This all kind of relates to a phenomenon that I coined as the "lottery mentality" here in America. I noticed it first in the 80's when Reagan convinced everyone to go along with Trickle Down Economics - "If you had a pile of money, wouldn't you want to keep it rather than having to give it all to the government?" Very few of us will ever be in that position, but we can all identify with how we might feel if we were.
The argument worked so well, that it has started to permeate our culture. By focusing on the marginal (almost minuscule) aberrations, opinions about issues can be swayed:
- The exceedingly few violent criminals that cross our border to the south become representative of all undocumented immigrants.
- The exceedingly few individuals that commit horrific mass shootings become representative of all gun owners - especially those with AR's
- The exceedingly few abortions that are horrifically performed late in pregnancy are representative of all abortions
- The exceedingly few white supremacists represent all conservatives
- The exceedingly few Antifa members that commit violent acts represent all seeking social justice
- The exceedingly few Muslim extremists that perpetrated the 9/11 attacks represent all Muslims
We use this approach for everything. We have become paralyzed as a nation because we allow ourselves to be polarized by fringe issues. We use the abhorrently abnormal minority to affect our treatment of the decently normal vast majority.
