Facing the Truth in Our New Political Climate

found online by Raymond

 
From Jonathan Bernstein:

We can’t specifically connect individual actions to the overall political atmosphere, just as we can’t specifically conclude that a specific hurricane is the consequence of climate change. Perhaps the bigots in Kentucky and Pittsburgh would have acted anyway; perhaps in a different political climate, the attempted bomber would have found other targets.

What we can do, however, is face the climate honestly. And the truth is that people who watch the news within the Republican-aligned media, and listen to Republican politicians including the president of the United States, are being fed a nonstop diet of crazy conspiracy theories and phony scare stories.

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5 thoughts on “Facing the Truth in Our New Political Climate”

  1. Liberal fearmongering generally involves more than a little truth: Republicans do (or did) want to deny gays the right to marriage, outlaw abortion, make cuts to (or eliminate) Social Security and Medicare, dismantle the ACA, eliminate various regulations designed to protect public health and consumers, promote and legislate their version of Christianity more, and much more. Trump has gone even further by attacking our allies, attacking the media, praising physical violence, withdrawing from agreements, etc.

    Conservative fearmongering just isn’t as intimidating without exaggeration. We can’t just want better gun control laws; we have to want to take away all the guns. We can’t just want gay people to be able to marry; we have to want to destroy the family and hurt children and exterminate Christianity. We can’t just want to help people who are worse off and fleeing bad conditions; we have to be supporting an invasion from people who want to destroy our way of life. We can’t just want our government to do a better job of protecting us; we have to want to give up all our rights to a nanny state. We can’t just want to make cuts to the military because we think it gets too much funding; we have to hate the troops. We can’t just want to extend equality to minorities; we have to want to destroy straight white Christians altogether. We can’t just want to address climate change; we have to want to undermine vital American industries. Conservative fearmongering is constant dialed-to-11, end-of-the-world, pure good vs. pure evil nonsense.

    These people already have exceptionally low standards for truth. Many of them also fancy themselves warriors for God and/or country. It is a wonder that there are still so few attempts on the lives of people simply for being Democrats.

    1. Ryan,

      Thank you for the clear road map of the far Right’s propaganda MO. I want to quote you on this.

      The propaganda machinery of the Right has been seizing control of the narrative, redefining words, questioning patriotism, and demonizing opposition through lies, distraction, deflection, and other authoritarian tactics. This has been their goal for decades, and they are now bearing this toxic and fetid fruit of FOX(R), hate radio, and the Party of Trump.

      It would be great if you were to set up your own blog, or better yet, write a book. Your insight should be shared more broadly.

      1. Thanks for the kind words.

        I used to have a blog (Secular Ethics) where I covered moral theory, religious arguments, and logical fallacies, but I ran out of steam. As for an explicitly political blog, I don’t think that I have the historical or contemporary knowledge to contribute anything that others aren’t already, except perhaps an occasional novel critique of some argument. My psychological health is undoubtedly better off anyway if I limit my consumption of political news and opinion in these times.

        As to the point: These tactics have successfully shifted the debate from “what should our government do?” to “should our government do anything at all?” It is an undertaking in itself to convince people that some policy is not bad in itself just because liberals support it or it has been labeled something like “socialist.” It therefore takes that much more effort to convince people that the policy could be good, to get them to stick with it if it doesn’t work perfectly at first, etc. The “government = bad” (except, of course, when it’s hurting my enemies) axiom has served them very well and is one of the greatest obstacles to bipartisanship and progress.

          1. He has always very clearly cared about power (his own or that of the GOP) above all else. I suspect he remains convinced that wild animals have profound political lessons for us because he himself is but a pig in the mud.

            He is definitely one of my most hated political figures. What intellect he has (and it is by no means as great as he boasts) does not make up for his utter lack of decency.

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