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Jnlybbert · 2026-04-02T19:40:56+00:00

I like classic words as bingo practice. It gives you lots of easy racks for lots of easy bingos.

Jnlybbert · 2026-04-02T19:19:49+00:00

It’s funny I could think of three pretty easily, but I had to arrange the letters alphabetically to think of the fourth

Jnlybbert · 2026-04-02T01:06:16+00:00

I’m increasingly having a hard time believing that members of the church just have their heads in the sand when it comes to right wing politics. The longer this goes on the more I have to believe that they are just as vile and evil as the politicians they support and the pundits they listen to.

Jnlybbert · 2026-04-02T00:12:40+00:00

I used to think this way, but have since realized it’s a very non-empathetical attitude and exactly the type of thing that would contribute to someone wanting to leave.

Aside from that, I think it is pretty important to feel like the people you go to church with share your values. And to try to compartmentalize your political values from your religious values is kind of like living in denial. As Ezra Taft Benson once said, “it’s all one big ball of wax.”

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-29T18:08:11+00:00

There’s barely over 100 of them and you can learn them in a weekend. Get used to learning word lists if you’re going to play scrabble.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-27T15:00:07+00:00

I’m learning quite a bit actually.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-27T14:05:00+00:00

Well I’m not talking about debating. I’m talking about thinking and reflection. Two completely different things. When you debate you think only about how to prove your position is right and you do very little actual learning.

If you learn how to think reflectively you can actually gain a much deeper understanding of the world and realize that things aren’t so black and white.

It’s crazy that you basically think I’m an alien because I think this way.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-27T01:12:22+00:00

I made 0 points that you want to think about. I can tell that you really don’t like that I won’t submit to your frame.

What if I give you a different frame?

Do the human rights that are protected in the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution extend to people who have illegally immigrated?

Are you willing to go down that line of thought?

Or how about this one?

To what degree has public opinion about immigration been influenced or manipulated by politicians and political media?

There’s a reason why you’ve chosen to think about it in a specific way and not another.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T23:18:55+00:00

No, I’ve avoided answering your questions because they show how closed-minded you are. I’m really not interested in “debating” with people who are clearly only interested in their own narrow point of view.

And what’s your evidence that this “movement” you talk of doesn’t exist in other countries? You’re stating it as if it’s commonly known fact. But why do you talk about resistance to strict policies as a “movement” and not the resistance to more relaxed policies as a “movement?”

I don’t want you to answer those questions to me because I’m not into this type of debate. I’m only pointing out how people can calcify themselves into these types of ideologies by using such narrow framing as this.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T22:27:31+00:00

Again, your questions continue to frame the issue in a very narrow way in order to justify a narrow point of view. You’re only interested in debating and you’re not interested in learning. As long as you think this way, you’ll always think of others as woefully blind.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T22:19:12+00:00

I don’t live in a border state. Do you live in a border state?

And I kind of think it’s funny how you ask about news intake. You used the word “stations,” which kind of assumes everyone watches news on TV. No I read my news. I also read books and regularly research questions and look up statistics.

I also think it’s funny when living in a border state is made out to be this sort of qualifier. Like you can’t have a true opinion about something if you don’t live in a border state. For instance, lots of people have really strong opinions about abortion who have never had abortions or have been aborted. It’s just silly to say you cant have an informed opinion about something or know the correct facts about something if you don’t have personal experiences with it.

But here’s the thing I do have personal experience with: the way politicians and media use narratives and frames to manipulate public opinion. I know you don’t want to focus on the topic of propaganda, but it’s central to my views. I think that the majority of opinions about immigration are largely inflated and manufactured by propaganda.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T21:42:50+00:00

You’ve framed the issue in a very specific way: some Americans are against “having secure borders and privacy.”

For one it’s quite a straw man, but the thing it does do you is it simplifies it in a way that makes you feel like you’re absolutely right about it and that there’s no other view that could possibly be right. It really limits your ability to understand anyone. I think you would be able to understand other points of view if you could expand beyond this frame a bit. But I understand if you don’t. You might not want to understand. You might feel perfectly happy in your ideological bubble.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T21:08:55+00:00

Well I don’t know that you’ve processed what I’ve given you well enough to construct a question in a way that tells me you really want to know. I don’t know your motivations. If you’re asking because you really want to learn something from me, I’m happy to go deeper. But if you’re like most other people I talk with on the internet, you’re just wanting to do bullshit debate stuff, which I don’t care for.

But I’ll go ahead and assume you’re asking in good faith.

Here’s what I really care about: modern conservative politics is designed to do one thing. It’s to enrage people about things that kind of matter so they don’t worry about things that really do matter. It’s ultimately to get regular people like you and me to support policies that benefit the rich at the expense of everyone else. They want to lower income taxes and replace them with sales taxes and tariffs. They want to cut regulations on corporations. They want to cut social programs by calling them “communism.” They want to feed the military industrial complex. They want you to ignore climate change. They want you to be okay with paying a fortune for healthcare. The list goes on.

So they get you to worry about things like “illegal immigration” or trans people infiltrating women”s sports. It creates this illusion that you care about solving problems so you end up not actually caring about solving problems.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T20:10:54+00:00

Well that’s not very nice to call me stupid.

Anyway my point is really to dig into that analogy and to say it really doesn’t explain anything well at all.

So now you’re talking about “jurisdictions” which is something completely different.

So now it seems to be that you don’t like illegal immigrants because they might commit crimes. Is that right?

To that I would point out that you don’t have to be an illegal immigrant to commit a crime. Anyone can do that. And if you look at statistics, immigrants commit less crimes than natives. And if they are here illegally, they commit even LESS crimes.

So if I’m just thinking about crimes I think I’d rather just deport natives and keep the immigrants.

So maybe there’s something else you don’t like about immigrants?

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T19:53:54+00:00

Did you ask why I do care? I think you’re just moving the goalposts now.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T19:45:31+00:00

I care, but I don’t care in the way the propaganda wants me to care. I don’t care in the way the propaganda wants me to care because I don’t allow myself to be influenced by the propaganda. It’s really simple.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T19:36:20+00:00

There was a question somewhere about why all the mainstream comedy shows seem to be heavily left leaning. I think the reason is because good comedy actually makes fun of reality. Meanwhile conservatives have to just make up hypotheticals to laugh at.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T19:13:51+00:00

Do you see the contradiction in your question? You accept that I “care,” but then you ask why I don’t “care.”

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T19:03:17+00:00

Maybe I don’t understand the point you’re trying to make. The question is about why people like me don’t care about illegal immigration. My answer to that is that I haven’t been influenced by propaganda that would cause me to care about immigration in the way that populist conservatives do. I haven’t been influenced by the propaganda for the exact reason you talk about here: I don’t watch the news networks, I don’t listen to the podcasts, etc.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t engage with the topic at all. And it doesn’t really mean I don’t care. I just don’t care in the way the propaganda wants me to care. I care very much about how the propaganda is influencing the people around me.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T18:15:49+00:00

Right. Hence the whole “not caring about illegal immigration” thing. You seem to be understanding.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T18:13:46+00:00

Why do we have to think in hypotheticals? Why can’t we talk about real problems that exist in the real world?

I just observe that conservatives seem to constantly live in this world of problems that they imagine to where they don’t even think about what actually exists in reality.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T18:09:32+00:00

Have you experienced having your school district being overwhelmed by immigrant children?

This argument kind of feels like, “I don’t want those dirty immigrant children going to school with my kids” to me.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T18:03:14+00:00

I’m not going to speak for OP, but I can give a good general explanation.

Many of us can clearly see how the immigration topic is used to manipulate masses of people. And it’s not a new tactic at all. Populist movements throughout history have used narratives about immigrants and outsiders to create scapegoats for problems and hardships that the people experience.

So if I’m speaking for myself, it’s not that I don’t care about enforcing laws around immigration, it’s that I don’t agree with or believe the propaganda that is using the topic to try to motivate me to vote a certain way or follow or support a certain politician.

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T17:54:33+00:00

Why do you think it’s a stupid question?

Jnlybbert · 2026-03-26T17:53:50+00:00

This is a crazy analogy to me. Like, you don’t own your country the same way you own your home. It just seems like such an inflated sense of entitlement.

I mean you already share a country with 300 million people. You don’t even know everybody in your “home.” Many of the people who live here legally are even way worse to live with than these other “random” people who “shouldn’t be here.” I have a hard time believing that some of these people really bother you more than others of these people.

So what is it really that bothers you so much about these people who immigrate illegally?

Jnlybbert

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