With crime escalating rapidly in Democrat-controlled cities, why do voters continue to return these people to leadership and managerial roles? The sunk-cost fallacy may help to explain this dangerous and mystifying behavior.
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29 replies on “Liberals and the Sunk-Cost Fallacy: Why They Vote for People Who Can Get Them Robbed or Killed”
The first social sunk cost fallacy I encountered was women marrying men they knew to be bad bets: cheater, alcoholic, etc., because they had “invested so much time in the relationship.” And I knew several women who did this. I always countered with the question, “And how much time will be wasted as you spend the rest of your life with someone who will make it miserable???” But, of course, those women are ultimately responsible for their own misery because they made stupendously bad decisions.
Given how many voting manipulations there are in California I really doubt the Democrats have had a real majority in any vote, district or city council for several years. As Lenin said, “It matters not who votes but who counts the votes.”
Steven K Bannon has publicized a huge Maga Republican push to get Independents and Republicans to train for and volunteer to be poling staff not mere poll watchers or campaigners. For decades conservatives world wide and US Republicans have handed the counting staff jobs over to the DNC, the public service staff and the teachers unions. Various Maga organizations have dragged the RNC kicking and screaming into the battle of actually fighting the left for the counting table.
They have won in a dozen key states. The even have volunteers watching drop boxes 24/7 in the states that still have them. Democrat and RINO state attorneys general refuse to look at camera footage from 2020. You need boots on the ground with live feed cell phone footage and appropriate law enforcement on speed dial.
This will result in some real physical fights in the electoral counting rooms but the other big push has gotten a record number of Poll watchers. And they are not going to fall for a water leak story or being told to stand 30 meters away. I suspect blood will be shed at some counting rooms but the DNC’s betamales will not be a match for a dozen steadfast Republicans and Independents.
https://cleanelectionsusa.org/
https://www.truethevote.org/
https://warroom.org/category/shownotes/
The election result on the 8th will be epic.
The thing we should be saying to them is: “Your teacher lied to you; their teacher lied to them and the originator of the lie is long dead and half of those people suicided. Let me show you the truth.”
In the context of crime the leftist thieves believe that legal access to stuff is impossible for them. That all wealth is stolen somehow. This is taught in schools and socialist chat groups. The criminal flash gangs are just taking what they consider to be stolen property. “Property is theft” is an ideology. Their lawyers and politicians are a little more sophisticated but the same ideology drives them to insider trading, legal fraud and political favor trading. Their criminal-ism is survival! They see themselves in the equivalent of a zombie apocalypse but one where the zombies are the ‘rich’ workers in overalls with NRA guns or suits and ties with cops or private guards.
If you are taught that all wealth is stolen somehow from the worker or nature then stealing it back becomes justice. They are very confused and angry when charged and jailed because they assume and know of no other way to survive. Why me and not the rich?
I do not believe this is as much political as it is spiritual. When you don’t subject yourself to a Moral Authority, then truth becomes subjective and it is whatever you want it to be. Couple that with the dumbing down of our kids that are being shoved lies down their throats and this is what you get.
The Bible tells us that in the last days – which I believe we are in – God will be giving up on those that refuse to follow Him in favor of their vile passions a great delusion so they will believe ‘the lie’. We are just seeing a foreshadow of things to come.
The explanation for Demonrat victims voting for Demonrats is in Prov 26:11– “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly,” and 2 Pet 2:22– “What the true proverb says has happened to them: ‘The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.’” (ESV)
People who think they have a “tribe” are super reluctant to step away from that “tribe” because it means they’ve not proved to be loyal to the group, they are not keeping up the fidelity to the “tribe,” who were willing to accept them (as long as they were bought-in to what the tribe esposed). It’s like a dog leaving their pack, throwing themselves out into the cold, becoming a pariah. That’s an act of willfully making oneself homeless, philosophically. It’s brave to do it but it’s still very difficult for some folks to do and, having done it, they lose the security of having an “official” set of precepts to live by, they have to come up with their own. If someone can’t provide their own precepts, philosophy, morality structure, then they’re lost in chaos, unpredictability, a direction-less world with no well-defined borders. Very scary to those who psychologically need the support structure of a “group” to validate everything they do and say. Sad situation, really, to be so empty of one’s own capacity to think and parse the world that the “box” others have made for you isn’t there to save you from the unknown.
Zo put the situation really well when he was talking about Democrats thinking a Democracy is something that can be used to vote away the rights of The People. “If Democrats were sensible people they would not be Democrats”.
One of our biggest faults as Conservatives is in thinking people act sensibly and are responsive to reason. Some people are that way, we’re called Conservatives. Many people are not that way and they won’t respond to common sense and reason to become Conservatives no matter what argument you present.
Persuasion is a tool, it’s not the only tool. Persuasion doesn’t work on everyone.
Some children as they grow up and are at the point where they understand the word ‘hot’ can be told that the stove is very hot and will hurt them. So they’re careful because intellectual understanding is sufficient.
Some children do not onboard information that way and have to actually burn their fingers to the point of blisters before they will understand what hurts them.
I wish I could say that the former are all Conservatives and the latter are all Social Marxism Leftists but we have plenty on our side that only learn by burning their fingers too. Being a Conservative doesn’t mean you’re smart, being a Leftist doesn’t automatically mean you’re stupid and vice versa.
Being a Conservative usually means you’re amenable to persuasion. There are conservatives that are crotchety, cranky, curmudgeonly old fools that won’t admit the obvious no matter how it’s pointed out to them (I can back this up with facts, figures, reason and logical argument). Therein lies the lesson for what the Democrat Party thrives on. If at any point in their past those types had become Democrats they’d very likely still be Democrats. Because they are not amenable to reason.
Those types on our side are like frosting on a cake. Not a lot of depth and lots of sugary flavor but not the main body of a cake.
It’s just the opposite on the other side. The people amenable to reason are the frosting and the people who are not are the bulk of the cake.
In between those two are the vast majority of Americans. Roughly 30% identify as Democrats, 30% identify as Republicans and in a growing segment of voters 40% of Americans now call themselves “Independent”. I’m one of those last. The percentage of “Independents” is growing and taking numbers away from both parties.
Why?
Because political parties are no longer representing the views of their members. Being unable to effect change and dissatisfied with their party many people are ‘leaving’ their traditional parties by refusing to be identified with them. If your party is losing people who call themselves “Republican” or “Democrat” that is the voters sending you a clear message.
(If you want to know my reasons, ask me. My reasons are my own, I do not claim to speak for other people who identify as Independents.)
This is exactly the opposite of the ‘sunk cost fallacy’. This is people who are willing to cut their losses and leave the traditional game because they do not like what their party is doing. For whatever their personal reasons they don’t like it so much that they don’t want to be labelled with a party name. Though most Independents vote more-or-less along the party line of their previous affiliation.
In Tolkien’s The Two Towers a character named Treebeard was asked which side he was on. He answered …
“Side? I am on nobody’s side because nobody is on my side.”
That’s how a lot of Americans feel and the number is growing not shrinking. In the context of this video that trend has overcome the ‘sunk cost’ tendency in a big way.
I would love to see the Republican Party get back to representing its people. The first party that realizes this is what’s going on and takes steps to remedy this is going to harvest a crap-ton of voters and I do hope it’s the Republicans. Because if it isn’t we are most certainly going to lose our beloved Republic to the side that thinks Democracy means voting us out of our Unalienable Rights.
My question, which continues to “haunt” me for whatever reason, is “What is their end game?” I try to figure it out and honestly, I can generally figure out what they are doing, and why. But at this point, with all of things that are occurring, I am really lost… And that of course includes this topic… Why do they continue to vote the way they are? What is the point?
I have always heard it phrased as, “Get out now while the getting is good!” The other quote I have always tried to live by is, “Insanity is to keep doing what you are doing and expecting a different out come.” If I had a dime for every time I have thought or even said out loud, “Why can’t they see it!!” I would rival Elon’s bank account.
Practice is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Atheletes, skilled workers and perfectionists do it all the time. Largely because they want to reach the point where they can expect to do the same thing over and over again and NOT see different results.
Einstein’s definition thusly falls apart. But then, he was only a physics genius. It doesn’t necessarily translate to philosophy.
Unfortunately the vast majority of people won’t put in even a few minutes worth of introspection to think about who they vote for. They simply pull the D lever without any thought whatsoever.
They don’t think about outcomes and since the MSM does’t tell them the outcome, they just listen to their feels.
When this generations Tammy Faye (AOC) tells them she feels bad about something that is Trumps fault, and send her money to fix it, they feel bad and send her money.
No thinking, no sunk cost analysis. Just feels.
I will say it again about the average intelligence of the population.
Picture someone you know personally who you consider average intelligence. And then realize that by definition, half the population is dumber than that person.
And they vote.
Even the vernacular has been cheapened. Instead of playing to ones emotions, it is all about the feels. The very language we use to discuss what is going on has become childish.
Yes, precisely, Deborah. They are children in adult bodies. I used that word purposefully as that is what I hear teenagers and 20 year olds saying. “She go caught up in her feels”. Drives me a bit nuts, but then most would say I have a pretty big head start in that direction.
I contend that most of the far-left never grew up or their parents thought that raising good kids was the point instead of raising useful adults.
An example of the sunk cost fallacy is more easily understood in terms of the pot on a poker table. Each gambler invests resources (e.g., money) into the pot as the hand progresses, and it can be an extremely difficult thing to abandon that investment once his hand is found lacking the needed strength to win. This is why I don’t gamble — even for fake money in the form of poker chips — I have found that I don’t have either the requisite patience or will to be objective about the game.
The election of any political leader is a gamble for the voter, because nobody can actually know how the individual candidate will represent in the future. A political endorsement (i.e., vote) is a difficult bet to abandon when one stakes a piece of his future on his choice. In fact, the individual candidate will often change his position from that which he campaigned. This fickleness of people is probably the strongest argument for the imposition of term limits for all political and bureaucratic offices. People inevitably change and will eventually not represent their constituents — case study, Joe Biden.
I know Bill repeated “sunk-cost” multiple times, but my mind kept hearing “suck-cost” which translated in my head as “cost of ‘the suck'” which meant how expensive believing in something that sucks turns out to be in the long run, which is what he was getting at anyway …….
While the definition may be splitting hairs, the mask-wearing is just virtue signaling. If not that, then it’s kind of like the headpiece the Jewish people wear (?Jamaca), showing that you belong to this righteous “religion” of “truth”. But there is validity to being invested in something so long that giving up on it is beyond your ability.
As for “having no internal values”; when you believe in nothing, you’ll believe anything.
I see people still wearing their masks even in their cars by themselves. I don’t think they are virtue signaling. I think they are genuinely stupid people who don’t understand what the mask was for and are just wearing it because they were told to and no one has TOLD them not to.
Or they’re idiots who think a mask does something helpful and would have worn one all their lives. Who are now doing so because COVID offered them an excuse that works for them from here forward.
Germaphobes and people allergic to logic were heretofore harder to identify. You had to watch them for a bit before their behavior made their psychosis obvious.
I think it’s great that they do that. It lets me know what I’m dealing with without having to interact with them even a little bit. Plus I don’t have to look at their face and that suits me fine too.
Eventually they’ll be treated like social pariahs. I wonder if they’ll notice?
Masks help because they keep fingers out of noses.
Only until the nosepickers get to someplace where they think no one is watching.
Sorta like Bill Engvall’s “Here’s your sign” become reality?
Exactly so.
The word you were looking for is …
Yamaka or yarmulke in Yiddish or in Hebrew it’s a kippah.
It depends on who you’re talking to how it’s spelled and pronounced.
Thanks. I got spell-checked for Yamaka, but should have remembered Yarmulke.
You’re welcome.
They don’t actually wear it to show everyone they’re righteous members of the religion of “truth”. They wear it to prevent Fear of The Almighty from resting directly on their head(s). By which they mean it reminds them that God is above them at all times. Or at least that’s the reason they give.
I don’t have any opinion one way or another except that I think a tiny little barely visible cap looks silly and tends to blow off in wind no matter what means they use to hold it on. (Some go so far as to use double sided tape or velcro and they still blow off.)
I spent some time operating out of Israel and have asked about pretty much every strange thing Hebrews do. As an upper Midwestern farm kid raised in the Lutheran church I found a lot of what they do … well “weird” might not be the nicest way to say it but it’s the most reflective of my views at the time. There, I was the weird one as what was unfamiliar to me was familiar and comfortable to the Israelis.
I never did get a solid answer for why any other hat, say a baseball cap, wouldn’t do just as well. Two famous American Jewish men, Frank Sinatra and Leonard Cohen, just wore fedoras all the time … So obviously the kippah or yarmulke isn’t a hard and fast rule for all Jewish people.
Leonard Cohen is obviously a Jewish name but I’m often surprised at the number of people who don’t know that not only was Frank Sinatra, ol’ Blue Eyes himself, very Jewish he was also very involved in a lot of Jewish causes.
I think they just like hats in that culture and any reason they give for wearing them is secondary to that fact. I can sympathize, I like hats too and nearly always wear one of some sort out of doors.
Probably there’s also the factor of identifying themselves as a Jew to other Jews. So, Yeah …
What you say about the perpetually masked might have that effect also. Not for a religious or fashion reason but to let other maskers know they’re maskers too. They think wearing a mask makes them appear supremely pious in the Diabolic and Infernal Church of Wokenista.
We should come up with a nice name for them. Like ‘maskquito’ or ‘maskasaurus’ to thank them from sparing us having to see their ugly mugs.
Young females wearing masks really draws attention to those with beautiful eyes. I noticed this in restaurants – maybe full-face these young women aren’t beautiful, but if all you can see of their facial features is their eyes, you might be fooled into believing they are.
… or horrified when they take off the mask and you find out that their eyes are their only recommending feature.
This sort of reminds me of Islamic nations under Sharia Law where women are fully hidden under veils, scarves, kaffiyeh and burqas. With the exception of a full body burqa all you can generally see is the eyes too.
Ha, reminds of this sign from 2021.
People would have to admit that not only have they been wrong, but they have been obnoxiously wrong. Admitting that to the people you have been obnoxious to is excruciating. It means you might not be quite the virtuous genius you have been presuming yourself to be.