Things I Don't Understand

--Why people think calling out police misconduct is somehow a damnation of all police. Most cops are good. Those who aren't should not be protected and coddled.  And if you are a cop and are rationalizing bad behavior, well, you're not a good cop anymore...  Seriously: you think protesting police brutality is the same as condemning all police?  Really?  Plenty of police killings are not protested.  It's when they shoot kids, kill someone who is unarmed, demonstrate clear racism- then there are protests, and they should be held accountable.

--Why people think building a wall on the border with Mexico is a good idea.  The history of walls (China, Berlin, Israel) is not good.  They don't work.  They are expensive and easy to defeat.  It's just another simplistic approach to a complex problem that makes a good soundbite (if you don't think about it too much.)

--Why ranchers think they are owed subsidized grazing. And that seizing government buildings and threatening violence is a way to prove their case. You look like a moron, with your conspiracy theories and shoddy understanding of the Constitution.  And I really hope you have to pay for all the damage you did to the refuge, and spend some time in jail to think about what an idiot you've been.

--Why some people think that theocracy would be a good idea for America.  It'd have to be their specific brand of their religion, of course.  I don't see how people don't see that that is un-American.

--Why some ignoramuses think a guy who doesn't understand the middle class or the poor is going to make us great again.  He knows nothing about us.  Or about much of anything, except how to make himself rich while bankrupting others.

--Why people think evolution and religion are opposites. They only are if you want them to be.

And that is the key to misunderstandings of Black Lives Matter, and to so many other ridiculous beliefs- deep down, you want them to be problems. You make them one.  You imagine that asking for fair treatment is the same as hating you.   You're creating conflict.  The Oregon standoff, evolution vs. religion; on so many issues, people want there to be conflicts where there aren't.  (Of course, there's a lot more going on in each of those situations, but bear with me.)

It's a cognitive dysfunction, common to people in general but very common among conservatives.  People contort and conflate things.    There is only conflict if you want it.  And why do you want it?  I question your motives- why are you not thinking clearly, or pretending to not think clearly?  If you find talking about race, or even mentioning inequality, divisive, then you have issues.  Apparently it makes you uncomfortable.  Ask yourself why.   We need to talk about, and fix, problems, not ignore them.  South Africa had a truth commission; maybe we need to do that.  Yes, talking about these things brings up bad feelings.  Why?  Because there is shit going wrong!

We live in a connected world, where essentially all information is online, and readily available.  And it is how you look for data, and interpret it, that matters.  You might have all the weather data in the world, but you still need to look at the sky and connect it to reality.  See what's around you.  You can look at someone's interpretation, or look at the raw facts and make your own conclusions, or combine the two.  Doesn't mean you will always be right, but you do the best with the info you have.    If you are pulling bad data (listening to Fox, or Rush or Glenn, or pretty much any conservative news source,) and if you are delusional/ dysfunctional in interpreting that data, you are going to come up with false conclusions.  Often repulsive conclusions, that have little to do with reality.  Even if you have good data you can draw bad conclusions.  If you start with bad data, you are almost certain to.