American Thinker:
By Andrea Widburg
The left lives on “narrative.” In other words, it tells stories. It tells stories about race, gender, criminal violence, and a host of other things. Occasionally, these stories intersect with the facts, but more often than not, they don’t. I mention this because it was the unmistakable difference between fact and narrative that drove Georgia H, a lovely and articulate educator and nurse, to #WalkAway from the Democrat party and its stories. Her video has already garnered 1.1 million views and counting. That’s because she says crucial things about the nature of reality.
“Cognitive dissonance” is a fancy word for simultaneously holding contrary beliefs or understandings, one of which connects with reality and the other of which does not. Over the long run, cognitive dissonance is an unsustainable state. Reality will win.
I know, because I had a WalkAway moment a couple of decades ago when my Democrat belief system crashed headlong into the lies I knew that NPR was telling me. I could either embrace the narrative or embrace the truth. That’s how I became a conservative.
Natan Sharansky, who was probably the most famous refusenik in the Soviet Union during the 1970s, has described how people struggle when they live in a totalitarian society that demands they believe its narrative, even when the realities of their lives brutally and explicitly contradict that narrative. In The Case For Democracy: The Power Of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny And Terror (2004 hardback edition), Sharansky discussed the “doublethink” that drove people mad: read more
A few days ago on FB someone made a post about how Angela Merkel brought hope to the world unlike the regime in the US.
You have to wonder about some people.
Long but worth the time; gives you hope that maybe, just maybe, there are enough smart, thinking, independent-minded young people to save the country from the stupid ones
feel sorry for this woman … she truly ‘woke’ & will receive the wrath of the ‘progressives’
the shitstorm that’s going to come after her is going to be a defining moment in her life … she’s either going to come out of this totally beaten down (ala. Winston Smith), or a stronger advocate because of her ‘awakening’
God bless her. she needs our support, encouragement & comfort
I am happy for her to come to reality and not be afraid to speak her mind.
On a side note – a public speaking critique: Has anyone counted how many times she said “like” in that video?
It seemed as though it was a few thousand.
@DrRiff, I’ll take “like” over “ummm” most of the time. There’s certain people in the public eye that can’t string together more than 5 words without 2 or 3 ummms. The really annoyance are those who say, “like, ummm.”
I watched 17 minutes of it, but got so sick of hearing her say “like” I had to shut it off. Why can’t people talk anymore without the repeated use of that word? I’m very happy she walked away, though.
As the founding fathers knew, Christ is the answer. The bolshevic useful idiots need you to forget that.
Intelligent but not enlightened.
I dislike the word “narrative”. It conjures up visions of academics interviewing people about their life experiences, which provides politicians and other busybodies an excuse to create laws and programs built upon people’s thoughts and feelings. These often get exaggerated or misinterpreted, like the investigations of day care centers where people were charged with child molestation, only to be acquitted later after spending years in prison.
“Narrative” is a leftist tool, and a vastly overused word at that.
I watched the whole thing. 47 minutes actually flew by. I recommend it.