Old Hippie

- Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon which refers to the discomfort felt at a discrepancy between what you already know or believe, and new information or interpretation.

For progressive, this can be difficult, if not impossible to overcome.

For some examples, consider:

Social security solvency - We all know that life expectancy has increased dramatically since the beginning of Social Security. Logically one would expect the age of eligibility for these benefits would need to be increased to keep the program solvent. Logically, that is. But many people scream bloody murder if you even consider raising the retirement age even for people who are currently in their 20s and 30s because, dammit, we deserve this benefit unchanged.

Health care bill reduces deficit. No rational person would ever actually expect that adding 20-30 million more people to insurance rolls would actually cost less money. Key word, rational.

Michael Moore is dumbfounded that increasing the number of guns, allowing concealed carry permits, etc., leads to less crime not more. More logic ignored by a liberal.

Progressive have always said that increased taxes leads to more revenue. And the actual reality of increasing taxes has always led to reduced revenue, while reducing taxes has always led to more revenue. If you are liberal, you are amazed at this finding.

Mandatory health insurance or fine was not a tax when law passed, is a tax in court challenge. It just depends on who you are talking to, I guess. Vehemently the democrats argued that it was the responsible thing to do for everyone to be forced to buy health insurance. What tax are you talking about? But once the bill landed in court, Obama lawyers try to argue that it is indeed a tax and it is fully within the powers of the government to levy this tax. Oh vey.

Health care bill will reduce premiums. Again we see quite the opposite in action with premiums rising, as logic would dictate, not dropping.

Health care bill great for business but granted 222 waivers already. I think this is called Crony Capitalism. The rulers make the laws and the rulers decide who should follow the laws and who gets a pass. Really.

Congressmen send letter to Mexican officials to keep secret union ballot yet fight for Card Check in US. This is so hypocritical it's hard to even think about. Do as I say, not as I do. I think that covers it.

Obama pens a Wall Street Journal article in favor of cutting regulations bad for business. He's really trying to be a help to businesses, right? Then how to explain the more than 100,000 pages of new regulations to come from health care, financial reform, net neutrality, carbon emissions yet to be written?

Nancy Pelosi says we have to pass the health care bill to find out what's in it. Because knowing what we are really voting on would be just too damn hard and take too damn long for us to get onto our other top priorities, parties and junkets and stuff like that.

Yet, Nancy Pelosi says her top priority was always deficit reduction. She will never explain why, if that is so, the national deficit increased $5 trillion in her 4 years as Madame Speaker.

New York Times said that Palin's web site cross hair map incited violence. It puzzles me how only her map, not the myriad other similar maps and logos by groups, organizations and agencies of all kinds did not have the same result.

Joe Lieberman was vilified by Democrats for leaving his party to run as an Independent. When Alaska's Lisa Murkowski did the same thing, she was praised. First one was a Democrat the latter a Republican.

Eric Holder sues Arizona for state's immigration law claiming fed law trumps state law. OK, I can actually sort of see that. However, Mr Holder has no intention of suing amnesty cities for refusing to enforce immigration return laws. Where is the moral equivalency on this?

Since the Dept of Education started in 1979 there has been no improvement in student scores. The amount of money disappearing in this department has continually grown and there are no results to justify why this money is needed. If something isn't working, stop doing it.

The belief that a higher minimum wage helps the working poor is a long held belief. After all, when you pay someone more money, he has more to spend and less need on others. True that, but what effect does it have on other workers. It seems that the unemployment rate, especially for poorer workers, always goes up after the minimum wage increases. Curious, huh? Forcing higher labor costs onto business creates consequences for business which results in fewer jobs overall. Pure logic at work.

And tonight we will be treated with Mr. Wonderful calling for more government investment in roads and infrastructure and the like. As I once told a friend of mine, buying a car is not an investment. Obama thinks he can simply use the word investment to replace spending and that makes it OK. Economics 101 is a course I would recommend to him.

It seems like cognitive dissonance could just as easily be called hypocrisy. Continuing cognitive dissonance by letting emotions rule over logic , feelings trump reality, may allow one to state that mandatory insurance is not a tax when it helps you and that it is a tax when that helps you. It does not leave your mind in stable state, however. To avoid insanity one must truly believe that the illogical choice is truly the proper choice. One must ignore inconvenient facts and focus on how it makes them feel.

Feelings, after all, are the true indicator of right and wrong. I can't believe I just typed that sentence. Gawd, how awful.

Saul Alinsky said that the end justifies means when it is on our side. When the other side employs this tactic, it is shameful and wrong.

Learning something new that contradicts what you have always believed is difficult. The new facts are resisted, it is human nature, but eventually they will be seen for what they are, if they are truly the facts.

Continuing to ignore the effects of cognitive dissonance will lead to insanity. I will not go there.

OH