Satellite imagery taken after the US strike on Iran’s Fordow site showed smoke rising from the fuel enrichment plant. US President Donald Trump claimed key Iranian nuclear sites had been “obliterated,” while Iran claimed it had removed nuclear material from the sites before the strikes.
Neither of those links have anything to do with people having a choice to be less gulible. They are just definitions of the words with examples of use. Gullibility is a personal trait, not a choice. You mention accessing proper mental healthcare… good luck in the US. Besides, these people are being fed the line that they aren’t the ones who need help. Not to mention being convinced that the mental health professionals are transition toddler between sexes (which of course they aren’t). So they avoid even seeking the care.
But that’s my point regarding healthcare. You guys just accept the status quo and this is where it has gotten you. It was never always like this in America; it’s just that the noose has slowly been tightening around your necks and you just… Let it be.
It’s always a choice. You can stand there with your mouths agape and be fed with hook, line and sinker. Or you can choose to seek out the information, have conversations, choose to listen and process, choose to be open minded…
Just like choosing to bury your head in the sand is also a choice. A Florida rep recently chose to ignore evidence and reality and blame the opposition for almost dying after having an abortion. She can also afford mental healthcare but obviously chooses not to.
Avoidance is still a choice. Remaining apathetic is a choice. Remaining ignorant is a choice. Voting for a felon, for a second time, is a choice.
The thing I disagree with is the choice part. You are basically saying that people who have been brainwashed should choose to get the help needed to undo the brainwashing that convinced them that only evil people could have been brainwashed and that they are the most virtuous and righteous people to have ever lived. That just doesn’t work, that is why interventions exist.
But people don’t exist in a vacuum. You’re part of a community that’s still functioning.
You say as if everyone is straight jacket bound, hands and feet wrapped tightly, eyes blindfolded and mouth plugged. Born that way, in fact. If that were actually the case, you’d all be dead and your country would cease to exist.
You forget to think how this all starts. Everyone is born with free will. You end up in the deep end because of the first few steps you take, and you always have a choice to either stay or change yourself or others. Some choices are easier than others and I’m saying that Trump got in because people chose to be selfish or greedy or ignorant.
But we aren’t talking about everyone. Trump got less than 50%, 10 to 15% voted for him because they were greedy, and he was good for them. 35 to 40% are just to gullible. It is them I find it hard to completely blame.
Look, I have a cousin in Texas who voted Republican last election. She’s very smart; works as a psychiatrist for neurodivergent children. Her reasoning for voting that way was because they ‘reflect and represent’ her values: low taxes and small government. She says she doesn’t like Trump but voting Republican doesn’t mean that she’s voting for Trump, she’s voting for her party.
I’ve spoken to her at length because I wanted to understand where this thought process comes from and my conclusion was that it’s total cognitive dissonance, and that’s a choice she’s made. I know she’s smart and rational but when it comes to politics, it seems to me that most Americans just don’t care or justify their ignorance with mental gymnastics.
If you can’t blame them, that’s fine, you do you. However, for me, shame on those who voted Trump in a second time. Shame, shame, shame.