That was quite a moment. It was very hot there, and I don't mean just the weather. The occasion was a protest of the US government's grotesque violation of the rights of all those fellow-citizens imprisoned, on no formal charges, after that ridiculous "attempted coup" on January 6—Americans who've been in prison ever since, many of them held in solitary confinement, with no access to their lawyers, and with the sick not getting medical attention.
Does anyone have thoughts on why it's this one group- of I guess you'd call them those who identify as democrats or liberal- who have been so taken over and react as KLS describes below? I've been thinking about this a lot (cause they used to be my friends and they are my adult children) and I don't have a satisfactory answer. I assume it's connected with the educated class and they're identification (and hence blind trust) in institutions. It's just that the left used to understand that institutions are not to be trusted and authority is to be resisted and now- well it's like kool aid was put in them long before they got vaccinated and I don't understand how it happened so quickly. I mean the likes of Amy Goodman used to know who Bill Gates was and now it's wear double masks as an act of love.
Watch Jimmy Dore's takedown of Stephen Colbert, when Jon Stewart went all Robin Williams and made Colbert look like the establishment pansy that he is; Mark sent out the link the other day (https://youtu.be/6QynoJjm2lU). Explaining liberals' obtuseness and inability to see the possibility that what's going down is even remotely suspicious, Dore said something like, If a Republican says it, it can't be true--ever. Like MCM's daily posts, the segment made me feel like I'm not losing my mind. Stewart was too hilarious (and correct) to be denied.
I think the left believed that Trump was a terrible president. His followers--especially evangelicals, rural voters, people who lost their jobs after the NAFTA agreement and after the 2008 housing bubble burst--these followers weren't appreciated by upper middle class and professionals in urban areas. Hillary called them, "the deplorables." Corporate media was biased against Trump and spent most of their coverage denouncing him and mocking his tweets. They suffered from "Trump derangement syndrome." We didn't get to examine the pros and cons of his policies. He was denounced as a Fascist, a Putin puppet--anything to discredit him. I think just as the right wing kept denouncing Obama as an illegitimate president born in Kenya, the left wing kept denouncing Trump as illegitimately elected through Russian influence. Historically, a minority of voters always claimed that a new president didn't represent the true will (their will) of the people. However, in the past, the majority of voters didn't care so much, and we weren't so heavily polarized and siloed in our own media channels. The January 6 "coup" was a perfect way to discredit Trump and persuade the majority that Trump incited violence and deserved to be thrown off social media. The left felt increasingly morally superior to the "rabble" attempting to illegitimately overthrow the government. The idea of a "coup" matched their opinion that Trump was a threat to Democracy and deserves to be overthrown. They will be very reluctant to give up this view. My mother and I used to argue about capital punishment. I argued that it was unfair to execute an innocent man (most murderers were male). My mother replied, "There are no innocent people in jail!" They need to cling to the comforting thought that Biden is our savior, and we can go back to "normal." God forbid that they should listen to Trump supporters.
Thanks Diana- I think you've got it. I just read this piece by Josh Mitteldorf which also was illuminating to the same point:https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-real-science-became-fake-news/5748954. I hadn't quite thought about just how dangerous Trump's presidency was in the way it was used. The opportunity of 4 years to corral and take over the minds of all those who oppose Trump (the democrats and liberals) was a weapon I hadn't quite comprehended until I see the results now. It wasn't just about hating Trump (that was easy) it was using that to get the "opposition" to salivate at anything not Trump- like all the institutions he proclaimed to have little respect for. Still the power of mind manipulation at this level is truly mind blowing.
“If you’re afraid and angry, then you’re not thinking.” Bingo. When I try to have conversations, quaint though the concept of “conversation” may sound nowadays, I’m met with this anger, this fear and conversations are stopped in their tracks. It’s a wall so many people I know have built around themselves. Dissenting views are “conspiracy theories” or anti-Vax. When they defend their positions with phrases like “trust the experts” “trust the scientists,” I come back with work by scientists who disagree. But most people actually haven’t done the work to analyze all the data, only who their fave news sources say to believe. And of all of it, that’s the most frightening to me…that smart people aren’t thinking anymore.
We all have our favorite image of what’s happening right now. For me, it’s definitely “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”
I believe that Mark said when he teaches his class on propaganda, he counsels students it's easy to recognize propaganda when you don't believe it. Such as Republicans can easily detect bias against Trump in corporate media, and Democrats can easily detect biased reporting in Fox news. But when it comes time to examine your own cherished beliefs and discover they are merely propaganda serving big pharma or the military industrial complex or Bill Gates--it's deeply disturbing. How could everything you held true be so wrong? Mark is forcing us to examine and question opinions that made us feel safe, superior, validated. I myself felt a sudden surge of anger when I heard my friend state that Trump is like Jesus. You could never guess why she thinks that. Thanks to Mark, I was able to swallow my anger, and refrain from denouncing her as a pod person. To her, Trump, like Jesus, defies the authorities who exploit us. Jesus overthrew the tables of the money lenders. Trump promised to "drain the swamp." Isn't that worth listening to? Don't we all agree that corruption is bad? I'm thinking of the Presbyterian minister and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Chris Hedges, who stated his sympathy for evangelicals that seemed to have a "crazy" attachment to Trump. He stated that many had been abused and he needed to connect with their pain before he could speak with them. That touched me. I think the world needs more people willing to listen to political opponents without automatically denouncing them.
Ah dear Mark, so happy you are on substack now. News from the underground had helped keep me (mostly) sane here in California . Thanks for bringing this issue the attention it deserves. We're living in a totalitarian country.
Me too! I love that we can also share our opinions here. I didn't know how to share with others before. I miss all the emails coming into my inbox every few hours. They made me feel emotionally supported.
Does anyone have thoughts on why it's this one group- of I guess you'd call them those who identify as democrats or liberal- who have been so taken over and react as KLS describes below? I've been thinking about this a lot (cause they used to be my friends and they are my adult children) and I don't have a satisfactory answer. I assume it's connected with the educated class and they're identification (and hence blind trust) in institutions. It's just that the left used to understand that institutions are not to be trusted and authority is to be resisted and now- well it's like kool aid was put in them long before they got vaccinated and I don't understand how it happened so quickly. I mean the likes of Amy Goodman used to know who Bill Gates was and now it's wear double masks as an act of love.
Watch Jimmy Dore's takedown of Stephen Colbert, when Jon Stewart went all Robin Williams and made Colbert look like the establishment pansy that he is; Mark sent out the link the other day (https://youtu.be/6QynoJjm2lU). Explaining liberals' obtuseness and inability to see the possibility that what's going down is even remotely suspicious, Dore said something like, If a Republican says it, it can't be true--ever. Like MCM's daily posts, the segment made me feel like I'm not losing my mind. Stewart was too hilarious (and correct) to be denied.
I think the left believed that Trump was a terrible president. His followers--especially evangelicals, rural voters, people who lost their jobs after the NAFTA agreement and after the 2008 housing bubble burst--these followers weren't appreciated by upper middle class and professionals in urban areas. Hillary called them, "the deplorables." Corporate media was biased against Trump and spent most of their coverage denouncing him and mocking his tweets. They suffered from "Trump derangement syndrome." We didn't get to examine the pros and cons of his policies. He was denounced as a Fascist, a Putin puppet--anything to discredit him. I think just as the right wing kept denouncing Obama as an illegitimate president born in Kenya, the left wing kept denouncing Trump as illegitimately elected through Russian influence. Historically, a minority of voters always claimed that a new president didn't represent the true will (their will) of the people. However, in the past, the majority of voters didn't care so much, and we weren't so heavily polarized and siloed in our own media channels. The January 6 "coup" was a perfect way to discredit Trump and persuade the majority that Trump incited violence and deserved to be thrown off social media. The left felt increasingly morally superior to the "rabble" attempting to illegitimately overthrow the government. The idea of a "coup" matched their opinion that Trump was a threat to Democracy and deserves to be overthrown. They will be very reluctant to give up this view. My mother and I used to argue about capital punishment. I argued that it was unfair to execute an innocent man (most murderers were male). My mother replied, "There are no innocent people in jail!" They need to cling to the comforting thought that Biden is our savior, and we can go back to "normal." God forbid that they should listen to Trump supporters.
Thanks Diana- I think you've got it. I just read this piece by Josh Mitteldorf which also was illuminating to the same point:https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-real-science-became-fake-news/5748954. I hadn't quite thought about just how dangerous Trump's presidency was in the way it was used. The opportunity of 4 years to corral and take over the minds of all those who oppose Trump (the democrats and liberals) was a weapon I hadn't quite comprehended until I see the results now. It wasn't just about hating Trump (that was easy) it was using that to get the "opposition" to salivate at anything not Trump- like all the institutions he proclaimed to have little respect for. Still the power of mind manipulation at this level is truly mind blowing.
“If you’re afraid and angry, then you’re not thinking.” Bingo. When I try to have conversations, quaint though the concept of “conversation” may sound nowadays, I’m met with this anger, this fear and conversations are stopped in their tracks. It’s a wall so many people I know have built around themselves. Dissenting views are “conspiracy theories” or anti-Vax. When they defend their positions with phrases like “trust the experts” “trust the scientists,” I come back with work by scientists who disagree. But most people actually haven’t done the work to analyze all the data, only who their fave news sources say to believe. And of all of it, that’s the most frightening to me…that smart people aren’t thinking anymore.
We all have our favorite image of what’s happening right now. For me, it’s definitely “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”
I believe that Mark said when he teaches his class on propaganda, he counsels students it's easy to recognize propaganda when you don't believe it. Such as Republicans can easily detect bias against Trump in corporate media, and Democrats can easily detect biased reporting in Fox news. But when it comes time to examine your own cherished beliefs and discover they are merely propaganda serving big pharma or the military industrial complex or Bill Gates--it's deeply disturbing. How could everything you held true be so wrong? Mark is forcing us to examine and question opinions that made us feel safe, superior, validated. I myself felt a sudden surge of anger when I heard my friend state that Trump is like Jesus. You could never guess why she thinks that. Thanks to Mark, I was able to swallow my anger, and refrain from denouncing her as a pod person. To her, Trump, like Jesus, defies the authorities who exploit us. Jesus overthrew the tables of the money lenders. Trump promised to "drain the swamp." Isn't that worth listening to? Don't we all agree that corruption is bad? I'm thinking of the Presbyterian minister and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Chris Hedges, who stated his sympathy for evangelicals that seemed to have a "crazy" attachment to Trump. He stated that many had been abused and he needed to connect with their pain before he could speak with them. That touched me. I think the world needs more people willing to listen to political opponents without automatically denouncing them.
Ah dear Mark, so happy you are on substack now. News from the underground had helped keep me (mostly) sane here in California . Thanks for bringing this issue the attention it deserves. We're living in a totalitarian country.
Me too! I love that we can also share our opinions here. I didn't know how to share with others before. I miss all the emails coming into my inbox every few hours. They made me feel emotionally supported.