97 Comments

DAVID CORN has just published a book that talks about ‘psychosis’. I grew up when Democrats were the Party of Jim Crow/segregation.

I wondered how the MINority could oppress the MAJority. When Corn used that word …"a severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality" … I realized that people do not have a ‘severe mental disorder’.

They are ‘choosing’ to have thought and emotions that impair their contact with external reality.

People (particularly very religious and/or people) are ‘choosing’ to be psychotic!

Here’s one of the perfect, sad/funny examples that occurred in my life. https://www.npr.org/2014/03/14/290119435/society-for-indecency-to-naked-animals

Expand full comment

OMG! All those people believed this guy? I guess the US is the perfect place to create a hoax. I have that book by David Corn on hold at my library. America is a psychotic place to live. When President Biden declared the pandemic is over. But WHY are 400 people are dying of Covid every single DAY? That’s just pure craziness. Transplant recipients don’t believe that crap. That’s me and I’m still wearing an N95 mask.

The rest of the country doesn’t believe we are moving towards fascism every single day. But I do. And I want to see it stopped. No ridiculous LIES!!!

Expand full comment

What I've learned over the years is that language matters. George Lakoff is excellent as a cognitive linguist in words that are effective. For example, if we keep saying 'the election wasn't stolen', then we are repeating 'the election was stolen'. Instead use The Truth Sandwich: 'The election was fair' followed by 'there was not wide spread fraud' followed by 'the election was fair'.

As for Covid. Each of us have to determine whether 'something' is risking our lives and act accordingly. If you feel at risk from covid then take precautions. Then look at all the other risks around you and ask which ones really are threatening. There's an excellent book called The Gift Of Fear by Gavin DeBecker.

Fear can be blind or it can grow our abilities to be observant.

Expand full comment

Yes thanks. Ever do anything with Neurolinguistic Programming ? You can bet the KGB has. They love all that weird stuff. "Understanding Fear", Bonaro Overstreet, 1951. Excellent book even if aged, like me. She knew her stuff. Survived the War and died in 1985 at 82 years old. Smart cookie. I do have some experience with CBT, and respect it. I am also aware of its limitations. Still, it can do a lot of good for certain folks.

Expand full comment

President Biden’s statement that the Covid pandemic is over was an unfortunate choice of words and also taken out of the context of the rest of his statement.

Technically the Covid pandemic is over, just like the 1918 flu pandemic is over. A pandemic is an uncontrollable worldwide spread of a disease. We still have Covid and Covid deaths, just like we still have flu and flu deaths. We have methods to control the spread of both, primarily through vaccination. If masks and vaccines hadn’t been politicized during the pandemic, we could have greatly reduced the spread of Covid and likely reduced the proliferation of variants, which would have made the vaccines more effective. We eradicated smallpox with vaccines and almost eradicated polio, until the antivaccers sprang up. Now polio, measles and whooping cough are circulating again.

As a culture, we used to do a better job of prioritizing the common good. In the case of vaccines, widespread vaccination provided herd immunity to the people who couldn’t be vaccinated for medical reasons. We all benefited. Now “freedom” seems to be shorthand for “Me, me, me, … I get to do whatever I want.”

Expand full comment

Excellent, thank you. I totally agree with your post. "The Corruption of Reality", Shumaker, shows how different systems are manipulated to the ends you speak of. If I may add; there are two forms of Psychosis. One is biologically based, that does respond to medication. The other, a more dangerous type, is a type of functional Psychosis. Humans, when pressed beyond their capacity of fear, will become nutty. Examples of this can be seen in: "Jews will not replace us", the Blacks are not equal, "CRT is a lie", Jim Crow, "Democratic pedophiles", QAnon, and, extreme religion. "Choosing", is a tough word for most to accept, it means responsibility. Thanks again.

Expand full comment

Lies, lies, lies. Pretending is a form of lying, just like telling a half-truth.

People acting very religious often use that as their 'pass' card. (they rationalize that God forgives everything, so no bad behavior is bad) -- yikes. Makes me wish the media would consistently do something really silly like Pinochio (sp) noses for liars, a visual. We can never have enough visuals to help us out of this mess.

Expand full comment

Election Assault (or rape) is accurate but doesn't include consequences the way Autocratic Takeover does.

Expand full comment

Sowing nihilism

Expand full comment

I would call them what they are - Fascists. They are sharing the psychosis that Dr Bandi Lee talks about

here https://twitter.com/bandyxlee1/status/1477614126872547330. The media and Democratic politicians are not doing any of us a favor by continuing to not talk about this.

Expand full comment

Fascists is a short , simple, known term. I think most people understand that term. Authoritarianism, gets mixed up with autocrat and people get more confused. Autocrat sounds like democrat.

Expand full comment

Not everyone in the Authoritarian GOP is a Fascist; Fascism was birthed during the Bolshevik Revolution of Russia in 1917; that Revolution also birthed something else: the Authoritarian Civil War between its two youngest forms, the Communists and the Fascists. Although I get a lot of pushback about this, it's still the truth: there are five factions to the GOP Civil War that began in December 2012; the fifth faction is the ACL, Antifa/Communist/Libertarian, wing. Some people have wrongly claimed that those three are separate entities; they are not. When Fascism got its name in 1919 on the streets of Italy, under the Italian word "Fascimo", the Communists that overthrew the Fascists in Russia a year earlier began calling themselves "Antifa".

The Authoritarian Civil War was the reason for the Fascist Japanese attacking Communist China and Hitler ordering the idiotic Operation Barbarossa in 1941, an invasion of the Soviet Union; guess who the Nazis encountered first? The Ukraine area. How sid that they were attacked by Fascists back then and attacked by the Fascist Russian Federation this year.

Therefore: yes, you can correctly call most of the GOP Fascists, but not all of them. Despite Authoritarian/Conservative propaganda/punditry based on logical fallacies, cognitive biases, BS, and lies, to the contrary, Communism is not "Liberal Fascism"; it's at the Far Left of Authoritarianism. Also remember that Authoritarianism covers four slightly different types of governance: Totalitarianism, Feudalism, Communism, and Fascism.

Expand full comment

Agree completely.

Expand full comment

Absolutely agree. We have been in an attempted fascist takeover since 2016. In reality, the foundation of such a takeover has existed long before. Jeff Sharlet wrote of a religious entity in "The Family". Today, Dominionism and Evangelicalism has taken over where the "Family" has retreated to some degree. Fascism NEEDS Religion. Religion is the fuel that makes fascism burn bright. Most local church goers have no idea of the politics behind their organizations. We are watching the total destruction of separation of Church and State. The lie used, that we are a Christian Nation, and those who point towards "In God We Trust", only perpetuate the fascist takeover. "In God We Trust", was never a part of our Democracy until 1956. Before I get any religious flack, let it be known, I am not against anyones religion. I am against that religion being imposed on me, a State religion and, that religion being used by autocrats to engage in a Fascist takeover of our Democracy. WHICH IS HAPPENING.......... These Fascists use a very primitive defense, known as projection. They project their position onto others. Sarah Kendzior makes this very clear in, "Hiding in Plain Sight." We have less than a month to see if our reprieve will continue. Buckle up folks.

Expand full comment

Well-stated, Art.

Expand full comment

I truly fear what’s coming from the Supremes when they discuss the rights of state legislatures with regard to elections. I’m bracing myself. I’m safe in Colorado but the 49 others??? Not so much

Expand full comment

Same for me. I'm in California, and I worry about the other states, the states with the illegally redrawn districts, the strong-arm threats/intimidation at the ballot drop boxes, the intimidating presence at the voting precincts, the "auditors," and it goes right on down the line to the last GOP dogcatcher.

Expand full comment

Agree. If I can offer any morsel of hope, I listened into a SCOTUS hearing today & heard Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and boy, is she ready and sharp. She asked questions outside the realm in a thoughtful way that couldn't help cause others to think & re-think. I am worried too, it's like a wild scramble with 50 active protons.

Expand full comment

I hope you’re right about your safety, but am afraid this is folly. You’re safer for longer but eventually the fascist will try and control all aspects of the state. Freedom anywhere is a threat to fascism.

Expand full comment

I love the description "The Supremes." Somehow, I just can't see Amy Coney-Barrett singing "Baby Love." Although, I could see Clarence Thomas singing it to Ginni.

Expand full comment

I'm confused. When a set of maps are declared illegal by the state Supreme Court how do they stay in use? Is this a case of a court with no way to enforce it's orders being told to f'k off by the GOP? Is there any redress?

Expand full comment

I'm struggling a lot lately with the language gaps. But the big concept I haven't even seen addressed is: If you enter a contest (pie-eating, arm-wrestling, chess, elections), the baseline presumption is that the rules for the contest have been established and agreed on. Cheating in a normal case means using advantages or ignoring the rules. But the thing now spreading from 45 is something else: It isn't "cheating" within the rules of a contest. It's a THREAT, a PLAN, an INTENTION to ignore the agreed-on rules if the outcome isn't to their liking. This is tantamount to saying "I win no matter what happens", and in the case of elections it says "I win no matter how many people vote against me". Why don't we DISQUALIFY each candidate who takes as a starting premise that they won't honor democratic election outcomes? Big Lie proponents have essentially already started down that road; they already are insistent that they can choose their own reality in spite of actual election stats. They DISQUALIFY themselves when they don't agree to abide by the rules, the results, the frame of the contest. Why is that not our response to election deniers?

Expand full comment

Queen Antifa, agree, well-stated concept, good idea but who would the referee to disqualify and call the out? States, or local entities, the polling place by whose designation to take off the ballot? The political party heads, or a new election-like committee overseeing the burgeoning process oversight?

Reading your post makes me marvel (in not a good way) how quickly this has solidified. We must break the mold. Time-wise again, imagine how quickly things could unravel further if we are unable to secure enough House/Senate seats. That fright will get me back talking to others right now-

Expand full comment

Fascists destroy the existing reality in order to create their own, in the minds of their followers. Those whom have voted Repub in the past, before Trump, wanted to stick with that same party, and were easy prey for Trump's propaganda. Clan solidarity bias was so strong that even the most ridiculous lie could be sold as the truth.

Expand full comment

Perhaps “election cheating” is the phrase to use for now. As expressed by Queen, people have a strong sense that cheating is wrong and it can open up the conversation to include all the ways that cheating is taking place- gerrymandering, voter suppression, denial of results etc. While I think that autocracy is the best descriptor of the current goals and process of the MAGA movement, I think the word is too academic and misunderstood outside of the smaller progressive sector when what we need now is to build a broader popular front movement. Let’s go for election cheaters /cheating- at least in this time surrounding the midterms. (Of course I would be open to another, more powerful suggestion, if I see one.)

Expand full comment

"....people have a strong sense that cheating is wrong..."

This is true, unless they have a role model that has no sense of right and wrong, like Trump. His being a sociopath, he finds nothing wrong with cheating because sociopaths have no conscience. Those that embrace Trump as their hero, get sucked into his sociopathic maelstrom. Cheating therefore becomes acceptable. Historically, fascism has been led by a sociopath and therefore sociopathy becomes normalized by its followers. This is why fascism is so insidious.

Expand full comment

So many have drank the kool-aid, and participated in petty, wrongful acts -- they will hang onto the coattails of the fascists to avoid a crack in their conscienceness, and how uncomfortable that might be. That is why you have so many fast-talkers today, online, on TV, in your everyday marketplace, or water cooler conversations. Crime is about speed, with no pauses., always forward-focused. Looking backwards is revealing and thus avoided at all costs. Thoughtful pauses in conversation are excruciating for newcomers -- and habitually avoided by the more hard core.

Expand full comment

So agree with your thoughtful analysis of 'what will work' with most folks. We use many polite euphemisms and while civil, and offer benefit-of-the-doubt (as we genuinely like to) they don't grab the attention. The times are so serious, I hope there are high level teams somewhere of psychologists, wordsmiths and strategists to help us back to the road of sane multi-party system. Time is of the essence. I believe the word 'cheating' is understandable and the concept still abhorrent to most Americans. I also think as read about judicial responses they are too polite and dainty to the criminals, even if they aren't indicted or sentenced -- criminal behavior is usually pretty obvious to all --- why dance around it with such daintiness and undue respect?

Expand full comment

okay, i'll bite although i've never suggested anything in "contests" like these that has taken root; nevertheless, to replace Election Denial, i offer, Republican Ruse.

Expand full comment

Pro-coup Republicans

Expand full comment

“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people…They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty” Jefferson

Thanks for all you do Ruth!

Expand full comment

Or "Coup D'état Republicans"

Expand full comment

Ironically, this “stolen election” elected many federal, state, and local Republicans down the ticket. No one ever asks Republican incumbents why the presidential election was illegitimate but their election results were totally legit. Bending the will of the people requires selective application of the rules. But, when you’re a member of an authoritarian party, and in the words of their Esteemed Leader “they let you do it”. And, they will!

Expand full comment
Oct 12, 2022·edited Oct 12, 2022

We would call it a Fascist Coup. Built on the Fascist White replacement Blueprint developed by Hitler and the Nazi party.

Please see our website, StopFascismNow.org, recently published by myself, a son of Holocaust survivors ; my parents both spent WWII in Buchenwald as slave laborers, and lost over 50 members of our immediate family in the Auschwitz death camp. Also co-authored by my political friend and co-publisher, whose family were NAZI perpetrators. https://stopfascismnow.org/about

Expand full comment

My new book came today. Had to get it from the UK. "The Bastard Factory", Chris Kraus. An inside look at the opposition. Take a look. Thanks for the link.

Expand full comment

Thanks for pioneering on and thoughts on your family cause pause.

Fascist Coup -- is recognizable and I think most people understand a coup. Fascism is a concise word and doesn't sound like other words, it stands out.

Expand full comment

Party line voting has been eroding the election process for 100 years. It actually sounds loyal to the electoral process but it denies the voters of the best representation possible. It morphs itself from term to term and prevents a registered party member due process due to party boss hierarchy naught to be challenged a guarded closely. It has been morphing for decades and here we are. This is an inherent generational problem. Call it what it is ... media and journalism has had its teeth cut on it.

Expand full comment

When you say that the GOP is attempting a "fascist takeover" that phrase describes it perfectly for me.

Expand full comment