Wednesday, March 08, 2017

Bubble world

Surely this is what it feels like to an outsider visiting North Korea and hearing everyone endorsing how great their Dear Leader is doing?   Being told how He will protect them from the nefarious forces that want to harm them?

Because I have never seen anything like the self delusion that is accompanying those endorsing Trump.   Look at Steve Kates, with this fantasy today:
I don’t know whether this was what Trump intended but the stories about Russian hacking the election have gone absolutely dead, as have almost all stories related to Obama having placed some kind of phone surveillance on Donald Trump himself. Having become blindingly clear that the Obama White House had indeed initiated that surveillance, with the virtual certainty that none of it would have been done without Obama’s complicity, the entire episode seems to have vanished into air. Since there is nothing that can any longer be used in bringing Trump down, it has gone into hibernation across the media and will remain that way unless something happens that the left and the media believe can again be used to undermine Trump.

This is part of what disturbs me about the blog support network on the right. It is entirely defensive. A story that was utterly preposterous, that Trump and his associates had collaborated with the Russians was, and is, treated as a genuine issue that needs to be sorted out, rather than as a pathetic and disgusting ploy by a bunch of leftist loons and their scribes to harm Trump and short circuit his election.
The only way this can possibly be explained is that he lives in an absolute self imposed information bubble - only reading news from Fox or Breitbart (or worse) that he knows in advance will align with his pro-Trump stance.

In totalitarian states, the State has to impose the media control that leads to such brainwashing - in the West, citizens gleefully impose it on themselves, building self reinforcing belief systems impervious to outside information - because it is, by definition, not to be trusted.

The other thing to note is the paranoia and siege mentality involved - Kates is always beating it up into a "end of civilisation" crisis if Trump (or at least Republicans) lose control of their country.   And, indeed, Bannon is known as a "clash of civilisations" panic merchant, and Trump will use that language when it suits. 

As for Kates' claim that no one is talking about the Trump Obama tweets now, he obviously cares not to observe twitter on matters Trump, or read the NYT, where this account of Trump's mad tweeting Saturday was given (again, apparently leaked by people close to him):
That led to a succession of frantic staff conference calls, including one consultation with the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, as staff members grasped the reality that the president had opened an attack on his predecessor.
Mr. Trump, advisers said, was in high spirits after he fired off the posts. But by midafternoon, after returning from golf, he appeared to realize he had gone too far, although he still believed Mr. Obama had wiretapped him, according to two people in Mr. Trump’s orbit.
He sounded defiant in conversations at Mar-a-Lago with his friend Christopher Ruddy, the chief executive of Newsmax Media, Mr. Ruddy said. In other conversations that afternoon, the president sounded uncertain of the procedure for obtaining a warrant for secret wiretaps on an American citizen.
Mr. Trump also canvassed some aides and associates about whether an investigator, even one outside the government, could substantiate his charge.
Kates in his bubble world wouldn't have heard of this...

12 comments:

not trampis said...

He is mad.

John said...

Kates is one person where people are justified making a psychiatric diagnosis from afar. Schizotypal. How about just plain barking mad.

Jason Soon said...

you're skating with libel laws hosting those comments, steve

Steve said...

Really? Would be extremely rich, a threat of defamation action coming from someone who posts at Catallaxy - the most defamatory rich blog threads on the Australian blogosphere, probably.

Do people really take blog comments that someone is "mad" or "plain barking mad" as meaning, literally, "is suffering psychiatric illness"? And John's not a psychiatrist, so I wouldn't think anyone would take his comment on "schizotypal" to heart, either.




not trampis said...

I am amazed Soony QC didn't talk about your article. writing fantasy , being paranoid sounds bad to me.

Paul Montgomery said...

The discovery process in a libel suit about Kates' sanity would be fascinating.

Jason Soon said...

I think general insults with levity like the nutty professor are fine but attempts to actually diagnose using serious terminology are bordering on risky. I agree every third comment on catallaxy may well be asking for trouble ...

Steve said...

monty's comment reminds me of the Marx Brothers courtroom scene with the line "Sanity clause? There is no sanity clause!"

Steve said...

Speaking of Marx Brothers - I have a feeling that Marx Brothers familiarity may be completely slipping out of pop culture consciousness in the next generation - my two teenage kids have no idea who they are and show no inclination to want to watch them, despite my explanation of their fame for a good half of the last century. There movies are available on Google Play. (DVDs have always been hard to track down in shops, for some reason.)

Steve said...

Their movies, not there...

not trampis said...

Marx Brothers now you are talking. The kiddies iof today sohlud be made to watch them. Imagine a movie that is funny and no swearing!

John said...

Kates is to logic as black holes are to photons: no emissions.
Kates has the dendritic density of aplysia and the neural complexity of c. elegans.
Kates is so dim he couldn't be employed as a candle.
Kates is so right wing he never makes left hand turns.
Kates so loves Trump I'm surprised he hasn't had a deed poll name change.
Kates so hates Left wingers I'm surprised he hasn't amputated his left arm.
Kates has such complete hemispatial neglect of his left side that he is endlessly going in circles.