Re: Anti-ICE agitators chase ICE fascists out of town.

    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.


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.