As a professional financial planner, your brother needs to surround himself with lies in order to keep himself from realizing how totally evil his entire career has been. If he could acknowledge the truth, he either would have changed careers or just failed miserably in the field a long time ago.

There are many reasons people surround themselves with protective lies. "We can't handle the truth."

I think we all surround ourselves with lies to an extent.

It's called a Comfort Zone.

Agreed, re:Comfort Zone, Doo, but my experience has been to see more 'factual distortion' caused by money than politics, though this example shows how they overlap. And I have personally known ZERO 'Financial Planners' who did much "wealth creation" as opposed to just "taking a slice off the top", but Your Results May Vary (a lot).

It's funny, I do find that right-wingers tend to be emotional reasoners swayed much more easily by narrative than by evidence, though they always claim to be the more "realistic" ones.

FOX "News".

Faux Gnus

I think we all cherry-pick facts that we are comfortable with, to some extent. It does seem that those who identify as right-wing are far more prone to doing this, though. It must be hard to stick to the facts as they are when the facts consistently fail to align with the world-view you have chosen.

Ugh, Facebook political posts. That sounds like a really annoying exchange. So odd not to do a tiny bit of fact-checking first instead of posting a bunch of patently false assertions.

Still, I have to point out that oneswellfoop's suggestion that financial planners "surround themselves with lies" and that their careers are "evil" is preposterous. I realize it's a rhetorical flourish on oneswellfoop's part, but I'm not going to let it pass unremarked. Of course, any of those things might be true of this particular guy. But that's not a function of his profession. Rather, as Doohickie said, it's extra surprising.

Recognize that at least one well-loved, old-time Mechazen is a financial planner. She's a thoughtful, ethical person. I doubt she's still reading this, but you never know.

Where I live, right-wingers are very thin on the ground. It might be because they're such a minority, but the tiny handful I do meet (moderate fiscal conservatives/social-libertarian types) seem no less sophisticated and no more likely to cherry-pick than anyone else.

Thanks, tangerine -- agreed as well. The financial planner I, uh, would have used if I ever got off my ass is the mother of my former orchestral stand partner and wife of the minister who officiated at my first wedding, and she's probably the only person who has kept my parents from falling into the same clueless "comfort zone" that sent my grandparents to the poorhouse.

And I have personally known ZERO 'Financial Planners' who did much "wealth creation" as opposed to just "taking a slice off the top"

That's pretty much what they're there for. As much as I get frustrated with my other conservative brother, at least he produces something. (He remodels homes.)

Ugh, Facebook political posts. That sounds like a really annoying exchange. So odd not to do a tiny bit of fact-checking first instead of posting a bunch of patently false assertions.

That was really my point. Not only did he not fact check, but I would expect he would, as a part of his job, stay abreast of tax code changes.

And yes, I know not all financial planners are evil or unethical. But it just seems like they take a slice that seems to be a bit more than is their due. Generally I get along with my financial planner brother, but this particular thing just kind of shocked me in its ignorance where I would expect knowledge.