It seems to me that the simplest way to summarise the heart of political polarisation in America is that:
a. Republicans, especially Trump supporters, think the Democrats are evil;
b. Democrats think Republicans, especially your "average" MAGA members, are dumb.
And being "dumb" at some level explains why Republicans are more susceptible to conspiracy belief. It is pretty obvious that the rush of Democrat conspiracies on Twitter yesterday that the assassination looked staged (no doubt based in large part on Trump instantly turning it into political theatre) will not last - especially given that one unfortunate guy was killed. By comparison, MAGA Republican conspiracies last forever.
Now, of course, any over-simplification is not perfect, but I think the "dumb" vs "evil" is broadly accurate, and explains why Republican rhetoric is so much more dangerous to the unity of America: you respond to "dumb" by education and better information; but "pure evil" is readily seen as deserving of violence and death.
That they are "dumb" also means that it is so easy for them to completely ignore the implicit "authorisation for violence" that is obvious to the rest of the world when your political leadership goes on for years about a fantasy "deep state" that wants to "destroy" you, the mainstream media being "the enemy of the people", conspiracies about elections having been rigged so as to prevent your rightful winner taking power, and illegal immigrants being cast as a group chock-full of murderous and violent intent against the "good" people who happen to have been born in America.
And the ease with which they are manipulated means they are so easily "self-gaslite", inverting the entirely reasonable warnings of Democrats and centrists (that the side that seeks revenge for their conspiracy beliefs by way of everything from show trials, mass public service sackings, rounding up of millions of people into internment camps, etc etc is the side that is a danger to democracy) into "Democrat rhetoric is leading to assassination attempts - it must stop."
So "dumb" - and so obvious that history is going to record them as mad and easily manipulated - but they can't see it because of the information bubble they live in and the bad faith motivation of the rich and cynical who sustain it.
Update: examples from just now to support this post...
12 comments:
Actually I think trump is evil in a satanic sense.
Trump gave us post truth. Where people won't believe in facts.
Once you get this which is a variation of post modernism you get people accepting anything.
It might explain why most yanks believe why the stock market is down when it is at record highs, why they think unemployment is at record highs not record lows and why they think inflation is rising not falling
But Democrats, being less religious than Republicans, are way, way less likely to use the term "evil". "Dangerous" - yes. But "dangerous" doesn't carry the implicit justification for violence to stop it that "evil" does.
On Catallaxy someone suggested the shooter was a tool for the deep state. Sure, the deep state chose a 20 year old loner with no weapons experience. The amount of noise in modern political analysis is dangerous and misleads too many people. Facts are becoming irrelevant, the goal is not to seek the truth, it is to control the narrative for political purposes. To some extent that has always existed but now people are often just shouting at each other.
Hey John, I actually laughed at how mad old Cassie at New Catallaxy seemed overcome with sexual attraction to Trump following his bad day yesterday.
Didn't catch that Steve. I avoid reading her comments. She's damaged goods.
sign of the times. attracted to obese stupid old men
John: it's worth scrolling back up to read it. She said she would marry him if polygamy was allowed, he's such an alpha male. (I'm not making it up.) In fact, if I have time, I might paste the whole comment here tomorrow!
Steve said...
John: it's worth scrolling back up to read it. She said she would marry him if polygamy was allowed, he's such an alpha male. (I'm not making it up.) In fact, if I have time, I might paste the whole comment here tomorrow!
Won't bother scrolling back. She writes long screeds, is so intense and IIRC lacking humour. She previously described Trump as saintly. She spews bile at so many people and groups, given her heritage a very strange and disturbing behavior.
The average Maga guy is almost as smart as John and a lot smarter than Steve. Steve quotes a lot of schedule-Billy’s as if they were wise men.
Shtetl Billy’s
The rooftop poser was not a shooter. Nor was he Crooks. That’s not how deep state hits work.
There were four shooters. Some of the shots were made as mere sound cover. A deep state hit isn’t a shooters competition or a mode of warfare. It’s a magic trick. A magicians trick. Think David Copperfield. But since it’s not just the man and his well trained assistant things can go horribly wrong.
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