On a cigarette break outside their small business in Ozaukee County, Tina Arthur and Marcella Frank told me they plan to vote for Trump again because they are deeply alarmed by “the cabal.” They’ve heard “numerous reports” that the COVID-19 tents set up in New York and California were actually for children who had been rescued from underground sex-trafficking tunnels. Arthur and Frank explained they’re not followers of QAnon. Frank says she spends most of her free time researching child sex trafficking, while Arthur adds that she often finds this information on the Russian-owned search engine Yandex. Frank’s eyes fill with tears as she describes what she’s found: children who are being raped and tortured so that “the cabal” can “extract their blood and drink it.” She says Trump has seized the blood on the black market as part of his fight against the cabal. “I think if Biden wins, the world is over, basically,” adds Arthur. “I would honestly try to leave the country. And if that wasn’t an option, I would probably take my children and sit in the garage and turn my car on and it would be over.”
Here's the bottom line - we have to confront this lunacy head on. Ignoring it, mocking it, or hoping it goes away simply doesn't work. I've learned through a lot of frustration, anger, and pain that the only effective way to combat this type of insanity is to engage directly, consistently, and firmly with people who think in this manner. It's important to listen deeply, let them spin out their tales, then deconstruct their arguments very persistently and thoroughly until they relent and re-consider their beliefs. This can take a lot of time and effort, but it can be done.
Doing this is not easy and will be extremely challenging politically across the whole country. The task for liberals and the Democratic party is to promote explicit explanations of why wearing masks is necessary, and to develop a comprehensive media structures to support these explanations. Otherwise, this nonsense will continue to metastasize and the Republicans. RW media propaganda, and the Russians will exploit it for their one nefarious purposes.
Even if Mr. Biden is elected (as I hope he will be--I've already voted for him) I'm concerned that when people behave the way the mobs in St. George, Utah and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, at a Target, how is such reckless behavior going to be dealt with by the government. How will such crime be prevented or punished? I fear we're in for some continued scary and unhealthy times no matter what. The US is becoming a more dangerous country for all people as it has been for people of color and religions different from what people claim to be christianity.
Didn't read the article. Didn't have to. The headline said all I needed to know. I do NOT refuse to wear a mask because I am afraid to be punished by my group. FFS there are so few around me who refuse to be intimidated into wearing a mask. I encourage my fellowship to stop wearing them and to resist the forced decrees. I have a real solution to ending the conspiracy theories: let people go back to church. People need hope for the future. Where best to encourage hope? In the house of God. Keeping people away from church is causing the belief in conspiracy theories because they find hope for the future in them. They see the present as a shit storm and need to see a brighter tomorrow.
Along the same lines, "Maskless Flash Mob at Target!" in Ft. Lauderdale yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW4wd_tzTY8
But this is just one aspect of the crazy far-right conspiracy theories, as a John has noted. Excellent Time Mag article by Charlotte Alter:
"How Conspiracy Theories Are Shaping the 2020 Election—and Shaking the Foundation of American Democracy”
https://time.com/5887437/conspiracy-theories-2020-election/
Excerpt:
On a cigarette break outside their small business in Ozaukee County, Tina Arthur and Marcella Frank told me they plan to vote for Trump again because they are deeply alarmed by “the cabal.” They’ve heard “numerous reports” that the COVID-19 tents set up in New York and California were actually for children who had been rescued from underground sex-trafficking tunnels. Arthur and Frank explained they’re not followers of QAnon. Frank says she spends most of her free time researching child sex trafficking, while Arthur adds that she often finds this information on the Russian-owned search engine Yandex. Frank’s eyes fill with tears as she describes what she’s found: children who are being raped and tortured so that “the cabal” can “extract their blood and drink it.” She says Trump has seized the blood on the black market as part of his fight against the cabal. “I think if Biden wins, the world is over, basically,” adds Arthur. “I would honestly try to leave the country. And if that wasn’t an option, I would probably take my children and sit in the garage and turn my car on and it would be over.”
Here's the bottom line - we have to confront this lunacy head on. Ignoring it, mocking it, or hoping it goes away simply doesn't work. I've learned through a lot of frustration, anger, and pain that the only effective way to combat this type of insanity is to engage directly, consistently, and firmly with people who think in this manner. It's important to listen deeply, let them spin out their tales, then deconstruct their arguments very persistently and thoroughly until they relent and re-consider their beliefs. This can take a lot of time and effort, but it can be done.
Doing this is not easy and will be extremely challenging politically across the whole country. The task for liberals and the Democratic party is to promote explicit explanations of why wearing masks is necessary, and to develop a comprehensive media structures to support these explanations. Otherwise, this nonsense will continue to metastasize and the Republicans. RW media propaganda, and the Russians will exploit it for their one nefarious purposes.
Even if Mr. Biden is elected (as I hope he will be--I've already voted for him) I'm concerned that when people behave the way the mobs in St. George, Utah and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, at a Target, how is such reckless behavior going to be dealt with by the government. How will such crime be prevented or punished? I fear we're in for some continued scary and unhealthy times no matter what. The US is becoming a more dangerous country for all people as it has been for people of color and religions different from what people claim to be christianity.
American Cultural Individualism...another word for denial.
John, you analysis is very close to one I read days ago from a Harvard professor. The divisions Trump is promoting among Americans require signs and symbols - not unlike the neck tattoos of street gangs. They have to be obvious and divisive so as to bond the "us" from "them". Here is a link; https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/09/a-look-at-how-trumps-pointed-rhetoric-binds-him-to-his-tribe-and-it-to-him/?
Didn't read the article. Didn't have to. The headline said all I needed to know. I do NOT refuse to wear a mask because I am afraid to be punished by my group. FFS there are so few around me who refuse to be intimidated into wearing a mask. I encourage my fellowship to stop wearing them and to resist the forced decrees. I have a real solution to ending the conspiracy theories: let people go back to church. People need hope for the future. Where best to encourage hope? In the house of God. Keeping people away from church is causing the belief in conspiracy theories because they find hope for the future in them. They see the present as a shit storm and need to see a brighter tomorrow.