We've seen this before. These people might be eccentrics but their "mistrust" of empirical reality is a lie, a calculating tactic designed to manipulate followers.
Orwell saw this coming when in 1984 he wrote, "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
We've seen this before. These people might be eccentrics but their "mistrust" of empirical reality is a lie, a calculating tactic designed to manipulate followers.
Orwell saw this coming when in 1984 he wrote, "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
Hannah Arendt said in her last public interview, "What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie—a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days—but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please."
It's more than cynical, and it very dangerous to the people trying to pull it off. First, no lie is true just because it's echoed endlessly. Second, these liars depend absolutely on all the other liars in their phalanx keeping up the lie. That's impossible when they're all just opportunists and mutual competitors. Third, no matter how much they try to suppress and groom evidence, in this time in history, the sheer volume, availability, ubiquity, and utility of evidence is greater than ever, so the incentives and oppportunities for people to open their eyes for their own good are irresistible, sooner or later, for anyone with an ounce of sense; meaning that the intense competition inside the Right to secure the stupidest, most obtuse voters is the key to their next election. Keeping those voters in a constant state of mindlessness combined with visceral rage is impossible forever.
The rank-and-file GOP voters aren't an asset to their party. They're a threat to it, like a pile of dry tinder. One hurricane, one disaster, one more asshole deserting his freezing voters for Cancun could ignite them, and the Republicans suffer from all the hubris they need to make their voters see at last what Republicans in their districts have cost them. Resistance to empirical reality has never made it go away. Meanwhile, surrendering empiricism as a competitive weapon in politics, war, science, etc., has never been a winning tactic. Obtuse as the Democrats are, they might understand this soon.
We've seen this before. These people might be eccentrics but their "mistrust" of empirical reality is a lie, a calculating tactic designed to manipulate followers.
Orwell saw this coming when in 1984 he wrote, "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
Hannah Arendt said in her last public interview, "What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie—a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days—but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please."
It's more than cynical, and it very dangerous to the people trying to pull it off. First, no lie is true just because it's echoed endlessly. Second, these liars depend absolutely on all the other liars in their phalanx keeping up the lie. That's impossible when they're all just opportunists and mutual competitors. Third, no matter how much they try to suppress and groom evidence, in this time in history, the sheer volume, availability, ubiquity, and utility of evidence is greater than ever, so the incentives and oppportunities for people to open their eyes for their own good are irresistible, sooner or later, for anyone with an ounce of sense; meaning that the intense competition inside the Right to secure the stupidest, most obtuse voters is the key to their next election. Keeping those voters in a constant state of mindlessness combined with visceral rage is impossible forever.
The rank-and-file GOP voters aren't an asset to their party. They're a threat to it, like a pile of dry tinder. One hurricane, one disaster, one more asshole deserting his freezing voters for Cancun could ignite them, and the Republicans suffer from all the hubris they need to make their voters see at last what Republicans in their districts have cost them. Resistance to empirical reality has never made it go away. Meanwhile, surrendering empiricism as a competitive weapon in politics, war, science, etc., has never been a winning tactic. Obtuse as the Democrats are, they might understand this soon.