XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, comp.sys.mac.advocacy   
   From: hotmail@hotmail.edu   
      
   Johno wrote:   
      
      
   Red states are cheaper to live in than blue states because like hotels,   
   shitholes cost less than habitable ones.   
      
      
      
       The murder rate in the 25 states that voted for Donald Trump has   
       exceeded the murder rate in the 25 states that voted for Joe Biden in   
       every year from 2000 to 2020. Over this 21-year span, this Red State   
       murder gap has steadily widened from a low of 9% more per capita red   
       state murders in 2003 and 2004 to 44% more per capita red state   
       murders in 2019, before settling back to 43% in 2020. Altogether, the   
       per capita Red State murder rate was 23% higher than the Blue State   
       murder rate when all 21 years were combined. If Blue State murder   
       rates were as high as Red State murder rates, Biden-voting states   
       would have suffered over 45,000 more murders between 2000 and 2020.   
       Even when murders in the largest cities in red states are removed,   
       overall murder rates in Trump-voting states were 12% higher than   
       Biden-voting states across this 21-year period and were higher in 18   
       of the 21 years observed.   
      
   The GOP’s Welfare States Problem: How Red America Drains Blue America   
      
   by Richard Gosk | Sep 17, 2025 | Economy   
      
      
   California’s economy is larger than the United Kingdom’s. New York sits at   
   the center of global finance. Massachusetts, Washington, Oregon, and other   
   blue states collectively represent over 60% of America’s GDP. In short,   
   the engine that powers the United States economy is overwhelmingly powered   
   by blue states.   
      
   And yet, the states most dependent on federal welfare, subsidies, and tax   
   redistribution are overwhelmingly Republican. These states drain resources   
   from the federal government while exerting disproportionate political   
   influence over how it operates.   
      
   Top Three Takeaways from the Article:   
      
   Republican-led states are net takers – relying heavily on federal dollars   
   to run their states that come mostly from blue state taxpayers.   
      
   Political representation is skewed – giving resource-draining red states   
   disproportionate power over national policy.   
      
   Blue states could push back – through interstate coordination, selective   
   compliance, or even secession threats, forcing a reckoning over who truly   
   sustains America.   
      
   Rightists are intellectual lightweights who are easily subjugated with   
   propaganda and lies, especially in the backwards, impoverished, Trump   
   supporting 'red' states.  If you repeat a lie often enough, rightists will   
   believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself because a lie   
   told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.   
   Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident   
   they are acting on their own free will.  There was no point in seeking to   
   convert the intellectual leftists. For intellectuals would never be   
   converted.   Arguments targeted at rightists must therefore be crude, clear   
   and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect.   
   Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology.   
   If you tell a lie, tell a big one for you have nothing to fear if you have   
   nothing to hide.   
      
   Follow the science:   
   Researchers have found a possible explanation for why certain people are   
   prejudiced: they're less intelligent.   
      
   Children with lower general intelligence are more likely to become   
   prejudiced as adults, according to a Brock University study.   
      
   The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, examined data   
   from two large-scale British studies, and found lower intelligence scores   
   in childhood were predictors of greater racism in adulthood, which the   
   researchers controversially explain is brought about by adopting right-wing   
   ideologies.   
      
   A secondary analysis of data from a U.S. study also showed those with poor   
   abstract-reasoning skills were more likely to have anti-homosexual   
   prejudice, partially linked to authoritarian attitudes.   
      
   Lead researcher Gordon Hodson told LiveScience that the results of the   
   study indicate a vicious cycle, in which people with low intelligence are   
   drawn to socially conservative ideologies. In turn, those ideologies can   
   contribute to prejudices.   
      
   "Socially conservative ideologies tend to offer structure and order," he   
   said, explaining why those with lower intelligence may gravitate toward the   
   right. "Unfortunately, many of these features can contribute to prejudice."   
      
   The researchers found that people with lower intelligence also tended to   
   have less contact with other races and groups, which, Dr. Hodson said,   
   supports previous research that determined interacting with other groups is   
   mentally challenging and cognitively draining.   
      
   Dr. Hodson explained the findings do not mean all liberals are smart and   
   all conservatives are stupid, LiveScience.com reports. "There are multiple   
   examples of very bright conservatives and not-so-bright liberals, and many   
   examples of very principled conservatives and very intolerant liberals," he   
   said.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)