I read a shocking true story a few days ago about how N. Korea was kidnapping Japanese citizens, and when this conspiracy gained traction among the public (based on a few eyewitnesses), the Japanese gov’t dismissed the theory as unfounded. N. Korea later apologized, thereby revealing the conspiracy was true. I shared the story with a MAGA friend, who immediately pointed out how this was more evidence that her conspiratorial worldview was correct. I admitted to her that she was the first person I thought about when I read the story and we both laughed. But I have made the point to her that if every conspiracy theory were true, then it would be virtually impossible to falsify any conspiracy theory because you could simply patch every inconsistency with another conspiracy, not to mention that many conspiracy theories conflict with each other.
I can’t exactly put my finger on why, but in listening, I just felt something was missing from the analysis. It may be partly that there seems to be an underlying assumption of “MAGA insanity” that tends to drive this discussion a certain way—where I would say that unhinged perspectives exist on both the right and the left right now. I do agree that our present circumstances should not be ascribed to a single cause.
The current situation in the US has been a long time in the making, and many dark forces have been at work. We have also experienced more than one collective trauma in fairly short succession—9/11 brought home that we are not protected in the way we once thought from the wider world; the 2008 financial crisis shook the foundations of the belief that if you work hard and play by the rules you will be able to have a decent life; and even as many had not fully recovered from that, the pandemic hit—with a cascade of ill effects that are still not fully recognized. All through this, our government, hamstrung by what has turned out to be a Rube Goldberg constitutional structure, has barely functioned. It’s not surprising that people all along the political spectrum feel lost in a fun house and don’t know where to turn for explanations that are comprehensible, let alone for relief.
Recently, I’ve been reading a lot of history, from Ancient Rome to medieval times, to the run-up to WWI, as well as Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism, searching for clues. As we are often admonished, we must be careful not to engage in “presentism,” yet a sort of pattern does emerge, at least in broad strokes: in extremely simple-minded terms, in times of huge stress, people can easily go crazy. How we get out of this, I don’t know, though as one aspect, I definitely endorse Dan’s emphasis on persuasion. I wouldn’t quite call it “rational persuasion,” but rather engagement in conversation with an open mind and heart, listening for and pursuing areas of common ground. In my experience in both union and political organizing over many years, with patience and persistence, connections can often be made. It’s tremendously hard work, but the payoff can be immense.
I probably linked to this book before but it more than any other stands out in my mind in terms of addressing the challenge of rational persuasion.
The Myth of the Closed Mind: Explaining why and how People are Rational https://share.google/2Icjt2Ezsz1lZAINH
I read a shocking true story a few days ago about how N. Korea was kidnapping Japanese citizens, and when this conspiracy gained traction among the public (based on a few eyewitnesses), the Japanese gov’t dismissed the theory as unfounded. N. Korea later apologized, thereby revealing the conspiracy was true. I shared the story with a MAGA friend, who immediately pointed out how this was more evidence that her conspiratorial worldview was correct. I admitted to her that she was the first person I thought about when I read the story and we both laughed. But I have made the point to her that if every conspiracy theory were true, then it would be virtually impossible to falsify any conspiracy theory because you could simply patch every inconsistency with another conspiracy, not to mention that many conspiracy theories conflict with each other.
I can’t exactly put my finger on why, but in listening, I just felt something was missing from the analysis. It may be partly that there seems to be an underlying assumption of “MAGA insanity” that tends to drive this discussion a certain way—where I would say that unhinged perspectives exist on both the right and the left right now. I do agree that our present circumstances should not be ascribed to a single cause.
The current situation in the US has been a long time in the making, and many dark forces have been at work. We have also experienced more than one collective trauma in fairly short succession—9/11 brought home that we are not protected in the way we once thought from the wider world; the 2008 financial crisis shook the foundations of the belief that if you work hard and play by the rules you will be able to have a decent life; and even as many had not fully recovered from that, the pandemic hit—with a cascade of ill effects that are still not fully recognized. All through this, our government, hamstrung by what has turned out to be a Rube Goldberg constitutional structure, has barely functioned. It’s not surprising that people all along the political spectrum feel lost in a fun house and don’t know where to turn for explanations that are comprehensible, let alone for relief.
Recently, I’ve been reading a lot of history, from Ancient Rome to medieval times, to the run-up to WWI, as well as Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism, searching for clues. As we are often admonished, we must be careful not to engage in “presentism,” yet a sort of pattern does emerge, at least in broad strokes: in extremely simple-minded terms, in times of huge stress, people can easily go crazy. How we get out of this, I don’t know, though as one aspect, I definitely endorse Dan’s emphasis on persuasion. I wouldn’t quite call it “rational persuasion,” but rather engagement in conversation with an open mind and heart, listening for and pursuing areas of common ground. In my experience in both union and political organizing over many years, with patience and persistence, connections can often be made. It’s tremendously hard work, but the payoff can be immense.