Reading this feels like watching someone explain that water is wet while half the country insists, “Actually, it’s Antifa soup.”
The “five mechanisms” are spot on. Reality inversion, magical causation, scapegoating—basically Hogwarts for gaslighters. It’s political alchemy: turn failure into success, ignorance into wisdom, cruelty into patriotism. And somehow, Jason Calacanis becomes a moral weathervane spinning faster than a ceiling fan at a Florida Hooters.
Truth isn’t sexy in a world addicted to team jerseys. But here’s the joke: arithmetic doesn’t care who you voted for. Two plus two still equals four, even if your senator swears it equals “owning the libs.”
Excellent. Helpful as I struggle to understand how very intelligent people can contribute to and facilitate the “alternate reality” in which their tribe exists. I especially appreciate the recognition of the moral disengagement in addition to the cognitive reversals.
I suppose it's not a matter of how I think, though. The argument here is that there's some serious "psychological economics" going on, right? (not sure how I feel about that phrase, but it's very evocative)
I am with you on this point. Tribal loyalty has all kinds of hidden freedom traps built into it. Freedom of thought in tribal structures is a bit of an oxymoron to me….
I have self awareness and I’m reasonably intelligent, so this isn’t a concern for me at the moment on this issue. I know a fascist cult when I see one, and I’m completely justified in being disgusted by it. If you’re an American, you should be, too.
Oh my gosh! I just did a similar post. The Right (honestly, I’m not even sure what to call them any more) still think Trump will magically pivot to save them.
Where is the passion? Reason will never be enough. Look at The Prophet, by Gibran. They need each other. Reason will become a cage if left alone and passion will burn itself out. The rudder and the sail. Where's the sail, the drive forward found in the restful nest of reason? We can intellectualize till the cows come home, but without the pulse to make things go, what's the use?
Gibran: Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peaceful serenity of distant fields and meadows--then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason."
And when the storm comes, and the mighty winds shake the forest and thunder and lightening proclaim the majesty of the sky--then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion."
Divinity is on both sides of the relation: Reason, values and rationality; intuition, sensation and the irrational with our dual hemispheric brains and their distinct functional repertoires.
Staying in complex balance in the face of simplifying either/or favoritisms is our best shot forward. We need the full picture of humanity in the round, each of us with all of our elements accounted for. Then tell your story, one which covers all the bases of mind and heart, where we don't get lost in one or the other and can find the common ground to reset the story of the world around us!
The hegemony of left-brain thinking is not the way forward. We have to bounce off both sides, or the game is up. Like day without the night! Where's the dream in that scenario? Science by itself is just as unconscious of life as primitive tribes are of their deductive reasoning. Be square in the round and there may just be a future for humanity.
Yes, the houses of the Earth are the cradleboard of our day to day, carrying forth our lives amidst all our relations. The Sky however is the realm of death, the dream, the wilderness, eternity. Not some sci-fi fantasy of rocket ships to a nearby dead planet, trying to escape what science has done with its technology to our homeplace.
Thanks for this. Too many dismiss this phenomenon with some version of "these people are just completely dumb." And while that may be true for some, it's certainly not true for all. And it just doesn't suffice as an explanation.
What you've outlined here are the most sane and cogent reasons for why so many of our smart, once-rational friends and family have seemingly been utterly subsumed by this intellectual buffoonery and moral soul-rot we call MAGA.
And I also appreciate that you've outlined a way out -- despite how utterly Sisyphean that may seem at this point.
My only criticism of this is "the center can be rebuilt". This is either meaningless or wrong. Meaningless if it simply refers to the fact that any discussion, even with multiple dimensions, can be represented as having some kind of central position, which may or may not be the closest to truth. Wrong, if it implies that Trump supporters are relevant to determining what constitutes the centre. The point about post-truth claims is that, even when they are factually correct, they are still made in the service of falsehood.
Better to say something like "the search for truth can be made central".
We learn to think of history as something that is already happened to other people. Our own moment filled as it is with minutiae destined to be forgotten, always looks smaller in comparison.
This has the effect of making them essentially unimaginable and crafting the story of something that should never have been allowed to happen, we forge the story of something that could not possibly have happened. Or, to use the phrase only slightly out of context, something that can’t happen here.
A logical fallacy becomes inevitable. If this can’t happen, then the thing that is happening is not it. What we see in real life, or at least on television, can’t possibly be the same monstrous phenomenon that we have collectively decided is unimaginable.
The irony is damning! This country was founded and populated by refugees from this horseshit -- people with minds of their own, determined to see it through on their own hook. They are survived by a tribe of damned snowflakes afraid of their own shadow! Traitors to their own ancestors -- the shame! They've taken on the "sophistication" of Mark Twain's Duke and Dauphin -- what a repulsive joke!
It looks like maybe humanity has just run into a fundamental limitation. At least to the extent that this problem is worldwide and not resistible. To the extent it’s our problem let’s hope that we can serve as a warning for the remaining free people of the world.
Yuval Harari talks about the power of stories in communication. The simpler the more appealing, he says. The truth on the other hand, is often complex and requires effort to identify or divine.
Sincere thanks. You have put into beautiful prose what I have seen and observed but could never have expressed so well.
This is great, but is missing an important aspect of what is happening in the disinformation stew that we all now swim in. My MAGA aquaintances could have written large portions of this post. They constantly say, "Do your research", "Don't accept what you hear from the media", "don't accept what you hear from the experts" and then point to all sorts of sites that "challenge the common wisdom" and show some new "truth" that they have now "discovered" and embraced.
My MAGA associates feel like they are just as much on a search for truth as you are describing here.
The problem is that truth is being ripped asunder through propaganda and miss information and the tribal aspects of the moment you so expertly describe.
If we are working on resistance to that trend but are not clear about our own shared commitment to established truths where does that leave us? If we don't speak up for the value of vaccines because we are not vaccine scientists and need to do the research, then who will? If we don't speak up for the value of liberal education because we are not college professors and need to do the research, then who will? If we don't speak up for the constitution and the rights of all people in our country because we are not constitutional lawyers and need to do our research, then who will?
We are not going to be able to do this if we are all atomized and all trying to find our own truth, especially when there are so many clear ways that we can already commit to shared values and yes dare I say some shared truth.
Another interesting perspective. Is the internet, and especially social media, taking us from a literate society where we get information mostly in writing, back to an oral, story telling society, where emotion drives our thinking and actions?
Yeah, it's really hard to avoid the temptation to join one of the teams, Republicans or Democrats. I had hoped that independents could evaluate the motives of Kirk's assassin objectively: that he had left-wing motives (but that's no reason to ban the opposite view. The state shouldn't have forced ABC to take Kimmel's show off the air).
Independents seem exactly half-way between Rs and Ds on the assassin's motives. I have no data on the Kimmel situation, but I fear that most who disagreed with Kimmel raised few objections to his cancellation.
This still isn't as clear as we'd like it to be: Looking at Ken Klippenstein's reporting on the shooter's Discord chats - which seems to comprise a majority of his social context - most of the people he regularly spoke to were surprised to find he held any political beliefs at all. From what I've seen so far (and I could certainly have missed some evidence here), it seems like it was much more "personal" than "political," to the extent that one can separate those terms, motivated on his relationship with his roommate more than any "political" principle.
Reading this feels like watching someone explain that water is wet while half the country insists, “Actually, it’s Antifa soup.”
The “five mechanisms” are spot on. Reality inversion, magical causation, scapegoating—basically Hogwarts for gaslighters. It’s political alchemy: turn failure into success, ignorance into wisdom, cruelty into patriotism. And somehow, Jason Calacanis becomes a moral weathervane spinning faster than a ceiling fan at a Florida Hooters.
Truth isn’t sexy in a world addicted to team jerseys. But here’s the joke: arithmetic doesn’t care who you voted for. Two plus two still equals four, even if your senator swears it equals “owning the libs.”
Steersman sees shemale dicks everywhere.
Excellent. Helpful as I struggle to understand how very intelligent people can contribute to and facilitate the “alternate reality” in which their tribe exists. I especially appreciate the recognition of the moral disengagement in addition to the cognitive reversals.
Am I the only weirdo who finds tribal identity meaningless and cult like loyalty creepy?
You are a very rare human to think that way, yes.
I suppose it's not a matter of how I think, though. The argument here is that there's some serious "psychological economics" going on, right? (not sure how I feel about that phrase, but it's very evocative)
I am with you on this point. Tribal loyalty has all kinds of hidden freedom traps built into it. Freedom of thought in tribal structures is a bit of an oxymoron to me….
It's probably best if you assume that you aren't immune to this stuff, even if you're very sure you are.
I have self awareness and I’m reasonably intelligent, so this isn’t a concern for me at the moment on this issue. I know a fascist cult when I see one, and I’m completely justified in being disgusted by it. If you’re an American, you should be, too.
When you said American (a tribe), it became clear that Sam gave you a good tip. 😃
Nope
Oh my gosh! I just did a similar post. The Right (honestly, I’m not even sure what to call them any more) still think Trump will magically pivot to save them.
Where is the passion? Reason will never be enough. Look at The Prophet, by Gibran. They need each other. Reason will become a cage if left alone and passion will burn itself out. The rudder and the sail. Where's the sail, the drive forward found in the restful nest of reason? We can intellectualize till the cows come home, but without the pulse to make things go, what's the use?
Gibran: Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peaceful serenity of distant fields and meadows--then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason."
And when the storm comes, and the mighty winds shake the forest and thunder and lightening proclaim the majesty of the sky--then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion."
Divinity is on both sides of the relation: Reason, values and rationality; intuition, sensation and the irrational with our dual hemispheric brains and their distinct functional repertoires.
Staying in complex balance in the face of simplifying either/or favoritisms is our best shot forward. We need the full picture of humanity in the round, each of us with all of our elements accounted for. Then tell your story, one which covers all the bases of mind and heart, where we don't get lost in one or the other and can find the common ground to reset the story of the world around us!
The hegemony of left-brain thinking is not the way forward. We have to bounce off both sides, or the game is up. Like day without the night! Where's the dream in that scenario? Science by itself is just as unconscious of life as primitive tribes are of their deductive reasoning. Be square in the round and there may just be a future for humanity.
Yes, the houses of the Earth are the cradleboard of our day to day, carrying forth our lives amidst all our relations. The Sky however is the realm of death, the dream, the wilderness, eternity. Not some sci-fi fantasy of rocket ships to a nearby dead planet, trying to escape what science has done with its technology to our homeplace.
Thanks for this. Too many dismiss this phenomenon with some version of "these people are just completely dumb." And while that may be true for some, it's certainly not true for all. And it just doesn't suffice as an explanation.
What you've outlined here are the most sane and cogent reasons for why so many of our smart, once-rational friends and family have seemingly been utterly subsumed by this intellectual buffoonery and moral soul-rot we call MAGA.
And I also appreciate that you've outlined a way out -- despite how utterly Sisyphean that may seem at this point.
Yes, the tribal mechanisms in the brain make intelligent people do stupid things.
My only criticism of this is "the center can be rebuilt". This is either meaningless or wrong. Meaningless if it simply refers to the fact that any discussion, even with multiple dimensions, can be represented as having some kind of central position, which may or may not be the closest to truth. Wrong, if it implies that Trump supporters are relevant to determining what constitutes the centre. The point about post-truth claims is that, even when they are factually correct, they are still made in the service of falsehood.
Better to say something like "the search for truth can be made central".
Good point. Complex issues have multiple dimensions, not merely linear.
Therefore the linear terms left, right, and center are nonsense.
You forgot Normality Bias.
—————
We learn to think of history as something that is already happened to other people. Our own moment filled as it is with minutiae destined to be forgotten, always looks smaller in comparison.
This has the effect of making them essentially unimaginable and crafting the story of something that should never have been allowed to happen, we forge the story of something that could not possibly have happened. Or, to use the phrase only slightly out of context, something that can’t happen here.
A logical fallacy becomes inevitable. If this can’t happen, then the thing that is happening is not it. What we see in real life, or at least on television, can’t possibly be the same monstrous phenomenon that we have collectively decided is unimaginable.
— M. Gessen , Surviving Autocracy
The irony is damning! This country was founded and populated by refugees from this horseshit -- people with minds of their own, determined to see it through on their own hook. They are survived by a tribe of damned snowflakes afraid of their own shadow! Traitors to their own ancestors -- the shame! They've taken on the "sophistication" of Mark Twain's Duke and Dauphin -- what a repulsive joke!
It looks like maybe humanity has just run into a fundamental limitation. At least to the extent that this problem is worldwide and not resistible. To the extent it’s our problem let’s hope that we can serve as a warning for the remaining free people of the world.
Yuval Harari talks about the power of stories in communication. The simpler the more appealing, he says. The truth on the other hand, is often complex and requires effort to identify or divine.
Sincere thanks. You have put into beautiful prose what I have seen and observed but could never have expressed so well.
This is great, but is missing an important aspect of what is happening in the disinformation stew that we all now swim in. My MAGA aquaintances could have written large portions of this post. They constantly say, "Do your research", "Don't accept what you hear from the media", "don't accept what you hear from the experts" and then point to all sorts of sites that "challenge the common wisdom" and show some new "truth" that they have now "discovered" and embraced.
My MAGA associates feel like they are just as much on a search for truth as you are describing here.
The problem is that truth is being ripped asunder through propaganda and miss information and the tribal aspects of the moment you so expertly describe.
If we are working on resistance to that trend but are not clear about our own shared commitment to established truths where does that leave us? If we don't speak up for the value of vaccines because we are not vaccine scientists and need to do the research, then who will? If we don't speak up for the value of liberal education because we are not college professors and need to do the research, then who will? If we don't speak up for the constitution and the rights of all people in our country because we are not constitutional lawyers and need to do our research, then who will?
We are not going to be able to do this if we are all atomized and all trying to find our own truth, especially when there are so many clear ways that we can already commit to shared values and yes dare I say some shared truth.
"...these pressures affect everyone engaged in public discourse.
The difference isn’t immunity but conscious resistance."
Constant vigilance... Which is difficult
Another interesting perspective. Is the internet, and especially social media, taking us from a literate society where we get information mostly in writing, back to an oral, story telling society, where emotion drives our thinking and actions?
https://open.substack.com/pub/jmarriott/p/the-dawn-of-the-post-literate-society-aa1?r=1knb7z&utm_medium=ios
Superb article. Sublime eloquence and reasoning.
Yeah, it's really hard to avoid the temptation to join one of the teams, Republicans or Democrats. I had hoped that independents could evaluate the motives of Kirk's assassin objectively: that he had left-wing motives (but that's no reason to ban the opposite view. The state shouldn't have forced ABC to take Kimmel's show off the air).
Independents seem exactly half-way between Rs and Ds on the assassin's motives. I have no data on the Kimmel situation, but I fear that most who disagreed with Kimmel raised few objections to his cancellation.
https://x.com/glukianoff/status/1970127446323146898?t=KNeK-azY3ZVBIyIZCEAtag&s=19
This still isn't as clear as we'd like it to be: Looking at Ken Klippenstein's reporting on the shooter's Discord chats - which seems to comprise a majority of his social context - most of the people he regularly spoke to were surprised to find he held any political beliefs at all. From what I've seen so far (and I could certainly have missed some evidence here), it seems like it was much more "personal" than "political," to the extent that one can separate those terms, motivated on his relationship with his roommate more than any "political" principle.