Column #452      April 26, 2024Political Spectrum

There can be a big difference between facts and feelings. We all have feelings which actually differ from emotions. According to Psychology Today, “Emotions are the raw data, a reaction to the present reality, whereas feelings can be diluted by stories we’ve created in our head based on events of the past or fears of the future—not necessarily the truth of the situation. Listening to our bodily emotions, informed by our sense perception, helps us connect to the reality of our present experience rather than to stories made of potentially inaccurate beliefs. From our truth, we can make decisions that are right for us.”1

According to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Facts, philosophers like to say, are opposed to theories and to values (cf. Rundle 1993) and are to be distinguished from things, in particular from complex objects, complexes and wholes, and from relations. They are the objects of certain mental states and acts, they make truth-bearers true and correspond to truths, they are part of the furniture of the world.”2

In this day and age of constant official propaganda, if we pay attention to the legacy news we’re struck by how much our feelings are being played. For some of us it’s very irritating to be deliberately lied to or told exaggerated or titillating half truths. To combat that we do independent research, practice critical thinking, and use common sense to determine the facts. Unfortunately, these days many folks soak up propaganda as gospel and convert it into feelings which they act on.

As John and Nisha Whitehead from The Rutherford Institute say, “We have become guinea pigs in a ruthlessly calculated, carefully orchestrated, chillingly cold-blooded experiment in how to control a population and advance a political agenda without much opposition from the citizenry.”3

Of course, when it comes to interpreting events, where we focus our attention also determines our conclusions. This is why two people can observe, or be told the same thing, and come away with wildly different beliefs as to what transpired. Once again, feelings and perceptions can be deceiving which is why research, critical thinking, and common sense are required for us to have a true grasp on events. Or as philosophers put it, to see “the furniture of the world.”

People who are on the extreme left and extreme right are quite similar when it comes to their feelings driving their conclusions which then motivate their actions. Both sides become destructively irrational in their worldview as that happens. Rational thought is jettisoned and hypocrisy reigns. As their feelings become more ingrained, the extreme far left turns to communism and fascism and the extreme far right turns to barbarism.

Now if the two extremes were to fight each other, those of us in the middle will most likely suffer. That’s because when the warring sides have no morals they will kill, maim, and coerce all others they come across into joining their side or else. At this time though, the far left radicals are doing the majority of protesting and rabble rousing. They are the ones who believe the Constitution and Bill of Rights need to be rewritten. They are the ones who are ignoring the rule of law, burning our flag, and more recently protesting Israel’s defense of its homeland. And, worst of all, the liberal executive branch is actually kowtowing to the radical idiots.

When viewing the antisemitic protests currently sweeping the nation, it appears that ivy league children (along with the children in colleges across the land) wear masks to self-identify as liberals. (I assume these idiots will wear them for life.) Then they stupidly follow the chants of their instigators whose motivations and backers are cloaked in mystery. Apparently these children have learned nothing in school (except for a warped worldview) and classes aren’t even all that important to them in any case. So they would rather condemn Israel, Jews, and even their own country than learn about world history. They are functioning strictly on feelings that were inspired by their teachers, the legacy media, the government, and paid instigators while facts are damned.4

The protesting kids illustrate just how far the Democratic Party itself has moved to the left. They support the Democrats’ agenda which no longer demands that the laws of the land should prevail. They believe DEI is freedom. They are pushing hard to eliminate the first and second rights in the Bill of Rights while ignoring others. Its no wonder the kids refuse to make any effort in researching facts, practice critical thinking, and most do not even have a little common sense because they were spoiled rotten by their parents.

Currently the raving leftists—especially those at Columbia University—protesting in support of Hamas and death to the Israelis are so far afield they are even driving a number of leading Democrats into joining their Republican colleagues in denouncing discrimination against Jews. Interestingly, former President Obama, who graduated from Columbia in 1983, made no mention of protestors' violent rhetoric aimed at the university's Jewish students and staff in a lengthy April 20 post on X commemorating the celebration of Passover. Of course, Obama remains the kingpin of the woke movement so what more can we expect from him.

But these recent student demonstrations are only one additional symptom of the radicalization of the irrational leftists. They embrace beliefs based on feelings, because they know nothing. In many cases they don’t even know why they are protesting against Israel—which makes them really useful idiots. They are so ignorant they don’t understand that we’ve got a whole governmental apparatus that is responsible for destroying democracy and the founding principles that made our country great. Just look at the list of recent ills inflicted on us in three years, many of which were reversals of policies Trump put in place.5

●    Open borders resulting in 12 million illegal aliens, of which maybe 20% are gotaways that have infiltrated our borders to join terrorist cells;
●    The illegal forgiveness of student debt;
●    Botched Afghanistan withdrawal;
●    Deliberately causing the Ukraine proxy war with Russia and scuttling its truce talks;
●    Promoting child molestation and debauchery;
●    Excessive spending that resulted in rampant price inflation and an unsustainable national debt;
●    Continuing to push mRNA vaccines;
●    Promoting climate fearmongering;
●    Corrupting the DOJ with lawfare;
●    Election interference;
●    Restricting the production of domestic oil, gas, and uranium;
●    Draining the nation’s petroleum reserve;
●    Continually causing divisiveness amongst the citizens;
●    Biden family corruption that compromises America’s security;
●    Pretending Biden didn’t steal classified documents when a senator and vice-president;
●    Introducing identity politics in the federal bureaucracy and DEI in the military;
●    Suppressing free speech;
●    The DOJ’s violations of Jan6 defendants’ civil rights while forgiving Antifa and BLM rioters or recently disruptive demonstrators in the nation’s Capitol;
●    The Biden administration’s continual lying about nearly everything it does;
●    Pretending that Biden’s brain is fully functional;
●    Biden’s wimpy response to antisemitism rioters;
●    Biden allowed a Chinese spy balloon to invade America’s airspace;
●    Biden transferred $6 billion to Iran and then shows weakness in his support of Israel.

If that short list of facts is “the furniture of the world,” why is it that nearly half of the citizens of the United States is still willing to vote Biden in for another term as president? Why did 17% of the Republicans in Pennsylvania recently vote for Nikki Haley who dropped out of the race months ago? Why did RINO Romney play into the hands of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg by judging Trump as “a person he perceives” rather than on the basis of the underlying phoney criminal allegations.6

I believe 95% of Biden’s support comes about because of Trump derangement syndrome. Syndrome in this case is a psychological disorder resulting from people responding to their feelings. Just as Hitler, through his rhetoric and writings, was able to convince German citizens that all Jews must be eliminated from the planet, the Democrats fuel irrational hatred toward Trump. They know they couldn’t beat Trump fair and square if the people believed Trump’s policies were the best the country has seen since Ronald Reagan. And they know they only won in 2020 because they corrupted the election.7 8

So the Democrats, deep state, and legacy media want people to believe all sorts of sordid details about Trump. That’s why they beat that drum and drag Trump into kangaroo courts. Therefore, unless most of the voters do independent research, practice critical thinking, and use their God-given common sense their feelings about Trump will be negative no matter his policies.

So far, it’s rather amazing how much progress the Democrats are making with their strategy. That alone puts in question the intelligence of the voting public as they jettison “the furniture of the world” to go with their feelings.

We live in interesting times for sure.

To your health.

Ted Slanker

Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.

For additional reading:

1. The Important Difference Between Emotions and Feelings by Rachel Allyn Ph.D. from Psychology Today

2. Facts from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

3. Divide And Conquer: The Government's Propaganda Of Fear And Fake News by John and Nisha Whitehead from The Rutherford Institute

4. George Soros Is Paying Student Radicals Who Are Fueling Nationwide Explosion of Israel-hating Protests by Isabel Vincent from NY Post

5. NYU 'Pro-Palestine' Demonstrators Have No Idea What They're Protesting by Steve Watson from Modernity.news

6. Romney & The Wrong Question: Senator's Statement On Trump's Guilt Captures The Problem With The Manhattan Trial by Jonathan Turley

7. New York Democrat Wishes Death On Trump Supporters by Steve Watson from Modernity.news

8. Trump Derangement Syndrome from Wikipedia