"By winning the Democrats are actually losing". This is a new twist on Kellyanne Conway's "alternative facts". It is, in my opinion, a form of psychosis. A pervasive form of deliberate reality avoidance by the right. I am not going to say the left is immune from this. But it is way more prevalent on the far right, in MAGA world. This is like when I listen to flat earthers or deniers of the moon landings. There are so many easily verifiable facts that counter their positions. But no. The fact that if I am in San Francisco and I speak by phone to my siblings in London and Australia where the sun is in a different place in the sky - this isn't enough. Or like the Monty Python knight who progressively loses a fight, first one arm, then another, then one leg and the other. But he still thinks he can win. "Come back" he says to the winning knight. "I'll bite you to death". A denial of basic reality is a mental sickness.
“Laura Ingraham trying to convince viewers that Democratic victories are actually defeats would be merely pathetic if it existed in isolation. But it doesn’t.”
This is exactly what the NYT’s did when Biden was still president and they were sane-washing Trump. You’d see headlines like this:
“Economy grows by 4%, that’s why some leading economists say it could mean economic disaster.”
So when Biden was actually winning on the economy, he was being undermined by the NYT’s, and apparently these shenanigans worked to get him elected.
The difference now is that Trump has been exposed. Back then, no one could be certain that these economists could be wrong; still invisible….:)
It feels to many of us that the strings have been clearly visible to anyone who wanted to see them, but the fact is that they haven't been. Maybe what we will see isn't a disintegration of MAGA but a slow peeling away of those who just can't stick their heads in the sand any longer, can't ignore the masked goons in combat gear chasing people through our streets while spraying anyone who objects with tear gas and pepper bullets. Can't ignore the rise in costs. Can't ignore him bulldozing the White House to build a gilded ballroom. Can't ignore his blatant corruption. Can't ignore him posting videos of him dumping crap on American citizens. MAGA will live on, but we can hope that enough of them slink away quietly and pretend this all never happened.
Interesting breakdown of one of Fox’s propaganda techniques but but as a liberal in a MI rural area I fear you have vastly overestimated the cognitive independence of Fox News viewers. For decades they’ve been methodically trained to dismiss any news that doesn’t confirm the world presented by the right wing information machine.
I believe Limbaugh and Fox have literally changed how their brains process information by repeatedly boosting their confirmation bias and dehumanizing liberals, immigrants, and minorities. The cultural sickness will persist as long as those affected by it live, much like many Germans continued to idolize Hitler and the Nazis long after WWII.
That’s probably our best hope, that a few decisive elections will convince them their views aren’t shared by a great majority of Americans and drive them into the shadows.
This is an important commentary by Brock. A focus on the importance of observation, and on validation and follow-up, is foundational to be truly informed. In recent medical literature, we have seen emphasis akin to what Mike has shared regarding propaganda. These are the "hallmarks." Interestingly, refinements of knowing relate to the gathering of information that substantiates, or confirms and possibly enhances what are first thoughts are. It is therefore no surprise to find that information accuracy improves with multiple-inputs.
All of the above is operative throughout life. Some may call it combined variable analysis, other pattern recognition, still others multi-parametric thinking. It is inherent in artificial intelligence (AI) because the human brain can handle so many variables or parameters and then "cannot compute" further. But a computer does. This is what I learned, sadly but then gleefully, when an AI rapidly diagnosed my rare disease in minutes versus my fellow physicians not making a diagnosis in over 4 years.
Would it not be interesting, exciting, informative and telling, if there was a propaganda app. Plug in or check off specific boxes and come up with a propaganda score (PS). For me, growing up hearing the talk of ordinary people, I would name this "Bullshit Score," or simply BS.
Some of us, myself included, have skills in hearing BS and identifying it rapidly and with accuracy. No doubt, Fox News commentators are great examples of those high up in the ranks of BS. You have to ask, "why?" Why have they lowered themselves to this sordid level? Perhaps Mike or others have an answer.
I have come to grips with all biotic and abiotic life vis-à-vis the philosophy espoused by Aldous Huxley, but extended by me as stated above. Huxley wrote about this in the book The Perennial Philosophy. This philosophy altered the life of W.H. Murray, the Scottish mountaineer, and a major conservationist of his time.
I would speculate that those who see the Integrity of the uni-verse readily see through the veneer of BS of those at Fox News. I do listen to Fox News to test the waters of what Trump and his fellow sociopaths might be planning.
What I see now is Trump replaying the George Bush card and seeking a Saddam Hussein war on Venezuela to grab its oil fields. How we are allowing this sociopathic POTUS to stay in power unsettles me.
I very strongly suggest that all of you read Citizen's Dissent by Wendell Berry and David James Duncan. It is less expensive than Amazon when you purchase it via ThriftBooks. In that way we also protest against Jeff Bezos. I am checking with the Orion Society to see if a generous donation on my part (and matched by many I know) would allow for mass publication of this book and either a lower price or making it free. You will not be disappointed when you read this, and it may or may not shock you to know that it was written after 9/11, and yet it is more valid and striking today then in 2001 under Bush.
Brilliant. This is such good news! I'm going to hang some flour-glue posters on the trail behind my place ... Losing is Winning. Slavery is Freedom. Ignorance is Wisdom. Those seem to fit this theme.
This is a great read but as with so many pronouncements about MAGA’s demise, I worry it is too optimistic. It focuses in the propaganda machine but propaganda in the US is not Orwellian or classic blunt authoritarianism but feeding a huge swath of America what they want to hear. It has become a vicious cycle. No one outside that orbit believes a word of any of the right’s obvious bullshit. Indeed, it’s so obviously a lie that believing it is an article of faith among MAGA and suspending disbelief is a criterion for membership. The Fox News absurd take may be the latest example of the more outrageous the lie the more you know how loyal your following is.
The problem is that if the MAGAVERSE swings enough power, and they have considerable, they can create a reality on the ground, that corresponds with their preferred speculative outcomes.
Very Orwellian of course, but the Emperor’s New Clothes touches upon illusion shattered. To me, the flipping of one’s own beliefs - such as a flipped obeisance to Trump by previous detractors - is troubling and a new phenomenon in government. Now we observe a reversal as Trump supporters feel the impending disaster and realize the impending end of their political careers.
Meanwhile there's all the Republicans posting things like "New York City, you forgot" with images of the plane crashes from September 11, 2001, which seems to indicate that for them, "Never Forget" just meant "never forget to be anti-Muslim bigots".
Orwell would be proud of MAGA. Replace every word in their slogans and you get the opposite. Project 2025 obviously should have been called project 1984. Oh wait never mind the republicans controlled stuff back then too and it was almost as bad 😬
"By winning the Democrats are actually losing". This is a new twist on Kellyanne Conway's "alternative facts". It is, in my opinion, a form of psychosis. A pervasive form of deliberate reality avoidance by the right. I am not going to say the left is immune from this. But it is way more prevalent on the far right, in MAGA world. This is like when I listen to flat earthers or deniers of the moon landings. There are so many easily verifiable facts that counter their positions. But no. The fact that if I am in San Francisco and I speak by phone to my siblings in London and Australia where the sun is in a different place in the sky - this isn't enough. Or like the Monty Python knight who progressively loses a fight, first one arm, then another, then one leg and the other. But he still thinks he can win. "Come back" he says to the winning knight. "I'll bite you to death". A denial of basic reality is a mental sickness.
Ok, I’ll call the Election a draw.
“Laura Ingraham trying to convince viewers that Democratic victories are actually defeats would be merely pathetic if it existed in isolation. But it doesn’t.”
This is exactly what the NYT’s did when Biden was still president and they were sane-washing Trump. You’d see headlines like this:
“Economy grows by 4%, that’s why some leading economists say it could mean economic disaster.”
So when Biden was actually winning on the economy, he was being undermined by the NYT’s, and apparently these shenanigans worked to get him elected.
The difference now is that Trump has been exposed. Back then, no one could be certain that these economists could be wrong; still invisible….:)
“You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”
Winston Churchill
There were others who prostrated themselves. That lead to WW2. Hopefully people will push back more against the authoritarianism.
It feels to many of us that the strings have been clearly visible to anyone who wanted to see them, but the fact is that they haven't been. Maybe what we will see isn't a disintegration of MAGA but a slow peeling away of those who just can't stick their heads in the sand any longer, can't ignore the masked goons in combat gear chasing people through our streets while spraying anyone who objects with tear gas and pepper bullets. Can't ignore the rise in costs. Can't ignore him bulldozing the White House to build a gilded ballroom. Can't ignore his blatant corruption. Can't ignore him posting videos of him dumping crap on American citizens. MAGA will live on, but we can hope that enough of them slink away quietly and pretend this all never happened.
I SINCERELY hope you're right! May there be enough left to restore by the time more wake up!
Interesting breakdown of one of Fox’s propaganda techniques but but as a liberal in a MI rural area I fear you have vastly overestimated the cognitive independence of Fox News viewers. For decades they’ve been methodically trained to dismiss any news that doesn’t confirm the world presented by the right wing information machine.
I believe Limbaugh and Fox have literally changed how their brains process information by repeatedly boosting their confirmation bias and dehumanizing liberals, immigrants, and minorities. The cultural sickness will persist as long as those affected by it live, much like many Germans continued to idolize Hitler and the Nazis long after WWII.
I agree, (also Confederates and their Lost Cause) I am hoping that reality peels off enough of them that they are pushed back into silence🤞
That’s probably our best hope, that a few decisive elections will convince them their views aren’t shared by a great majority of Americans and drive them into the shadows.
I'm as shocked as anybody that the economic policy of immiserate everybody not named Donald Trump is not an eternal majority electoral vote getter
Ha Ha ~ Let's see how the "Master" responds! I expect MORE Terror and propaganda to show its ugly face ~ Keep up the momentum, but also keep safe!
To Canaan the Lord has led me forth to smash upon the groypers servers the hammers of the North.
Thank you Michael, excellent newsletter and great explanations….:)
This is an important commentary by Brock. A focus on the importance of observation, and on validation and follow-up, is foundational to be truly informed. In recent medical literature, we have seen emphasis akin to what Mike has shared regarding propaganda. These are the "hallmarks." Interestingly, refinements of knowing relate to the gathering of information that substantiates, or confirms and possibly enhances what are first thoughts are. It is therefore no surprise to find that information accuracy improves with multiple-inputs.
All of the above is operative throughout life. Some may call it combined variable analysis, other pattern recognition, still others multi-parametric thinking. It is inherent in artificial intelligence (AI) because the human brain can handle so many variables or parameters and then "cannot compute" further. But a computer does. This is what I learned, sadly but then gleefully, when an AI rapidly diagnosed my rare disease in minutes versus my fellow physicians not making a diagnosis in over 4 years.
Would it not be interesting, exciting, informative and telling, if there was a propaganda app. Plug in or check off specific boxes and come up with a propaganda score (PS). For me, growing up hearing the talk of ordinary people, I would name this "Bullshit Score," or simply BS.
Some of us, myself included, have skills in hearing BS and identifying it rapidly and with accuracy. No doubt, Fox News commentators are great examples of those high up in the ranks of BS. You have to ask, "why?" Why have they lowered themselves to this sordid level? Perhaps Mike or others have an answer.
I have come to grips with all biotic and abiotic life vis-à-vis the philosophy espoused by Aldous Huxley, but extended by me as stated above. Huxley wrote about this in the book The Perennial Philosophy. This philosophy altered the life of W.H. Murray, the Scottish mountaineer, and a major conservationist of his time.
I would speculate that those who see the Integrity of the uni-verse readily see through the veneer of BS of those at Fox News. I do listen to Fox News to test the waters of what Trump and his fellow sociopaths might be planning.
What I see now is Trump replaying the George Bush card and seeking a Saddam Hussein war on Venezuela to grab its oil fields. How we are allowing this sociopathic POTUS to stay in power unsettles me.
I very strongly suggest that all of you read Citizen's Dissent by Wendell Berry and David James Duncan. It is less expensive than Amazon when you purchase it via ThriftBooks. In that way we also protest against Jeff Bezos. I am checking with the Orion Society to see if a generous donation on my part (and matched by many I know) would allow for mass publication of this book and either a lower price or making it free. You will not be disappointed when you read this, and it may or may not shock you to know that it was written after 9/11, and yet it is more valid and striking today then in 2001 under Bush.
Brilliant. This is such good news! I'm going to hang some flour-glue posters on the trail behind my place ... Losing is Winning. Slavery is Freedom. Ignorance is Wisdom. Those seem to fit this theme.
“Thinking is not critical thinking.”
This is a great read but as with so many pronouncements about MAGA’s demise, I worry it is too optimistic. It focuses in the propaganda machine but propaganda in the US is not Orwellian or classic blunt authoritarianism but feeding a huge swath of America what they want to hear. It has become a vicious cycle. No one outside that orbit believes a word of any of the right’s obvious bullshit. Indeed, it’s so obviously a lie that believing it is an article of faith among MAGA and suspending disbelief is a criterion for membership. The Fox News absurd take may be the latest example of the more outrageous the lie the more you know how loyal your following is.
I'm not declaring victory.
The problem is that if the MAGAVERSE swings enough power, and they have considerable, they can create a reality on the ground, that corresponds with their preferred speculative outcomes.
I'm pretty sure two plus two is four is one of the questions the Donald got right on his Are You Demented test
Very Orwellian of course, but the Emperor’s New Clothes touches upon illusion shattered. To me, the flipping of one’s own beliefs - such as a flipped obeisance to Trump by previous detractors - is troubling and a new phenomenon in government. Now we observe a reversal as Trump supporters feel the impending disaster and realize the impending end of their political careers.
Meanwhile there's all the Republicans posting things like "New York City, you forgot" with images of the plane crashes from September 11, 2001, which seems to indicate that for them, "Never Forget" just meant "never forget to be anti-Muslim bigots".
Orwell would be proud of MAGA. Replace every word in their slogans and you get the opposite. Project 2025 obviously should have been called project 1984. Oh wait never mind the republicans controlled stuff back then too and it was almost as bad 😬
It’s not fair. I haven’t even finished your other brilliant article…