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Useful and interesting references Here is an excellent article that explains HOW Qanonsense works to corrode and corrupt its followers' minds. A Game Designer’s Analysis Of QAnon Playing with reality Written by Reed Berkowitz Sept 30, 2020 https://medium.com/curiouserinstitute/a-game-designers-analysis-of-qanon-580972548be5 It is "A game that plays people." Scattershot programs all with the same message and the same end-game. To doubt reality. To create the fog of war without the war. To create a collectively shared reality that they directly control. Why People Believe in Conspiracy Theories They’re not stupid. By John Ehrenreich Jan 11, 2021 https://slate.com/technology/2021/01/conspiracy-theories-coronavirus-fake-psychology.html Conspiracy theories arise in the context of fear, anxiety, mistrust, uncertainty, and feelings of powerlessness. … For those who feel that everything is spinning out of control, a narrative that explains their feelings and encloses them within a safe community of believers comes as a soothing relief. I Spent 4 Years Trying To Understand Trump-Voting Abuse Survivors. Here’s What I Learned. By Meg Stone executive director of IMPACT Boston, an organization that works to prevent abuse by giving people the skills to keep themselves and others safe. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-women-voted-for-trump_n_5fcfe391c5b6787f2a9b7c98?ncid=APPLENEWS00001 I never found my way to any magical common ground that is supposed to unite us in spite of our political differences. [As a child, she was raped by a leader of her church.] She was always afraid of being raped again. That’s why she chose Trump. He promised to close our borders, and secure borders made her feel safe. When she was married, she compromised to keep the peace. Trump inspired her to reclaim her power. The American Abyss A historian of fascism and political atrocity on Trump, the mob and what comes next. By Professor Timothy Snyder, Yale University, Jan. 9, 2021 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/magazine/trump-coup.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage&fbclid=IwAR3tDhE7yWIjAujLDU8ROkWn8a4pU29Pk1EsEUwVozuyctD8V7mnl97keco The Republican Party is a coalition of two types of people: those who would game the system (most of the politicians, some of the voters) and those who dream of breaking it (a few of the politicians, many of the voters). The Trial of Donald Trump Must Tell the Full Story of the Capitol Insurrection By Masha Gessen January 15, 2021 https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-trial-of-donald-trump-must-tell-the-full-story-of-the-capitol-insurrection Wednesday’s impeachment hearing, like the first, was legible only through one of two frames: either Trump organized an attempted coup and was being impeached for it, or, as Rep. Jim Jordan claimed, “It’s always been about getting the President no matter what. It’s an obsession.” Jill Lepore wrote, “Any formulation is a non-starter if it diminishes the culpability of people in positions of power who perpetrated the lie that the election was stolen.” The task before the Senate, then, ought to be to produce the first draft of those history books. Trump Must Be Held Accountable By Benjamin Wallace-Wells January 8, 2021 https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-importance-of-holding-trump-accountable-for-the-capitol-hill-insurrection?itm_content=footer-recirc Impunity has defined Trump’s Presidency. If he remains unpunished, his antidemocratic movement will persist in mainstream American culture. … The MAGA movement shares with the Lost Cause (Civil War Secession) a rejection of historical fact, a consuming cult of personality, and a valorization of violence. Policy and Politics - what do you think?
5 Comments
Curmudgeon
1/13/2021 06:40:58 am
Bruce, it’s a great piece, well thought out and clearly expressed. You’re more optimistic, maybe more evolved, than me. I share your instinct towards compassion, but only in theory: I don’t feel it. You ask “How can we help them [trump’s supporters] fulfill their psychological need to be loved, included and special, yet dissuade them from similar bad action?” I don’t give a damn about “their psychological need to be loved, included and special”! Although I’m sure such fulfillment, even partial, would be highly desirable, and is likely the only way out of the present disaster. And I don’t have a better answer. In short, I’m less sanguine, maybe less evolved, than you.... Thanks for a fine and thoughtful read!
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Donna M Levy
1/13/2021 08:28:52 am
I would consider "America as a community of equals" an unattainable ideal, never a reality. As a former teacher, I witnessed many lower performers in constant search for students who had greater difficulty in learning than they did. Then they ridiculed the more learning disabled in public and laughed at their deficits. However, despite the disparities, we can still insist on equality under the law. This is something we can and must uphold in reality.
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1/13/2021 10:11:57 am
I believe the only thing that can save humanity at this stage of our evolution is that there is an awakening in a critical number of us as to our true nature. Our obsession with matter blinds us to the reality that matter is essentially energy and there is only one source of that energy. Consciousness. And there is only one consciousness. It knows no separation. It utterly lacks "otherness". That's real love. That's our true nature.
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Janet Takata
1/14/2021 11:17:07 am
The kernel of your piece is "if we were to embrace them". What exactly/specifically/practically do you mean by "embrace"?
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Pat Coleman
1/16/2021 05:24:47 pm
Hi Bruce,
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AuthorWith over seven decades of experience - feeling the hopes and disappointments of policies, seeing the idealism and disgust of politics - some of the things Bruce Joffe has learned in life may be wisdom, others may be delusion. ... You decide. Categories - select the topics that interest you
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