The problem isn't the coastal elites, is rural America

[Underseer]

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/rural-america-understanding-isnt-problem

This is from post-election (November) when everyone was arguing that the "coastal elites" lost touch with rural America, that somehow it is the fault of liberals for failing to understand the perspective of conservatives.

No amount of "understanding" will help liberals understand what is wrong with conservatives. They don't care that they are wrong, and will resist all attempts at correction until after they drive the country into a ditch.

 

[zorq]

The author of that article mentions something that I have been struggling with for more than a decade now.

How do you convince someone with entrenched beliefs that that are wrong when they have no trust for anyone who doesn't share their wrong beliefs? The author suggests that it requires a direct, personal, traumatic event to force someone like this to reevaluate their preconceptions. But is there another way? Because frankly, the mass trauma required to get a good chunk of the closed minded to understand that they have made poor choices is highly undesirable.

It is so depressing having conversations over and over again with people like this who reflexively disbelieve any fact that threatens their preconceptions, because they never learn.


Edit: The new software update confused me. I thought this was a thread, but it is a blog entry.

 

[Underseer]

I wondered the same thing, but if he's right, then the only way to get rightists to understand that they've been making decisions based on bad information is to let them drive the whole country into a ditch.

I sincerely hope he's wrong, but I can't think of a better solution.

They are extremely resistant to evidence and reason.