Mississippi Conservatives - god help us!

[maiforpeace]

I doubt either of you two would suggest the same thing if someone did a video purporting to illustrate Democrat supporters in a blue state, and interviewed only black, male, thuggish, welfare recipients, with no teeth and borderline retardation in an inner city ghetto, and then claimed not to have "cherry picked" because they just happened to be in that neighborhood.

Apparently that's Alexandra Pelosi's next stop for this type of interview...I'm guessing it will be on tonight or next week's Realtime with Bill Maher, so you'll have your chance to see how we react to that type of supporter.

[Coito ergo sum]

What I'm justifying is a rather large Kernel of Truth. The stereotype you're mentioning exists as well.

Let's assume that to be true, for the sake of argument.

Having a "large kernel of truth" does not, of course, mean that the video of the 8 hicks wasn't, nevertheless, cherry picked and remains not representative of the voting public.

I find it amazing that folks are still jigging about trying to justify how that video is not cherry picked to paint a particular picture. Clearly, they were looking for folks just like the ones they found. The idea that it would be hard to find women to be interviewed, or Obama supporters, or Democrats, or middle class, or blacks, or latinos, in Mississippi it ludicrous beyond belief.

And, let's be clear about something else - the stereotype of southern hicks is that they are overwhelmingly stupid, toothless, rednecks. It's not just that "Republicans" are stupid, toothless, rednecks. But, that is what the video would have you believe. It says southern Republicans are the racist, hicks portrayed there -- southern male Republicans.

Why exclude Democrats? Democrats don't have the same level of retardation in Mississippi as Republicans? That is why I pointed out that nearly 43% of those fuckwits voted for Obama. So, why not include some toothless Obama supporters? Or, toothless Democrats in the video.

There is only one rationale - and, that is that the video was serving an agenda.

You have to admit, that if the only toothless freaks that they included in the video were among the 43% that voted for Obama, the video would not be getting the defense it is getting here. Frankly, it's unbecoming. It is one thing to have an agenda. It's another to stretch it into Apologetics, as the defenders of this biased video have done. I mean, will you at least admit that the video is biased on its face? Will you go that far?

[Coito ergo sum]

I doubt either of you two would suggest the same thing if someone did a video purporting to illustrate Democrat supporters in a blue state, and interviewed only black, male, thuggish, welfare recipients, with no teeth and borderline retardation in an inner city ghetto, and then claimed not to have "cherry picked" because they just happened to be in that neighborhood.

Apparently that's Alexandra Pelosi's next stop for this type of interview...I'm guessing it will be on tonight or next week's Realtime with Bill Maher, so you'll have your chance to see how we react to that type of supporter.

What is her next stop?

[maiforpeace]

I doubt either of you two would suggest the same thing if someone did a video purporting to illustrate Democrat supporters in a blue state, and interviewed only black, male, thuggish, welfare recipients, with no teeth and borderline retardation in an inner city ghetto, and then claimed not to have "cherry picked" because they just happened to be in that neighborhood.

Apparently that's Alexandra Pelosi's next stop for this type of interview...I'm guessing it will be on tonight or next week's Realtime with Bill Maher, so you'll have your chance to see how we react to that type of supporter.

What is her next stop?

The poor in an inner city ghetto...I think it's supposed to be Detroit, or Chicago.

[Coito ergo sum]

LOL - they likely won't do it. Because they'll have to take extra precautions so as not to make it wildly racist and offensive that it will certainly come across contrived. If you change the color of the men's skin, and have them stay stuff like "I want Obama to be President so I don't have to pay my mortgage no mo'" (in Ebonics or Jive, of course), with grinning toothless, yellow-eyed, ghetto folks, expressing their views, then I am sure there will be a number of complaints about it.

They'll make sure to find some well-spoken, clean cut folks who "just happen" to be in the area. You know....the kind of person that just ran from the cameras when Pelosi was in Mississippi interviewing white idiots.

[borealis]

So how many toothless men you saw on the video, Coito?

I saw one.

What about the poor?

I saw 1 for sure (the food stamp guy) and 1 very likely (the old man, house behind him was quite a shack). Rest of them was impossible to tell. Most of the men looked quite average with their clean clothes and haircuts.

[Coito ergo sum]

So how many toothless men you saw on the video, Coito?

I saw one.

What about the poor?

I saw 1 for sure (the food stamp guy) and 1 very likely (the old man, house behind him was quite a shack). Rest of them was impossible to tell. Most of the men looked quite average with their clean clothes and haircuts.

Well, take that up with those that were defending the video. Those are the characteristics they said were representative of the majority of Mississippi.

I love how now I'm being accused of making unwarranted generalizations about the 8 guys on the video, whereas those defending the video are saying that similar generalizations made about the majority of Mississipians are perfectly appropriate and for "good reason."

[Seabass]

This thread is fascinating. It's amazing, honestly.

The non-partisans among us see that this thing is clearly nothing more than a smear/propaganda video. Pelosi was obviously very careful to select interviewees who would serve her purpose of portraying Mississippians and/or Republicans in the worst possible light. It's heavily biased nonsense made for a political comedy show, not to be taken seriously. CES has decisively demonstrated this to be the case using rational analysis of factual statistical data.

And still most thread participants are siding with the video, facts and reason be damned.

It really is fascinating to watch political partisanship at work. It looks an awful lot like faith, to be honest.

[Coito ergo sum]

And, to add - note the title of this thread: "Mississippi Conservatives...."

So, we've seen that the stereotype of Mississippians is to be stupid, racist, hickish, etc. -- see the posts above.

Only 53% of the Mississippians call themselves "Conservative." So, one might wonder whether the stereotypes applied to Mississippians on this thread, and fostered by the video itself, apply to the 47% that identify as liberal or moderate/independent. And, one might wonder whether the same stereotypes apply to the 42.3% that voted for Obama in 2008.

[PsychoSerenity]

This thread is fascinating. It's amazing, honestly.

The non-partisans among us see that this thing is clearly nothing more than a smear/propaganda video. Pelosi was obviously very careful to select interviewees who would serve her purpose of portraying Mississippians and/or Republicans in the worst possible light. It's heavily biased nonsense made for a political comedy show, not to be taken seriously. CES has decisively demonstrated this to be the case using rational analysis of factual statistical data.

And still most thread participants are siding with the video, facts and reason be damned.

It really is fascinating to watch political partisanship at work. It looks an awful lot like faith, to be honest.

Bollocks. What makes you so sure that you're somehow so magically neutral? You're declaring it to be obvious that it's intentionally biased, with arguments of "analysis of factual statistical data" with a sample size of fucking eight. That is not rational.

[Ronja]

PS: bullseye. A news report or even an investigative video is not a scientific study.

Seabass: I'm mostly siding with Ayaan and FBM - they at least know the place, having both been born and raised there. And before you cry "Anecdotal! Inadmissible!" - I've seen neither of them radiating an attitude like "What I post is the objective truth, and if you doubt that, I'll carpet-bomb you with posts until you give up from sheer boredom" during my two years or so here, nor earlier on RDF. Therefore I find their argumentation a hell of a lot more convincing than Coito's repetitive-and-obsessive-enough-to-be-completely-boring and pretending-to-be-objective posts.

[borealis]

PS: bullseye. A news report or even an investigative video is not a scientific study.

Seabass: I'm mostly siding with Ayaan and FBM - they at least know the place, having both been born and raised there. And before you cry "Anecdotal! Inadmissible!" - I've seen neither of them radiating an attitude like "What I post is the objective truth, and if you doubt that, I'll carpet-bomb you with posts until you give up from sheer boredom" during my two years or so here, nor earlier on RDF. Therefore I find their argumentation a hell of a lot more convincing than Coito's repetitive-and-obsessive-enough-to-be-completely-boring and pretending-to-be-objective posts.

[Seabass]

PS: bullseye. A news report or even an investigative video is not a scientific study.

Lol. It's not even an investigative video or a news report. It's a caricature. Made for a comedy show, to make southerners look stupid. Yet there are people in this thread taking it seriously and calling it "depressing" among other things.

Seabass: I'm mostly siding with Ayaan and FBM - they at least know the place, having both been born and raised there. And before you cry "Anecdotal! Inadmissible!" - I've seen neither of them radiating an attitude like "What I post is the objective truth, and if you doubt that, I'll carpet-bomb you with posts until you give up from sheer boredom" during my two years or so here, nor earlier on RDF. Therefore I find their argumentation a hell of a lot more convincing than Coito's repetitive-and-obsessive-enough-to-be-completely-boring and pretending-to-be-objective posts.

What did CES do wrong? He presented facts that conflict with what is presented in the video. He gave voter, gender, and ethnicity statistics that show the video cannot possibly be a fair and accurate representation of Mississippians. What exactly did he do wrong?

Look, no one is suggesting that Mississippi isn't a conservative and backward state--lord knows I wouldn't want to live there. And no one is suggesting that FBM and Ayaan are being dishonest or anything like that. This isn't about taking sides with or against CES, FBM, or Ayaan.

All I'm saying is, clearly the video is an over the top caricature made for a political comedy show that should be taken with a grain ginormous dose of salt.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I saw a poll recently that said 46% of GOP voters believe Obama is a Muslim. It would have been easy to add "whether he admits it or not."

[Ayaan]

Look, Mississippi may be a state full of backwards, racist, misogynistic people, but I was born there and lived there until about four years ago. I do love the state, it is a beautiful place and has plenty of wonderful people. If I thought that video was wildly misrepresenting the place, I would have been among the first to denounce it. However, the attitudes on display are not uncommon there, regardless of demographics.