I think you left out something else -- that choosing to believe lies is simply less work than parsing and opposing them cognitively -- and then acting on the conclusion.
Especially if everyone around you believes, or at least pretend to believe or at any rate accept the lies without countering them, it's just less exhausting to go with the flow.
Which results in silence, then acquiescence. And eventually -- belief, or at least a sense that the lie is "normal".
I grew up in an authoritarian household like the one you described, and I can tell you now, approaching my 70th birthday, that the effects of it have been brutal, tragic, and self-negating. There is NOTHING good to be said about that kind of patriarchal, authoritarian thinking, and approach to life. It is very damaging and the damage is lasting. Don't do this to your children - it's lazy and destructive. Think, instead, about what your children really need from you to maximize their chances for a functional, satisfying life. READ. Question your opinions and beliefs. Allow your children to express themselves, and form their own opinions and beliefs, even when they don't match yours. Encourage them, don't threaten them. Be a trustworthy person for them to turn to in a crisis.
I agree completely with everything Ruth says in this excellent essay from a couple of years ago. I will add my usual psychoanalytic perspective that many Americans have grown up in authoritarian families, where obedience to father and sometimes mother is the highest value and virtue that a child can achieve. That's the message authoritarian parents communicate to their children via facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and sometimes directly through language.
People raised that way are unconsciously primed to obey authority and avoid displeasing that authority. The fear of the authoritarian parent's anger and narcissistic rage is an unspoken, unnamed but ever present tension that automatically causes the child to suppress authentic needs and feelings, and behave the way they know the parent wants them to.
We can see this behavior in everyone who ends up having to be close to Trump. They entirely lose their own sense of individuality and slowly "learn" to simply be an extension of his mind. They do what he wants, and how he wants things done. They don't initiate anything or differ with him. He calls this "loyalty," but it's really total submission to his will and the relinquishment of autonomous selfhood.
I'm not a researcher but I believe that the 30 or 40% of Americans who are Trump supporters are behaving the way they were trained to. This form of child rearing was extremely common in Germany for hundreds of years and it primed the population to be in thrall to someone like Hitler. (For Your Own Good, by Alice Miller)
Also, Trump knows in his guts how to exploit the racist and misogynistic hatreds that lie barely beneath the surface of many Americans so he becomes their idealizeable hero by modeling their inner rebelliousness, an attitude they never dared embody towards the first authorities in their lives. But now Trump has given them permission to be oppositional and defiant towards everyone he wants them to hate and they love him for that.
What makes an individual predisposed to believe such lies? What is their psychological profile? Is poor schooling a factor? Earnest Hemingway once remarked : "The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it.” Too many lack the radar, but the question is why. (Then again, few are decent writers, let alone good ones.)
Hi MaryBeth...it's a very good question that 8 years later many of us are still trying to understand. What is it about Trump followers that makes them so robotic? I posted a comment above in which I explained one of the more hidden and unconscious interpersonal dynamics that I think make them more vulnerable to being attracted to entitled, self-centered, authoritarian "leaders." Others on this thread have also posted responses to that question. There are many reasons why certain people are drawn into cults organized around a compelling, Svengali-like individual. I think it's good to keep asking and trying to understand...
There is a correlation between personality types and far right political beliefs, as shown in the psychological study by Borris Duspara & Tobias Greitemeyer. Here is part of the conclusion.
"Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy and everyday sadism were associated with right wing political orientation, whereas narcissism and psychopathy were associated with political extremism. Machiavellianism turned out to be the most important predictor of the dark side of human personality for political orientation. Machiavellianism is associated with misanthropy, anti-social tendencies, cold heartedness and immoral beliefs."
These types of people will see a kindred spirit in tRump and believe him much more easily than if he were on the "left". He is a part of their tribe. There is confirmation bias and motivated reasoning involved here as well.
A very learned response. Thank you! Alas, I don't have a subscription to PubMed. None of this speaks well for the devoted Trump fan. Built-in sociopathic tendencies. Who would have imagined there were so many of them?
tRump voters generally don't have all four of the characteristics listed above. All it takes is having one of them. Anyone that has all four (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy/sociopathy and sadism) is considered to have the Dark Tetrad personality. tRump is one of these people. The tRump supporters that I know are all narcissistic. One is sadistic as well. Once people choose a Dark Tetrad leader as their hero, we are in deep trouble. Mussolini was one of these.
I believe part of that shockproof shit-detector comes from a desire to know the truth, even if it is uncomfortable. Too many people are only interested in hearing things that confirm their beliefs and shy away from information that contradicts their biases. It’s much easier to believe a liar who tells you things you want to hear!
What you describe is the very antithesis of education and awareness. That's how Republicans want it. They WANT their voters to be uneducated and unaware, and thus more easily manipulated by the most preposterous nonsense imaginable. They're driven by hate of others and by their never-ending sense of grievance. Trump fits that profile to a T, so he's their guy. "He says what I think." Okay, numbskulls. Let them think what they want. They're doomed to lose AGAIN.
Yeah, I remember a few Trump supporters telling me in 2016 that “he says what I think.” And I was like, “Yeah, that’s exactly the problem. I’m horrified that you think like that.” People who lack critical thinking skills are easy to manipulate, but it’s also hard to get them to see the nonsense in their thinking because they can’t compute basic logic.
Quite true. But then again why do they want to hear such things? And what is the origin of those beliefs? What makes those beliefs, as you say, "comfortable"? What is the worldview they cling to? What do they want?
Bob Altemeyer has a great (and free!) book called “The Authoritarians” that basically explains these people are incredibly fearful. That fear makes them cling to hate and bigotry and hierarchy. A strong leader who feeds that hate/fear makes them feel safe. Highly recommend the book. You can get a free PDF online and it’s less than 100 pgs or so long.
Will definitely download. Thanks for the tip. I recommend Robert Kagan's "Rebellion," as the best I've yet to read of illiberalism (anti-liberalism) in America. Alas, not free and also an in-depth read, but well worth it.
I’m thinking about hippies. I have older cousins of that age who were in no way allowed to participate or dress the part. They were gonna dress like “respectable” Americans. They grew up in strict homes.
My in-laws were less strict and let their kids express themselves and dress as they saw fit. My b-I-l had long hair.
This tells us that people left to their own nature are liberals. And conservatives have it pounded into them under authoritarian parents. Authoritarian feels like home to those folks.
Incidentally, one of my cousins who grew up under strict rebelled and got herself disowned.
One of the "tests" used to determine the level of a person's tendency toward authoritarianism is to ask them about which kinds of child-rearing methods they agree with. Some psychologists argue that people who are left-brain hemisphere dominant are more likely to be conservative. If that is correct, you could say that to some extent this attitude and disposition is partially genetic: Nature and nurture. The nurture aspect--how kids are raised--would certainly play a big role. Your cousin who rebelled might be right-brained.
Some psychologists argue that such people are "left-brained." These people have no patience with ambiguity; they reduce everything to black and white thinking--So quick and easy answers are very attractive. Other experts claim that such people have authoritarian personalities--they crave a strongman who will protect them and smite their enemies. I'm not sure which explanation is more accurate.
Your point about black and white thinking is spot on. I was raised in an evangelical Christian family, and they are just like that. The strong good/evil dichotomy of fundamentalist religion feeds into that thinking and gives people like Trump a way in: “Vote for me because I’m good and sent by God. The other guy is evil.”
I’ve read that left brained folks are right handed which I am as are most of us. My professions have all been left brained. It’s the artists amongst us who really have little patience for Trump’s bullshit.
Dopes itching for a dictator thinking that dictator will only lord over their perceived enemies need only take a look at pictures of Berlin right after Hitler finished with it. How much easier does it get?
It comes down to an even simpler question. Why are some of us so gullible? I don’t think it’s education … I know a PhD who is a Trump supporter.
Trump has done us a few favors where facts are concerned. 1 - I never realized
Right. They absolutely don't realize that they will be as victimized by the strongman as are their perceived enemies. Most don't realize that in the end, Hitler turned against the German people. It takes a knowledge of history to know that. History repeats itself because its lessons are too infrequently learned.
Yet here you are lying as well? Most of what you post is propaganda for democrats, as if you don’t have authoritarian rule in states like California and that Biden hasn’t ruled as an authoritarian. Seems you all don’t care unless it’s your dictator! To gloss over the thousands of lies Biden has and to continue parroting the 30k lies, lie is repugnant. You wonder why academia is failing and people are turning away is because you are deceitful.
I prefer to engage with the reliability of the source. No matter what your position, you need to back it up with quality information. Not the likes of YouTube.
You obviously didn’t watch the video. It’s an ad. It’s not presented as a source of anything, just a dramatization of current laws in much of the country. Our friend Anthony seems to feel Democrats are the “authoritarians”, when it is MAGA who has stripped constitutional rights from half the population. The consequence of that are the subject of the ad.
I agree with your point about MAGA, but the YouTube artwork makes me want to disagree with you. It looks like a lurid tabloid. Unfortunately, that will dissuade some audiences, though of course not all.
Tragically, this lady is absolutely correct in what she writes. Ever since I can remember, and I have had a long life at 80 years of age, I have seen these truths over and over and over again.
It seems to me that we, the public, for the most part, fail to recognise what these people are doing, and that is part of their mystique. They convince us by endless repetition that what they say and write are real and truthful and almost always, this is not the case. Unless and until we can recognise the difference between reality and spin, nothing will change; so, when you hear something that is disseminated by politicians, most large companies and their ilk, PLEASE do your due diligence by researching. You can always find out the facts one way or another and then you can take a position. Let us all soar with the eagles and cease wallowing in the primeval sludge of ignorance.
We knew and saw FOX News and other media spreading obvious right-wing lies, misinformation, disinformation, hate propaganda and yet we did nothing. We saw the tools of propaganda being used to subvert truth and were stymied by ‘freedom of speech.’ Most of us comforted ourselves with the belief that the obvious lies were just unbelievable to all but the uneducated and uninformed and indecent people… vulgarians, etc. we knew propaganda is effective …Once upon an time, when a lie was told, reporters would go to the politician for a ‘correction.’ And I remember waiting for a correction from some outrageous claim by a conservative that never came. It was upsetting, disturbing, unfair. But lies stopped being corrected by the right. And that became normal as well. I remember thinking, if this continues there will be war in the streets, civil war…and finally it is here. Trump and his followers are threatening the very lives of their political opposites. And again, we aren’t reacting. Or shall we say, the culture we live in isn’t reacting to succor and put down those who threaten death to the liberals. Nobody seems to mind much. I fear it will be too late to save democracy when and if it comes to pass that they meant everything they said. Reasonable people cannot understand the violence of a serial killer. Good people cannot understand evil. That is a flaw in good people believing the reality of leader like Putin.
Yet never do they follow the lies of democrats like Biden and newsome. They lie constantly about everything and never called out by these academic elitist. She is gaslighting america and Biden is no better. He is causing massive harm with his lies about inflation, md the economy. Yet that’s ok. It’s ridiculous
Thanks for this reminder that not only do fascists and autocrats flood the information space with lies, they also often use the tactic of accusing the *other* side of doing what *they* are doing.
Biden is not lying about the economy. By nearly every measure, the economy is up. Stock market is up, jobs are up, unemployment is down, wages are up. Yes, inflation was quite high for a year or so, but inflation rates have now dropped substantially, and if you look at the last five-year period (going back to *before* the pandemic), even taking inflation into account, wages have risen enough that the average American has more buying power than they did five years ago.
(That isn't to say that prices aren't too high -- they ARE too high in many sectors, primarily due to corporate profits and excessive executive pay. Both things that Trump would make worse, and a reelected Biden with a Democratic Congress would continue working to alleviate.)
Let's not forget the "long con" effort directed at the education of our youth. Anything that enables independent and critical thinking is attacked as indoctrination attempts by evil others. Not only does this impact the younger generation but it also draws their parents into the trap as protectors. Don't let "them" indoctrinate your children they say.
PBS had a 2-part series on Hitler last week. I caught the 2nd part, "Hitler the Actor." It was chilling, so reflective of current times. Will be Trump or someone worse in 2024...along with a fascist congress, courts, state governorships and a dumbed-down public, incapable of critical thinking. After our collapse, who is there to bail us out like the U.S. did in Europe after WWII?
Can you do a piece about the Facist tyrannical liar in the White House, now? Have we witnessed more lies and government over reach in our lifetime? How about, NOOO!!
1. In August 2020, then-candidate Biden told Americans they could not trust a vaccine that was being produced by Trump’s Operation Warp Speed. “It’s not likely to go through all the tests and the trials that are needed to be done,” Biden said, slandering the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He also said Trump was “moving it quicker than the scientists think it should be moved,” falsely claiming the authority of science.
2. Biden consistently downplayed the threat that China poses to the U.S. and the free world in general. In January 2020, he dismissed President Trump’s coronavirus travel ban on China as “hysterical xenophobia.” On the campaign trail, he continued to ridicule the idea that China was an economic competitor to the U.S. Today, the Biden administration is struggling to deal with Chinese (and Russian) cyberattacks on the U.S.
3. Biden claimed on the campaign trail last year that there had been 6,114 military deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, for which he blamed President Trump. The real number was seven. Biden also repeated debunked claims that Trump had referred to American soldiers as “suckers” and “losers.” Ironically, once he was president, Biden failed to recognize the anniversary of D-Day, dishonoring the troops he promised to honor.
4. The Biden campaign told reporters that stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop were “Russian misinformation.” In fact, the stories turned out to be true, showing that Hunter Biden had set up meetings with his father and his foreign business partners, and that he had sought overseas business opportunities using his father’s name. Biden’s claims were “misinformation” designed to mislead the electorate.
5. As president-elect, Joe Biden said in a December 2020 press conference in Delaware that "I don't think it should be mandatory," when talking about Wuhan coronavirus vaccines. "I wouldn't demand it to be mandatory," he promised. "Just like I don't think masks have to be made mandatory nationwide."
6. You won’t need to mask after your vaccine 🤔.
In my 61 years on this planet and 40 plus as a staunch democrat, I’ve never ever witnessed such a rapid rapid slide into facism. Lucid, maybe you’re all in on this Great Reset and a globalist? Who knows. Any real journalists propping up this demented puppet needs to do a serious soul check.
See, this is what fascists do, they spread so many lies and half-truths, so fast, that it is impossible to keep up. Here are just a couple of articles that debunk or contextualize the nonsense you're spewing.
The article is about authoritarianism. Your attempt to deflect from Trump is noted. Doesn't change the fact that he was using propaganda in authoritarian ways. Your comment is certainly disingenuous. What does Dday have to do with anything? Not wanting to mandate something doesn't mean that later it would not be found necessary. SCOTUS has ruled that mandates can be enforced for the public good. You are no Democrat. It's obvious. Great example of posting misleading propaganda. Critical thinkers can see through your nonsense. The article is about why millions can't.
The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing its sweeping vaccine-or-test requirements for large private companies, but allowed a vaccine mandate to stand for medical facilities that take Medicare or Medicaid payments.
The epistemologies of religion and fascism are the same - the beliefs have a perceived or actual social use value. They couldn't care less about deeper understanding of reality or the correspondence of their beliefs with reality. Or to paraphrase Karl Rove, they are into "making reality" with their fictions while we study it.
Some versions of religions today mainly stick with some version of the God fiction and not all the rest that does not stand up to modern science (modern as in going back to the Enlightenment). Some like American fundamentalist Christians stick with literal belief in Biblical nonsense, and these are mainly the prime Trump believers.
So, not all organized religion is at all the same in this respect.
Other literal Bible (well, old testament) believers like Ultra Orthodox Jews are also straight right wing voters.
HILARIOUS!!!!!! Double speak! Did your lobotomy hurt much? Did you actually read Orwell’s work? I mean, did you read it or just the cliff notes. I can’t with this dystopian cognitive creepy dissonance.
Two of the 24 PoA, Principles of Authoritarianism, are control of the mass media and propaganda campaign employed. An Authoritarian regime, once it gets control of the media, will launch that propaganda campaign. However, the reason Authoritarians must lie is that the truth and facts rarely, if ever, are behind them, which forces the Authoritarian propaganda/punditry campaign based on logical fallacies/cognitive biases, BS and lies.
Also know that Authoritarianism and Conservatism, political Conservatism, have been inexorably linked for more than the past two millennia, which is why Authoritarians/Conservatives rarely, if ever, tell the unvarnished truth about anything and are left with that Authoritarian propaganda/punditry.
Another fact to remember is that another PoA is disdain for intellectualism and the arts, which is why a credo of Authoritarian regimes is "make 'em stupid and keep 'em stupid". They know, all too well, that most educated people reject Authoritarianism. Authoritarian regimes require millions of ignoramuses to stay in power; once enough of them are educated to the truth and facts, the regime falls, unfortunately and most of the time, via a revolution.
Local school districts need to be reset and stabilized back to their levels of stability 5 years ago. Along with destroying free media, education-meddling and discrediting quality educations is an authoritarian bedrock.
The goal becomes to make us numb -- dumb and dumber.
I think you left out something else -- that choosing to believe lies is simply less work than parsing and opposing them cognitively -- and then acting on the conclusion.
Especially if everyone around you believes, or at least pretend to believe or at any rate accept the lies without countering them, it's just less exhausting to go with the flow.
Which results in silence, then acquiescence. And eventually -- belief, or at least a sense that the lie is "normal".
Ask any
I grew up in an authoritarian household like the one you described, and I can tell you now, approaching my 70th birthday, that the effects of it have been brutal, tragic, and self-negating. There is NOTHING good to be said about that kind of patriarchal, authoritarian thinking, and approach to life. It is very damaging and the damage is lasting. Don't do this to your children - it's lazy and destructive. Think, instead, about what your children really need from you to maximize their chances for a functional, satisfying life. READ. Question your opinions and beliefs. Allow your children to express themselves, and form their own opinions and beliefs, even when they don't match yours. Encourage them, don't threaten them. Be a trustworthy person for them to turn to in a crisis.
I agree completely with everything Ruth says in this excellent essay from a couple of years ago. I will add my usual psychoanalytic perspective that many Americans have grown up in authoritarian families, where obedience to father and sometimes mother is the highest value and virtue that a child can achieve. That's the message authoritarian parents communicate to their children via facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and sometimes directly through language.
People raised that way are unconsciously primed to obey authority and avoid displeasing that authority. The fear of the authoritarian parent's anger and narcissistic rage is an unspoken, unnamed but ever present tension that automatically causes the child to suppress authentic needs and feelings, and behave the way they know the parent wants them to.
We can see this behavior in everyone who ends up having to be close to Trump. They entirely lose their own sense of individuality and slowly "learn" to simply be an extension of his mind. They do what he wants, and how he wants things done. They don't initiate anything or differ with him. He calls this "loyalty," but it's really total submission to his will and the relinquishment of autonomous selfhood.
I'm not a researcher but I believe that the 30 or 40% of Americans who are Trump supporters are behaving the way they were trained to. This form of child rearing was extremely common in Germany for hundreds of years and it primed the population to be in thrall to someone like Hitler. (For Your Own Good, by Alice Miller)
Also, Trump knows in his guts how to exploit the racist and misogynistic hatreds that lie barely beneath the surface of many Americans so he becomes their idealizeable hero by modeling their inner rebelliousness, an attitude they never dared embody towards the first authorities in their lives. But now Trump has given them permission to be oppositional and defiant towards everyone he wants them to hate and they love him for that.
Excellent! Thanks.
Thoughtful, well written and well sourced. Thanks for posting this
What makes an individual predisposed to believe such lies? What is their psychological profile? Is poor schooling a factor? Earnest Hemingway once remarked : "The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it.” Too many lack the radar, but the question is why. (Then again, few are decent writers, let alone good ones.)
Hi MaryBeth...it's a very good question that 8 years later many of us are still trying to understand. What is it about Trump followers that makes them so robotic? I posted a comment above in which I explained one of the more hidden and unconscious interpersonal dynamics that I think make them more vulnerable to being attracted to entitled, self-centered, authoritarian "leaders." Others on this thread have also posted responses to that question. There are many reasons why certain people are drawn into cults organized around a compelling, Svengali-like individual. I think it's good to keep asking and trying to understand...
There is a correlation between personality types and far right political beliefs, as shown in the psychological study by Borris Duspara & Tobias Greitemeyer. Here is part of the conclusion.
"Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy and everyday sadism were associated with right wing political orientation, whereas narcissism and psychopathy were associated with political extremism. Machiavellianism turned out to be the most important predictor of the dark side of human personality for political orientation. Machiavellianism is associated with misanthropy, anti-social tendencies, cold heartedness and immoral beliefs."
These types of people will see a kindred spirit in tRump and believe him much more easily than if he were on the "left". He is a part of their tribe. There is confirmation bias and motivated reasoning involved here as well.
A very learned response. Thank you! Alas, I don't have a subscription to PubMed. None of this speaks well for the devoted Trump fan. Built-in sociopathic tendencies. Who would have imagined there were so many of them?
tRump voters generally don't have all four of the characteristics listed above. All it takes is having one of them. Anyone that has all four (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy/sociopathy and sadism) is considered to have the Dark Tetrad personality. tRump is one of these people. The tRump supporters that I know are all narcissistic. One is sadistic as well. Once people choose a Dark Tetrad leader as their hero, we are in deep trouble. Mussolini was one of these.
Very sobering indeed.
I believe part of that shockproof shit-detector comes from a desire to know the truth, even if it is uncomfortable. Too many people are only interested in hearing things that confirm their beliefs and shy away from information that contradicts their biases. It’s much easier to believe a liar who tells you things you want to hear!
What you describe is the very antithesis of education and awareness. That's how Republicans want it. They WANT their voters to be uneducated and unaware, and thus more easily manipulated by the most preposterous nonsense imaginable. They're driven by hate of others and by their never-ending sense of grievance. Trump fits that profile to a T, so he's their guy. "He says what I think." Okay, numbskulls. Let them think what they want. They're doomed to lose AGAIN.
Yeah, I remember a few Trump supporters telling me in 2016 that “he says what I think.” And I was like, “Yeah, that’s exactly the problem. I’m horrified that you think like that.” People who lack critical thinking skills are easy to manipulate, but it’s also hard to get them to see the nonsense in their thinking because they can’t compute basic logic.
Quite true. But then again why do they want to hear such things? And what is the origin of those beliefs? What makes those beliefs, as you say, "comfortable"? What is the worldview they cling to? What do they want?
Bob Altemeyer has a great (and free!) book called “The Authoritarians” that basically explains these people are incredibly fearful. That fear makes them cling to hate and bigotry and hierarchy. A strong leader who feeds that hate/fear makes them feel safe. Highly recommend the book. You can get a free PDF online and it’s less than 100 pgs or so long.
Will definitely download. Thanks for the tip. I recommend Robert Kagan's "Rebellion," as the best I've yet to read of illiberalism (anti-liberalism) in America. Alas, not free and also an in-depth read, but well worth it.
I’m thinking about hippies. I have older cousins of that age who were in no way allowed to participate or dress the part. They were gonna dress like “respectable” Americans. They grew up in strict homes.
My in-laws were less strict and let their kids express themselves and dress as they saw fit. My b-I-l had long hair.
This tells us that people left to their own nature are liberals. And conservatives have it pounded into them under authoritarian parents. Authoritarian feels like home to those folks.
Incidentally, one of my cousins who grew up under strict rebelled and got herself disowned.
One of the "tests" used to determine the level of a person's tendency toward authoritarianism is to ask them about which kinds of child-rearing methods they agree with. Some psychologists argue that people who are left-brain hemisphere dominant are more likely to be conservative. If that is correct, you could say that to some extent this attitude and disposition is partially genetic: Nature and nurture. The nurture aspect--how kids are raised--would certainly play a big role. Your cousin who rebelled might be right-brained.
Yes … exactly this … I too want to know why.
Some psychologists argue that such people are "left-brained." These people have no patience with ambiguity; they reduce everything to black and white thinking--So quick and easy answers are very attractive. Other experts claim that such people have authoritarian personalities--they crave a strongman who will protect them and smite their enemies. I'm not sure which explanation is more accurate.
Your point about black and white thinking is spot on. I was raised in an evangelical Christian family, and they are just like that. The strong good/evil dichotomy of fundamentalist religion feeds into that thinking and gives people like Trump a way in: “Vote for me because I’m good and sent by God. The other guy is evil.”
Simplistic thinking is easier and more comfortable.
I’ve read that left brained folks are right handed which I am as are most of us. My professions have all been left brained. It’s the artists amongst us who really have little patience for Trump’s bullshit.
Dopes itching for a dictator thinking that dictator will only lord over their perceived enemies need only take a look at pictures of Berlin right after Hitler finished with it. How much easier does it get?
It comes down to an even simpler question. Why are some of us so gullible? I don’t think it’s education … I know a PhD who is a Trump supporter.
Trump has done us a few favors where facts are concerned. 1 - I never realized
1 - I never before realized how gullible men are. 2 - he has gotten Christians to lay bare their own anti-Jesus selves.
The hypocrisy of the Pseudo-Christians astounds me
Right. They absolutely don't realize that they will be as victimized by the strongman as are their perceived enemies. Most don't realize that in the end, Hitler turned against the German people. It takes a knowledge of history to know that. History repeats itself because its lessons are too infrequently learned.
Yet here you are lying as well? Most of what you post is propaganda for democrats, as if you don’t have authoritarian rule in states like California and that Biden hasn’t ruled as an authoritarian. Seems you all don’t care unless it’s your dictator! To gloss over the thousands of lies Biden has and to continue parroting the 30k lies, lie is repugnant. You wonder why academia is failing and people are turning away is because you are deceitful.
What self respecting dictator has a veep and a congress?? Maybe you need to crawl back under the rock from whence you came.
Congrats! You’ve put yourself up as exhibit A.
Comment dated Aug 18, 2022.
More exposure to academia is what you obviously need.
Like losing rights? https://youtu.be/_g2CqOrFGak?si=62gSUP1xGJtsKVET
Care to engage with the content?
I prefer to engage with the reliability of the source. No matter what your position, you need to back it up with quality information. Not the likes of YouTube.
Ruth is an expert in her field. And yet you prefer not to see that. As Carol succinctly noted, you are Exhibit A.
You obviously didn’t watch the video. It’s an ad. It’s not presented as a source of anything, just a dramatization of current laws in much of the country. Our friend Anthony seems to feel Democrats are the “authoritarians”, when it is MAGA who has stripped constitutional rights from half the population. The consequence of that are the subject of the ad.
I agree with your point about MAGA, but the YouTube artwork makes me want to disagree with you. It looks like a lurid tabloid. Unfortunately, that will dissuade some audiences, though of course not all.
this guy is severely deluded
All the above is true - there are well understood psychological reasons for it all... https://democracyrebooted.com/our-stolen-minds/
Thanks! I enjoyed the article.
many believe because they want to, the lies are attractive to them.
Most excellent and moreover, absolutely true. Very rare in this day & age
Here I go, someone else spreading a message?
Tragically, this lady is absolutely correct in what she writes. Ever since I can remember, and I have had a long life at 80 years of age, I have seen these truths over and over and over again.
It seems to me that we, the public, for the most part, fail to recognise what these people are doing, and that is part of their mystique. They convince us by endless repetition that what they say and write are real and truthful and almost always, this is not the case. Unless and until we can recognise the difference between reality and spin, nothing will change; so, when you hear something that is disseminated by politicians, most large companies and their ilk, PLEASE do your due diligence by researching. You can always find out the facts one way or another and then you can take a position. Let us all soar with the eagles and cease wallowing in the primeval sludge of ignorance.
We knew and saw FOX News and other media spreading obvious right-wing lies, misinformation, disinformation, hate propaganda and yet we did nothing. We saw the tools of propaganda being used to subvert truth and were stymied by ‘freedom of speech.’ Most of us comforted ourselves with the belief that the obvious lies were just unbelievable to all but the uneducated and uninformed and indecent people… vulgarians, etc. we knew propaganda is effective …Once upon an time, when a lie was told, reporters would go to the politician for a ‘correction.’ And I remember waiting for a correction from some outrageous claim by a conservative that never came. It was upsetting, disturbing, unfair. But lies stopped being corrected by the right. And that became normal as well. I remember thinking, if this continues there will be war in the streets, civil war…and finally it is here. Trump and his followers are threatening the very lives of their political opposites. And again, we aren’t reacting. Or shall we say, the culture we live in isn’t reacting to succor and put down those who threaten death to the liberals. Nobody seems to mind much. I fear it will be too late to save democracy when and if it comes to pass that they meant everything they said. Reasonable people cannot understand the violence of a serial killer. Good people cannot understand evil. That is a flaw in good people believing the reality of leader like Putin.
Yet never do they follow the lies of democrats like Biden and newsome. They lie constantly about everything and never called out by these academic elitist. She is gaslighting america and Biden is no better. He is causing massive harm with his lies about inflation, md the economy. Yet that’s ok. It’s ridiculous
Please provide some examples. Support your comments with facts.
Thanks for this reminder that not only do fascists and autocrats flood the information space with lies, they also often use the tactic of accusing the *other* side of doing what *they* are doing.
Biden is not lying about the economy. By nearly every measure, the economy is up. Stock market is up, jobs are up, unemployment is down, wages are up. Yes, inflation was quite high for a year or so, but inflation rates have now dropped substantially, and if you look at the last five-year period (going back to *before* the pandemic), even taking inflation into account, wages have risen enough that the average American has more buying power than they did five years ago.
(That isn't to say that prices aren't too high -- they ARE too high in many sectors, primarily due to corporate profits and excessive executive pay. Both things that Trump would make worse, and a reelected Biden with a Democratic Congress would continue working to alleviate.)
Let's not forget the "long con" effort directed at the education of our youth. Anything that enables independent and critical thinking is attacked as indoctrination attempts by evil others. Not only does this impact the younger generation but it also draws their parents into the trap as protectors. Don't let "them" indoctrinate your children they say.
PBS had a 2-part series on Hitler last week. I caught the 2nd part, "Hitler the Actor." It was chilling, so reflective of current times. Will be Trump or someone worse in 2024...along with a fascist congress, courts, state governorships and a dumbed-down public, incapable of critical thinking. After our collapse, who is there to bail us out like the U.S. did in Europe after WWII?
Can you do a piece about the Facist tyrannical liar in the White House, now? Have we witnessed more lies and government over reach in our lifetime? How about, NOOO!!
1. In August 2020, then-candidate Biden told Americans they could not trust a vaccine that was being produced by Trump’s Operation Warp Speed. “It’s not likely to go through all the tests and the trials that are needed to be done,” Biden said, slandering the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He also said Trump was “moving it quicker than the scientists think it should be moved,” falsely claiming the authority of science.
2. Biden consistently downplayed the threat that China poses to the U.S. and the free world in general. In January 2020, he dismissed President Trump’s coronavirus travel ban on China as “hysterical xenophobia.” On the campaign trail, he continued to ridicule the idea that China was an economic competitor to the U.S. Today, the Biden administration is struggling to deal with Chinese (and Russian) cyberattacks on the U.S.
3. Biden claimed on the campaign trail last year that there had been 6,114 military deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, for which he blamed President Trump. The real number was seven. Biden also repeated debunked claims that Trump had referred to American soldiers as “suckers” and “losers.” Ironically, once he was president, Biden failed to recognize the anniversary of D-Day, dishonoring the troops he promised to honor.
4. The Biden campaign told reporters that stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop were “Russian misinformation.” In fact, the stories turned out to be true, showing that Hunter Biden had set up meetings with his father and his foreign business partners, and that he had sought overseas business opportunities using his father’s name. Biden’s claims were “misinformation” designed to mislead the electorate.
5. As president-elect, Joe Biden said in a December 2020 press conference in Delaware that "I don't think it should be mandatory," when talking about Wuhan coronavirus vaccines. "I wouldn't demand it to be mandatory," he promised. "Just like I don't think masks have to be made mandatory nationwide."
6. You won’t need to mask after your vaccine 🤔.
In my 61 years on this planet and 40 plus as a staunch democrat, I’ve never ever witnessed such a rapid rapid slide into facism. Lucid, maybe you’re all in on this Great Reset and a globalist? Who knows. Any real journalists propping up this demented puppet needs to do a serious soul check.
See, this is what fascists do, they spread so many lies and half-truths, so fast, that it is impossible to keep up. Here are just a couple of articles that debunk or contextualize the nonsense you're spewing.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jul/23/tiktok-posts/biden-harris-doubted-trump-covid-19-vaccines-not-v/
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/ap-online/2020/09/14/ap-fact-check-trumps-torrent-of-falsehoods-biden-missteps
The article is about authoritarianism. Your attempt to deflect from Trump is noted. Doesn't change the fact that he was using propaganda in authoritarian ways. Your comment is certainly disingenuous. What does Dday have to do with anything? Not wanting to mandate something doesn't mean that later it would not be found necessary. SCOTUS has ruled that mandates can be enforced for the public good. You are no Democrat. It's obvious. Great example of posting misleading propaganda. Critical thinkers can see through your nonsense. The article is about why millions can't.
This is misleading.
The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing its sweeping vaccine-or-test requirements for large private companies, but allowed a vaccine mandate to stand for medical facilities that take Medicare or Medicaid payments.
So this is why the left is gaslighting Americans.
Organized religion provides a ready canvass by teaching adherents since birth to believe lies, called “faith.”
Awww, Mao said the same thing! You’re adorable 🥰
you missed the best parts of religion then: love, and hope.
The epistemologies of religion and fascism are the same - the beliefs have a perceived or actual social use value. They couldn't care less about deeper understanding of reality or the correspondence of their beliefs with reality. Or to paraphrase Karl Rove, they are into "making reality" with their fictions while we study it.
Some versions of religions today mainly stick with some version of the God fiction and not all the rest that does not stand up to modern science (modern as in going back to the Enlightenment). Some like American fundamentalist Christians stick with literal belief in Biblical nonsense, and these are mainly the prime Trump believers.
So, not all organized religion is at all the same in this respect.
Other literal Bible (well, old testament) believers like Ultra Orthodox Jews are also straight right wing voters.
Reading this points out how insightful and prescient George Orwell was in his novel 1984.
HILARIOUS!!!!!! Double speak! Did your lobotomy hurt much? Did you actually read Orwell’s work? I mean, did you read it or just the cliff notes. I can’t with this dystopian cognitive creepy dissonance.
Yes, I have actually read 1984 many times in my 80 years of life. Have you even read it once?
Two of the 24 PoA, Principles of Authoritarianism, are control of the mass media and propaganda campaign employed. An Authoritarian regime, once it gets control of the media, will launch that propaganda campaign. However, the reason Authoritarians must lie is that the truth and facts rarely, if ever, are behind them, which forces the Authoritarian propaganda/punditry campaign based on logical fallacies/cognitive biases, BS and lies.
Also know that Authoritarianism and Conservatism, political Conservatism, have been inexorably linked for more than the past two millennia, which is why Authoritarians/Conservatives rarely, if ever, tell the unvarnished truth about anything and are left with that Authoritarian propaganda/punditry.
Another fact to remember is that another PoA is disdain for intellectualism and the arts, which is why a credo of Authoritarian regimes is "make 'em stupid and keep 'em stupid". They know, all too well, that most educated people reject Authoritarianism. Authoritarian regimes require millions of ignoramuses to stay in power; once enough of them are educated to the truth and facts, the regime falls, unfortunately and most of the time, via a revolution.
Local school districts need to be reset and stabilized back to their levels of stability 5 years ago. Along with destroying free media, education-meddling and discrediting quality educations is an authoritarian bedrock.
The goal becomes to make us numb -- dumb and dumber.
😂😂😂😂😂😂I love the irony! A real knee slapper! I have not laughed so hard in months!!!!!
Substack was going to be the answer to the failures of twitter, but even here, there are trolls and nonsense
A recent poll questioning whether going to college was good for you showed that Republicans mostly thought it wasn't
Anti-intellectualism is a very common fascist belief. The fact that so many Republicans are leaning toward fascism is disturbing.
Education and critical thinking are the enemies. So apparently is fact checking for one GA legislator...
😂😂😂😂