Republican’s zero-sum thinking
In my continuing attempt to understand the hobbled and frequently diseased mindset of conservatives, I’ve noticed that thinking of everything as a zero-sum game is huge with them. When I think of my Grandpa (or this blog’s own resident grumpy racist grandpa, …yes you Dana) I marvel at how they can view every dollar paid out to someone on welfare as a dollar taken out of their pockets. I wonder why they are so blinkered in their thinking that keeping the economy on the rocks is fine if the alternative is a healthy economy in which a non-white person might possibly get a health care subsidy. There is no sense of “growing the pie.” The aphorism “a rising tide lifts all boats” makes no sense to them.
I was reminded of that mindset again when I read that conservative Catholics are worried that the Pope is paying too much attention to the needy, and that attention means that they aren’t getting enough Pope love.
Conservative US Catholics feel left out by Pope’s embrace:
“SMYRNA, Ga. — When Pope Francis was elected in March, Bridget Kurt received a small prayer card with his picture at her church and put it up on her refrigerator at home, next to pictures of her friends and her favorite saints.
She is a regular attender of Mass, a longtime stalwart in her church’s anti-abortion movement and a believer that all the church’s doctrines are true and beautiful and should be obeyed. She loved the last two popes, and keeps a scrapbook with memorabilia from her road trip to Denver in 1993 to see Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day.
But Ms. Kurt recently took the Pope Francis prayer card down and threw it away.
“It seems he’s focusing on bringing back the left that’s fallen away, but what about the conservatives?” said Ms. Kurt,
Everything is political when you hate. Whether you hate the sinner or the sin or both. I don’t buy the religious magical thinking, but it’s clear that the pope truly cares about people. Bottom line is this Francis really knows how to pope.
As far as a rising tide lifting all boats, economically maybe it does or maybe it doesn’t. Who cares… capitalism has losers and people still remain incarcerated in poverty, hunger and despair simply by accident of birth or bad luck. So we have a duty to people as people. That’s why all this bullshit about Obamacare misses the point for me.
The fact is that we need to treat everyone with dignity and respect. Even people who aren’t affluent old white guys like me. So if I need to pay more for my insurance or I need to pay more taxes then I’ll happily do it. Because I’m a kind understanding person who reflects on the world and its people.
Except Dana. That cat is a big fucking douche bag. And Dick Cheney. When that fucking war criminal finally crokes I’m throwing a huge blow out blitz. I can wait to dance on that guy’s grave. Other than those two…
“And Dick Cheney. When that fucking war criminal finally crokes I’m throwing a huge blow out blitz. I can wait to dance on that guy’s grave.”
It is so ON! Have fun being sodomized by Satan’s barbed c*ck in hell for eternity Mr. Vice President!!! ( Cheney’s eventual death is the only thing that makes me yearn for the Christian view of the afterlife to be true.)
But Ms. Kurt recently took the Pope Francis prayer card down and threw it away.
This is the Church’s problem, really. They’ve found it way too easy to be political partisans at the expense of the people they are meant to be inclusive of. Perhaps that means that with all of the Catholics leaving, it means that they finally have time to be mean. What I wish these folks would see is a Pope that many people think they can make common cause with. Maybe not join, but whose message they will be very open too. That can’t be anything but positive in the long run.
have you ever sat next to a smelly bum in church for an hour? it’s offputting. Next thing you know, the pope will have tens of thousands if not millions of poor, weak, cast aways with nothing to give and only there to take, take, take.
It’s not a model the church can profit from.
Now if someone asks me “is the pope Catholic?” I can say “finally”