I went to visit some relatives in South Texas last weekend. To the person they are MAGA through and through. This has been very disappointing to me because I love these people. They are genuinely good, hard-working people. They definitely believe themselves to be good Christians. I have stayed away over the last few years in large part because of politics. I don't want to be open with them about my politics because I know that would fundamentally change how they view me. I don't want to engage with them about politics, but I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut. So it's safer to stay away. Anyhow, I was with them Saturday night for a little while. Several of them were sitting around the kitchen table talking about politics. I was listening, but not participating. One of my aunts said something derisive about the mice transgender thing. I couldn't help myself and said, "No, it was a mice transgenic study." She and another aunt asked me, "What's that mean?" So I explained as briefly as I could. One of my uncles said something along the lines of, "I don't mind paying my fair share of taxes to the government for things I want them to pay for; that I benefit from. The ONLY thing the government does that benefits me is the military." He was dead fucking serious. He then went on about another ridiculous story about another study the government funded about the effects of tequila on goldfish.
What I took away from this is that these folks do no critical thinking whatsoever. It's not that they are not capable of it. They are all of normal intelligence. I'm not sure the reason, whether there has never really been a reason for them to exercise critical thinking or if they are just too absorbed in their lives and activities to take the time and mental capacity to engage is such a thing. These are all boomers. Up until fairly recently in their lives, all news and media has been fairly unquestioned. If Dan Rather or Peter Jennings or Tom Brokaw said it on the evening news there was no reason to question it. Same with every newspaper in circulation. People used to not need to apply critical thinking to what they were seeing in the media. I'm sure that all of these people only watch Fox News. That's probably because they know it aligns with their preconceived notions and political ideology and makes them feel good. So, feeling good (dopamine hits or whatever the fuck you get from confirmation bias) and zero critical thinking accounts, according to me, for why my family members are the way they are.