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Why Unhappy People Become Liberals (. . . and why liberalism makes them even unhappier)
Dennis Prager ^ | 11/24/2010 | Dennis Prager

Posted on 11/24/2010 6:38:37 AM PST by WebFocus

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1 posted on 11/24/2010 6:38:42 AM PST by WebFocus
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To: WebFocus

Conservatives believe in GOD.
Liberals believe in Santa Claus.


2 posted on 11/24/2010 6:44:32 AM PST by mirkwood (Palin-Bolton 2012)
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To: WebFocus

Great article. I think he’s right.


3 posted on 11/24/2010 6:47:14 AM PST by November 2010
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To: mirkwood

RE: Liberals believe in Santa Claus.


Also, Santa Claus = Government

One big difference — Santa Claus GIVES. Government TAKES.


4 posted on 11/24/2010 6:48:31 AM PST by WebFocus
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To: WebFocus

Why Unhappy People Become Liberals.Some people just flat out love pity.


5 posted on 11/24/2010 6:49:22 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: WebFocus

Great article, thanks for posting it.

Sometimes I can take the shorthand the liberalism is a mental disorder, but that groups a lot of people in who probably shouldn’t be. A lot of liberals haven’t thought very deeply about their positions, but is seems to be nearly a passive outlook of “Who would be against the government helping poor people? That sounds like a good thing to me...” or “I don’t know...why can’t healthcare be free? Shouldn’t everyone get free healthcare?”

It is the committed liberals, the ones who have labored hard and long to build their own “logical underpinnings” to their viewpoints. They never stop to check their intial premises, and build a huge castle on the foundation of a flawed premise.

Cognitive dissonance is a common malady amongst committed liberals, and I have always thought it is because many of them ARE indeed intelligent, and there is still a part of their primitive hindbrain that operates below their subconscious, constantly and continually sending subtle signals to their conscious brain that they are wrong. Their filters to their conscious brains are set up to ward those warning messages off, but I think it is like a continuous, erosive Chinese water torture that gives them ulcers, bilious personalities and a constant state of unhappiness.


6 posted on 11/24/2010 6:51:22 AM PST by rlmorel (TSA's new motto: "You don't get on, Until we get off.")
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To: mirkwood

I, too, think happiness is linked with belief in God and the afterlife.

One of the reasons the left has become so hateful and unhinged is because of the rise of the atheist movement.


7 posted on 11/24/2010 6:52:34 AM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: Vaduz

I think that is a factor for many of them.


8 posted on 11/24/2010 6:54:27 AM PST by rlmorel (We treat terrorists with kid gloves, and our citizens with rubber gloves. (Rush Limbaugh))
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To: rlmorel

I also notice this -— YOUNG KIDS, those who are most susceptible to influence, tend to be liberal from high school to a few years after graduating from college ( I’d say a majority ).

I would attribute this to the overwhelmingly left-wing mindset of their high school teachers ( most of them union members ) and their college professors ( most of whom vote Democrat ).

The moment they start holding down a job, have a family and then take on the responsibility of having to raise their kids and pay taxes... they begin to realize the burdensome encroachment of the government....they also begin to realize that without the church, the traditional morality that they themselves repudiated when they were in college, they cannot discipline their kids.

Slowly, but surely, the sensible ones become more conservative.


9 posted on 11/24/2010 6:56:04 AM PST by WebFocus
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To: miss marmelstein

Agreed.

This should be a very good thread.


10 posted on 11/24/2010 6:56:53 AM PST by rlmorel ("We treat terrorists with kid gloves, and our citizens with rubber gloves." Rush Limbaugh)
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To: WebFocus

With God’s grace, my children will never fall into that trap, even at a young age.
We’re teaching them from a biblical worldview and how to defend that worldview,
as well as starting at a young age to be a master of their emotions, not the other way around.

There was a book/seminar out some time ago called “Self-discipline and emotional control”. I have found the techniques and rational explanations in this material to be quite useful, especially when (re)taught through a biblical lens.


11 posted on 11/24/2010 6:59:08 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a (de)humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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To: WebFocus

I try to be patient with many younger people. The old saw “If you a young person and aren’t a liberal, you have no heart...if you are an older person and you aren’t conservative, you have no brain” does have some validity.

My whole life I was as conservative as a kid could be. I remember the 1968 election and being completely on board for Richard Nixon (okay, I know he is no conservative, but...you get the idea)

But even still...I DO remember as a college student (and this was after I served four years in the navy) taking a sociology course, and thinking it was the most amazing thing, gushing over a book like “Walden II” (those of you who may have read it will know EXACTLY what I mean)

It was only a few years later, I came to realize it was all liberal, socialist, statist claptrap. But I was caught up in it, me who had traveled around the world by age 21, a conservative, etc.

What you said in your paragraph about holding a job is so true.


12 posted on 11/24/2010 7:03:35 AM PST by rlmorel ("We treat terrorists with kid gloves, and our citizens with rubber gloves." Rush Limbaugh)
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To: WebFocus

I notice a lot of people who have worked in industries that are noted for low-pay and rough working conditions (retail, local radio, etc.) tend to become Liberals. They develop a deep-seated hatred for “greedy” bosses, and an overwhelming consumption with seeing them “punished”.


13 posted on 11/24/2010 7:20:12 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Right. It is how tyrannies are fostered...they have people (unions) egging them on.

Nobody gives a rat’s patootie that when you get rid of the bosses, and you destroy the profit motive, who is going to run the company? “Oh! The PEOPLE will run the factory!”

Then it is “Hello Soviet Union”...


14 posted on 11/24/2010 7:23:57 AM PST by rlmorel ("We treat terrorists with kid gloves, and our citizens with rubber gloves." Rush Limbaugh)
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To: miss marmelstein
I, too, think happiness is linked with belief in God and the afterlife. One of the reasons the left has become so hateful and unhinged is because of the rise of the atheist movement

BINGO! We have a winner. It all does thread back to G*d. If you have the worldview and belief system that after a some painful illness you will become wormfood and cease to exist then our nature will cause us to react in a negative way and display traits not very Chris like(Hate, treachery, selfishness, murder, callousness, self love). I know alot of liberals are New Age and Eastern Mystic types, but those belief system ultimately consist of essentially the same thing, you will die and eventually lose your identity and soul and fall into some endless sleep. It's our nature to be rebellious and sinful and liberalism is the same old lie fed to Eve, that we can be G*ds, we can change the unchangeable, we can go at it our own way without our Heavenly Father. Liberals basically have no peace in their life, it's why when they win a battle they seem to get more angry and determined. Their empty hole can never be filled, with humanly pursuits such as spreading the wealth or other sloganeering. Sadly most of the world and ultimately most of the hardcore leftist are going to find out that endless soul sleep is not what awaits them, but the fires of hell. Not because they were angry, petulant, or bitter but because they forsaked the Lord Jesus Christ, they didn't need or want him or believe in him.

15 posted on 11/24/2010 7:26:24 AM PST by pburgh01
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To: rlmorel
>> This should be a very good thread. <<

Maybe, at least if nobody finds out that on Dennis's show the other day, he said the TSA pat-downs and full-body scans are basically OK.

Moreover, I promise not to tell anybody that Dennis often seems sympathetic in other ways to the typical RINO outlook!

16 posted on 11/24/2010 7:26:45 AM PST by Hawthorn
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To: WebFocus

Liberals are lured into their cult by guilt or some claim to esoteric knowledge and then kept there by fear, and usually it involves the “Hitler card.” Doubt that go to any lefty site where there might be debate about internal cult politics, the “Hitler card” is never far from use.


17 posted on 11/24/2010 7:27:36 AM PST by junta (S.C.U.M. = State Controlled Unreliable Media)
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To: WebFocus
Liberals are unhappy because they don't see existence for what it is. It's challenging, difficult and sometimes painful.

Liberals seek to avoid their difficulties or mitigate their effects without facing them head-on, hence using pity as a tool for protection.

Love to a liberal is often means someone who can take away the pain and protect them like Daddy and Mommy.

Alas, this is why so many liberals don't want kids. They don't want to face the pain and be the protectors, the earners and producers for others.

18 posted on 11/24/2010 7:32:07 AM PST by TheThinker (Communists: taking over the world one kooky doomsday scenario at a time.)
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To: WebFocus

Miserable people are only happy when they are surrounded by other miserable people.


19 posted on 11/24/2010 7:33:01 AM PST by dfwgator (Congratulations to Josh Hamilton - AL MVP)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

RE: I notice a lot of people who have worked in industries that are noted for low-pay and rough working conditions (retail, local radio, etc.) tend to become Liberals.


I’ve known about this for some time. But this begs the following questions :

1) Do they have any other alternatives ? It’s not like someone is holding a gun to their head and forcing them to work there...

2) If the answer is NO, then it seems that they CHOSE to work there, not because someone forced them to.

3) If the answer is YES, then why not apply to another job? Why not tell their boss — “Take this job and shove it”

The mentality looks to me like this — because I hate my boss and his stinginess, and I have nowhere else to go, I’d like GOVERNMENT to make his life more miserable.

What he does not realize is the moment he gets his wishes, his boss just might say to himself — it isn’t worth doing this business with the government continually burdening me.

If he closes shop or moves, where is this guy going to find his job then ?

THAT is exactly what happened to a city like DETROIT (a very vibrant city just 50 years ago) on a very large scale.


20 posted on 11/24/2010 7:36:39 AM PST by WebFocus
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