So it looks like Trump has read the fascist playbook or something. I’m not surprised. I am concerned.
Edit: After thinking about it, I guess I am surprised that he can read.
And nearly half of the voters in the US think, “yeah that’s who I want leading my country.” This includes half of my extended family (the math at least checks out).
I will never understand the sheer lack of independent and critical thinking in the US. I get that the underfunded education system, the complete takeover of editorial news outlets which have never put forth actual news, and the inability for most people to shut up long enough to listen to reason, are just a very small number of examples of why America is in the state that it is; but at the end of the day, can’t people at least see evil when it’s speaking evil things to them? Is this what they truly want — a dictator who has used them, who doesn’t represent them at all, and who will do everything possible to rip apart the bonds of democracy?
Why are people so easily brainwashed?
Ask a 1930s German adult. Fear. Whether it be a crashing economy, immigration, whatever. If you can get the fear hooks in them, you can absolutely get people to vote against their interests.
That seems so obvious, but as someone not inclined to succumb to fear, it’s never on my mind as a motivator.
Thank you for that insightful thought. I appreciate your mindfulness of that. I suppose it seems so easy for me to be able to look in from the outside and bang on the windows screaming at the top of my lungs about the danger of this narcissistic wannabe Hitler, but only to find out just how soundproof the house is on the inside in such a fog of fear and lies.
It’s a shame that millions of people are unable to divorce their fear from their cognition and ambition. I can only hope they wisen up at some point.
The most recent On The Media podcast has a section about this (Trump reporting and why people don’t get it that he’s stupid, crazy AND evil) that I feel like didn’t go far enough. They have a guest talking who literally says “The journalists aren’t doing their job, to inform the public.” I wanted to respond “NO, they ARE doing their job. Their job isn’t to inform the public, it’s to make $$$ by creating content that maximizes consumer engagement, while pushing narratives that appeal to their CEOs and shareholders. They’re doing EXACTLY their job. THAT’S the problem.”
So what’s the solution to this? Publicly funding journalism nearly no-strings attached so that they have guaranteed income and can better focus on actual news?
But then that creates a conflict in interest when the story involves the funder.
But then that creates a conflict in interest when the story involves the funder.
It might create that potential, but if done properly, there can be independence.
In Canada, the CBC regularly reports on things that show the government of the day in a negative light.
Same with the BBC in the UK.
Research Hitler’s rise to power and also the rise of fascism generally. Also look up “boiled frog”
Also maybe read this TL;DR: by GPT. I think the big thing is people feel powerless to stop him. Also nobody wants him to be a martyr. There are plenty others, some worse, that would take his place.
Why are people so easily brainwashed?
Lack of education. If your people had learned about Hitler in school (how he came to power and not just how the glorious allies under AMERICAN leadership won the war), they would have recognized the playbook of the Republicans and Trump especially long ago.
This isn’t it. I was raised conservative in a red state. People are aware of the Nazis, they can explain how to use critical thinking and why critical thinking is important, and they even have awareness that racism and oppression by wealthy elites of politically powerless poor folk is a problem. How can they reach conclusions that disregard everything I just mentioned? The same way that many lawyers and professors become right-wing despite their education and fact-finding skills.
They have faith that the ideas they have based their worldview on are correct and work backwards from that conclusion. Whatever their motivation for uncritical belief of some fundamental premise doesn’t matter because their whole ego and sense of self is tied up with those concepts being true. They don’t have political conversations, just opportunities to re-assert some cliche perhaps dressed up by some poetic philosophical language so that other who happen to identify with those beliefs will know that they’re on the correct side. Cognitive dissonance is so pronounced they would almost always avoid it entirely rather than work through it at a certain point. Some I’ve spoken to are aware that their philosophy is full of contradictions, so their defense is to consider it normal to have contradictory beliefsand demonstrate this by pointing them out from other partisan hacks. They didn’t reason themselves into their beliefs, reason is only to find a credible way their beliefs are correct.
The really irritating part is that they’d see your second paragraph there and say “they get it! The damn left just works backwards from their convictions. They don’t think about anything, they just feel it!”
They’d read all that and say “not me, you.” and they’d be partially correct as obviously some on the left do the same thing.
