{"id":778,"date":"2011-03-07T14:32:54","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T14:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2011\/03\/the-crazification-factor-of-27.html"},"modified":"2011-03-07T14:32:54","modified_gmt":"2011-03-07T14:32:54","slug":"the-crazification-factor-of-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/03\/the-crazification-factor-of-27.html","title":{"rendered":"The &#8220;crazification factor&#8221; of 27%"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I just read a delightful (in a black humored sort of way) post up at Balloon Juice. &nbsp;It offers a way to calculate <a href=\"http:\/\/www.balloon-juice.com\/2011\/03\/07\/john-rogers-is-still-a-genius\/\">the number of &#8220;crazies&#8221;<\/a> on the political right, people for whom no fact or logic will work at getting them to question a belief and whose partisanship is completely blind.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A much more difficult question to answer is whether there is a similar number for the other side. &nbsp;I am sure such a number exists, because of folks I met during the 60s, but I think it is much much lower. &nbsp;My reason for saying so is that the left does not base so much of its appeal on fear and anger. &nbsp;Those elements are there to be sure, but they are recessive. &nbsp;Even so, blind partisanship exists. The<a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidbrin.com\/addiction.htm\"> drug of self-righteousness<\/a> is addictive and powerful. They are there, but I think no where near 27%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This leads me to think about the heavy correspondence between alternative spiritual traditions in the US and support for progressive causes such as abolitionism, suffrage, and the like. &nbsp;What they have in common is a concern, be it well or poorly stated, insightful or foolishly conceptualized,&nbsp;<i>for others<\/i>. The only &#8220;other&#8221; for which the contemporary right evidences much concern is the fetus. &nbsp;To care about others requires some capacity for empathy, and to care about whom we do not know, and may never know, requires even greater capacity for empathy. &nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Perhaps the old spiritual argument that love and care for others &nbsp;is the ultimate value is also the cure for the social disease wrongly labeled as &#8220;conservatism&#8221; that afflicts us today. But how to reach their hearts? &nbsp;I wish I knew.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I just read a delightful (in a black humored sort of way) post up at Balloon Juice. &nbsp;It offers a way to calculate the number of &#8220;crazies&#8221; on the political right, people for whom no fact or logic will work at getting them to question a belief and whose partisanship is completely blind. A much&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-and-political-theory","category-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The &quot;crazification factor&quot; of 27% - A Pagan&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/03\/the-crazification-factor-of-27.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The &quot;crazification factor&quot; of 27% - A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I just read a delightful (in a black humored sort of way) post up at Balloon Juice. &nbsp;It offers a way to calculate the number of &#8220;crazies&#8221; on the political right, people for whom no fact or logic will work at getting them to question a belief and whose partisanship is completely blind. A much&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/03\/the-crazification-factor-of-27.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-07T14:32:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gus diZerega\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The \"crazification factor\" of 27% - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/03\/the-crazification-factor-of-27.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The \"crazification factor\" of 27% - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","og_description":"I just read a delightful (in a black humored sort of way) post up at Balloon Juice. &nbsp;It offers a way to calculate the number of &#8220;crazies&#8221; on the political right, people for whom no fact or logic will work at getting them to question a belief and whose partisanship is completely blind. 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