[QUOTE=Martin Hyde]
He can’t prove people’s motivations, period.
He voiced an opinion a lot of people hold. I’m a religious gun owner–a pretty well off religious gun owner. I agree with the idea that there are some sad people out there who cling to religion desperately because of having incredibly shitty lives.
I don’t look at that as a bad thing, in fact, that’s a good thing, to me. One of the biggest appeals of Christianity is it helps people get through the hard times.
I definitely agree with the opinion that many impoverished religious types use their religion to get through the troubles of their life–using the term “clinging to it” is possibly politically dangerous but not in and of itself a dishonest way of voicing this opinion.
There’s a lot of common sense, anecdotal reasons I have this opinion. But it’s only a well-grounded opinion, based on common sense and anecdotal evidence. That isn’t a fact, something is true if it’s demonstrably true. Opinions can’t be true or false because they aren’t facts. My opinion that John McCain will make a better President than Barack Obama can never reach the level of fact. My opinion that Abraham Lincoln was a better President than U.S. Grant can never reach the level of fact. Even though a polling of historians–experts in the field, might agree with me, we are strictly talking about opinion, not fact.
This particular issue isn’t quite as bad off as some opinions, it may be fact, but it isn’t known right now if it is factual or not. So it’s impossible to say whether Obama’s words were true or false. How does Obama know why poor religious people in rural Pennsylvania towns are religious? He made an opinionated guess–one I probably don’t disagree with, but just because I don’t disagree with it doesn’t mean I’m going to say “this is the truth.” I’ve seen no evidence it is the truth, until I do it’s simply an opinion I agree with. People have gotten in the sickening habit of identifying their opinions as the “one truth” and that’s very dangerous.
As for the other parts of his comments, I agree with his comment on these people being anti-immigrant pretty much (just like I do his comment on the religious.) When it comes to guns, I have no personal experience with anything like that.
I know a lot of people who don’t like immigrants because they feel immigrants have contributed to their negative situations in life. I know a lot of people who say their faith is what has gotten them through their hardest times.
I don’t know a single person who has said anything even indicative of, “I own guns because the rest of my life is so shitty.” I’m not saying such people don’t exist, but the opinion that people cling to guns because their lives are shitty in general doesn’t really sync up with my personal observations the same way Obama’s other two points did.
[/QUOTE]
You keep trying to equate it to a statement about all small towners, all religous peple, etc. He was basically asked why some people choose cultural issues over their own self-interest. His answer was that they do it because they simply don’t believe politicians who say they care about their economic interests. They don’t think they’re going to get any help in that are, so they retreat into cultural identifiers and, sometimes, scapegoating.
