeast. He was a Cheerleader at Yale for God's sake. He is not one of us. He skated on his obligation to the Texas Air National Guard. The only thing that connects the common man in America to "W." is his manufactured, fake southern drawl. It's amazing that good, salt of the earth, people all over America keep voting in favor of the policies and tax structure that benefit only the elite. It baffles me that blue collar folks overlook the HUGE chunk of their paycheck that dissappears every pay day. There is a disconnect between the taxes and how those funds are spent. For Example: Coal and Oil subsidies, corporate welfare, no-bid contracts and defense over-spending. If the simpltons on the Right had the motivation and the knowledge of the interwebery to just look, they could see for themselves where their money is going. But, that notion is pie in the sky. Hate and fear are far too powerful motivators for commonsense and logic to prevail. Their willful ignorance is rotting the core of our Democracy.

Q: What do Stockholm Syndrome sufferers, tea-baggers, birthers, deathers, and town hall crazies have in common?

A: Weak minds that are easily manipulated, but not so easily convinced with reality.

I have often thought that this was certainly the case . There is a book called "The shock doctrine " you might find interesting . With the communication that we have today , a mental state can be conveyed to you anywhere in your intimate space , and also to everyone you know at the same time . With almost no real effort , it can be repeated throughout the day as well as subtly referred to constantly . This stimuli actually carves out and stimulates neuropaths in the brain . In other words it becomes a self reinforcing habit . It is a fear response found in humans . To protect the self by becoming the aggressor . All that is needed , is to have a reason to fear , one time . There are other technical reasons that help things along as well . Watching TV causes humans to go into alpha wave state , thus opening them to suggestion . What people eat also has an impact . Training them to maintain magical thinking from an early age is the real trick . Extremist of all kinds do this . Some people do not stand a chance . Because fear is exciting and distracting . They need it to keep from seeing their own misery . Enter 9/11 . When that happened , I cried , like everyone else . but I also knew it was over . Polite and open discourse , that is . Respectful reasoning , real communication . It was tough enough already . The stage was already set . My grandad , who was in military intelligence , was also an expert in deprogramming . Groups as well as individuals . A group acts just like an individual in this way . Marketing people know more about the human psyche than is healthy for us . The original "Manchurian Candidate" was not far off as one would like to believe . I still have hope for people though . The internet and good old human curiosity are a counterbalance . Also , simple compassion , especially for children . We must show them the world without dictating their thoughts or limiting their ability to question . Stockholm syndrome is reversible by using the same tools that made it . So I would say , it is just transferable . Once a hater is made (these people were very sensitive to fear to begin with , hence all the whining ) , they are often an addict to the hate . Re wiring your brain can take a lot of discipline , more than most have . So this will take generations to undo . For this reason I have always said it takes more courage to be a good kind person than to be something else . To be courageous requires a lot of love . To have that , is largely a personal choice . This is a great post , by the way . Remember when the cool guy was admired ? Now people are famous hysterics . That is part of it too . In older movies the hysteric got slapped . For being a simpering ninny . Can we bring that back ?

Because there is no such company as Goldman Salks? You tell me about Credit default Swaps and the role they played and when you can converse intelligently on that very big aspect of the financial collapse, then I'll try to feed you a little more truth.

Until that time, quit repeating excerpts from Lou Dobbs, Sean Insanity, FAUX "News" and other half-baked sources and then making up your own stew out of the misinformation you've collected.

Maybe you'll really get a few truths figured out.

It's all so odd that people praise Obama and in the same breath speak of the war and corporations as though they are separate things? Obama's largest campaign contributer, Goldman salks, they also enjoyed the doubling of gov' (bail outs) while Obama has been puppet - of the tripling of government that occurred while Bush was the puppet!? Big government, big profitable wars (drugs and terror) there still happening? I don't understand why people are not upset at Bush, Obama and all involved?

It's the only theory so far that would account for seemingly rational people agreeing with corporations and misguided politicians. The problem is sorting the ones that need therapy from those who are simply weak minded.

I think money, position and location change some people perception. All of the sudden their character starts to vanish.

I would suggest that most Republicans, excluding those nice and respectable Republicans cited by jubal suffer a similar form of arrested development occurring somewhere around age 5. I don't say this to be insulting, but because the world is still perceived as flat (figuratively speaking) to children at around that age.

Arrested development is much more common than most people realize. We can suffer arrested development in one area of our personality and not in others. Obviously, it affects all aspects of our nature and how we perceive the world / reality.

I am sure there is a very close correlation between the characteristics we are talking about of Republicans and arrested development. Jubal's point about needing to fit in and belonging is right on.

I'd agree with the PTSD, disabled and Stockholm analysis also.

To tell you the truth, I do not care who is democrat or republican, I just wish they would do the job they're suppose to do. Sad that today they cannot even stop what is going wrong. They just compromise with it! They powers of government was created to be a system of check and balances. After they get elected to the side of the government, they are just compromising united and against the public good.

There is a definite pathology associated with fear.

The hyper-paranoia and hysterical over-reaction is a symptom of profound disturbance.

right wing or left wing, I have seen through there war profit lies for years. Reagan sucked! Bush Sr sucked! Clinton sucked! Bush Jr sucked! And now Obama is still killing people and record #'s are filling up the prisons which means BO sucks too!
I would respectfully recommend that the left wing nuts and the right wing nuts stop fighting. There all wing nuts holding wheels on the same vehicle on the highway to hell.
Ac/Dc - Highway To Hell(With Bon Scott)(High Quality)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCssYzVl6oQ

Here is my take on this.

I have just finished reading Dune and Dune Messiah. I am just beginning to read Sandworms of Dune, the follow up written by Brian Herbert based on an outline by Frank Herbert.

What I got from reading the first two books is that people want to be actors rather than directors, if given a chance, they prefer to worship someone and follow them like sheep rather than be critical thinkers and possibly make mistakes, and not receive their strokes. They have been so conditioned into dialectical thinking; black and white, right and wrong, left and right, that they cannot as someone earlier pointed out "understand the complexities of the issues at hand." They want a script to follow, they want to learn their lines and say them perfectly so that no one, whom they admire, can point a finger at them and say they failed. They have an irrational fear of true freedom, because true freedom to them appears like Anarchy.

I liked very much the suggestion that they are part PTSD, part Stockholm, and part Disabled (intellectually). I would agree with all three.

But it doesn't only apply to Republicans in general, because there are some very nice and truly respectable Republicans, it applies to the fringe radical right winger gun toting bible thumping America is an Evangelical Christian Nation Republicans.

HIlarious, but true...anyways, where were all the gun-toting Americans during the Bush years? I guess that's when the brain-washing stopped? And at these town hall meetings folks are just spewing hatred & and packing weapons....I've got it, the American people are still under an evil spell and they were brainwashed to behave in this manner....

Hey kennymotown, it's funny you post this just now, I was traveling on the highway for a few hours and was pondering this very thing. I'm right there with you on this.

I would say of Republicans:
1) they fail to have a deep understanding or understanding of the complexities of most any issue so they are what I call "shallow thinkers";
2) they are very rigid or inflexible in their point of view or stated belief / position;
3) when confronted with counter arguments they use diversionary tactics and / or attempt to frame the topic of debate in a manner favorable to their point of view;
4) they fear change;
5) their security is predicated on their rigid view(s) / perception of reality;
6) they are freaking out (such as taking guns to Obama town hall meetings), intentionally distorting or even lying about issues (such as Faux News and crew) such as some children do;
7) they lack empathy for others such as those without health care, homes, retirement security - in the name of corporate profits and capitalism;
8) they are mostly incapable of looking inside themselves and have no inner dialog;
9) they are punitive;
10) they fail to understand the complexities of interpersonal relationships and therefore fail to take responsibility for effects of their actions;
11) they project their own thoughts, feelings, motivations or fears on others, (in my opinion it is a form of dishonesty);

I would say of the Republican mentality that their time has past; that it is no longer appropriate nor necessary; that the last 8 + years of Republican mentality rule has failed us.

In this life, there are people who create, and there are people who destroy. The Republican mentality is one of destruction.

In this life, some people give, and some take. The Republican mentality is one of taking.

Republican's are inherently afraid, hence the drive of sociopath's such as Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Pearle, Rove to attempt to seek security by / through destructive means rather than constructive means. Despite all the rationalizations in the world, all the Harvard degrees and all the money they've stashed in off-shore bank accounts, their actions and behavior is still simply motivated by an underlying insecurity.

All things can / should be reduced to it's simplest common denominator: Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Polished up and powerful men (and women) are often no more complex or operate on any higher level than their underlying arrested development issues despite appearances.

What best epitomizes the hysterical behavior of the far right in American politics, to me, is Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance. He hypothesized that there is a point when an individual becomes so fully vested in an idea, that when that idea is fully exposed as unequivocally wrong, the individual will cling to it evermore strongly.
Festinger tested this hypothesis by predicting the behavior outcome of individuals in a group of end-of the world flying saucer devotees in the late 1950's in his brilliant book "When Prophecy Fails." It casts an amazing light on the behavioral implications in political as well as religious cults.

My mother who is very very repub. called me and said she like the speech this morning I was F ing shocked. But on the subject what they are suffering from is P.T.S.D they just been traumatized by a black man in the White House.

I understand the concept of the Stolkholm Syndrome. It's an established fact of human Psychology that during situations where the emotions are brought into play, even a victim of unlawful imprisonment can be so sucked up into the mind warp of their captors. Emotionaly affected people can't thing or behave rationaly. What is rational is "cognitively dissonant" to them and too painful to reconcile with the warped, twisted beliefs. What the RepugnantCons hold to though is even more twisted. Oh I agree with Ron Paul 100%. He talks in much the same way Abraham Lincoln would if he were in the here and now. But Lincoln's era occurred when Big Oil was only getting started(in 1859). After 150 years of their Worldwide Monopoly in which Corporations have risen as Titans
(one of our contributors refers to them as giants), as people have fallen, the political landscape is radicaly
changed since Lincoln's era. By the time Theodore Roosevelt was elected over a century ago, the effects of Corporate corruption were overwhelming. They have grown even more overwhelming as Corporations have become multi lateral and entrenched in many countries. Yet the Republicans talk the same way they did 100, and 150 years ago as if they were frozen in time. I personaly think they went off the deep end when Nixon & Reagan came around. They totaly lost control when Dubya/Cheny came around, and blindly backed them. Now they see the world of shit they've put the USA into(as many Dems have too). And now they think of themselves as a sports team.
Because even they realize that, since they've allowed the Corporations to take over the functions of Government, the Republicans are no longer in control.
Their 1920s slogans: "Whatever is good for Big Business is good for this Country, because the only business of the USA IS Big Business" shows they were only interested in getting their palms greased and their nests feathered, while they sold out We The People. Their conservative attitude is still "devil take the hindmost" so it's no wonder they abhor a public option of seeing that all Amwericans have health care.
They realy don't believe that Government can be trusted to be bona fide and work. The 1999 sci fi series on Showtime Total Recall 2070 envisions a World where asians are everywhere, where climate change is so bad the Sun rarely comes out from behind rain clouds, and the Corporations run the Government. This is the result of their passive negative laissez faire attitude toward nearly everything. When confronted with an active positive attitude President, they can't cope. And they've gone off the deep end for it yet again. They should wake up and realize their tired old policies have failed miserably, and cooperate with what the people want
which is a New Deal all right.

I'd say this is an interesting and probably accurate assessment.

kennymotown, you've done it again. I didn't realize when all those guys wearing the Reagan masks and waving guns who surrounded my car those many years ago had screwed with my presets!

You're exactly right. I actually quit vomiting as an AM devotee long before Glenn Beck even started practicing his crying and eons before Lush Rimbaugh ever ruined his hearing by overdosing on painkillers.

I remember when Sean Insanity first got on the air here in Texas.

The time has absolutely flown by.

Then I traded cars. It was hard at first with the all-digital setup. (I had used presets so long that I had forgotten the stations' numbers on the dial.) I struggled with the withdrawal but they say time heals all wounds.

Then Nancy sent that letter asking Obama to ok stem cell research and I realized what they had done to my my mind.

Thanks, kennymotown, I have my sanity back and I'm no longer itching to wear a 9 mm to my congresswoman's office or to Church!

This might explain some of the lunacy we're seeing out of the tea baggin' freak show. That and the right wing media is making them bat shit crazy with the most outrageous, false, and howler monkey shit flinging propaganda every seen in this country.

Stockholm Syndrome? That might be a reach... It is more like a mob mentality has taken over. It just seems that they are willing to blindly follow anyone that feeds their behavior. I cannot believe that most individuals (even republicans) are really this naive or irrational. But if you have a mob situation and throw in a little Beck or O'reilly with a touch of misinformation and rhetoric and presto... Instant nut jobs.

Huamns have difficult backgrounds.....

Their history acts out of their reactions.....

Their nature is the same, therefore, it alternates their mind concept in thinking in a much difficult way to reason with....

Although it may sounds very psycologically insane in other words, they continue to live out their lives just likes everyone else.......

But that is the main explanation of why is it that specific behaviour which should be left alone.....

it should be left alone, because you can't change it, but you also cannot silence them, so it better just to leave them alone, probably just not to take them seriously, just like religious beliefs, you can only let them be, because it is their problem,. wether they realize it or not.....Its a problem that cannot be dealt with by the human hand.......

My guess is they will accuse obama and his healthcare of getting their advice on healthcare from Dr Josef Mengele. But thats just a guess.

Just kidding but it sounded funny

When Bush won without a majority of the popular vote, the Democrats didn't complain nearly as much as the Republicans are now. They're sore losers.

I think the latest incident that the followers of these kidnappers have displayed is the dead giveaway of their actual Stockholm Syndrome, not letting their kids listen to or watch President Obama's speech. Anybody out there have a guess on whats next from these poor infected people?

I really am trying to be serious about the mindset of many Americans these days, and try to understand their irrational behavior. But really Birthers, deathers, and now refusing to let their children listen to the President of the United States. Please seek professional help your kidnappers are still using you!