What would alien spectators taking notes on modern American society observe?
- Society is unsettled, and political compromises are fragile; yet those advocating actual violence are a minority (Adam Lee)
- Society has developed high principles to overcome tribal conflicts, but while many claim fidelity to those principles, they ignore them in practice, and rather outright lie to preserve their tribal identities. (Adam Serwer on “freedom of speech”; Trump and his supporters support violence; right wing media pushes lies about non-citizen voting; Paul Krugman on why Trump lies about disaster relief; MAGA influences lie about Buttigieg; Trump lies about his JPMorgan endorsement)
- Despite the scientific and technological progress of the species, many in the population reject such thinking and prefer intuitive, fantastical, conspiratorial thinking. (MTG on how “they” control the weather; a GOP conspiracy theorist who thinks her opposition are driven by demons)
And what would they conclude?
Those who would wreck society
Some of them, though perhaps only a very few of them, would wreck society if they cannot have their way. This appears to be some kind of base, animalistic response, as if every member of the species were driven simply by animalistic motivations to survive and reproduce; a disavowment of the capability of advanced creatures to diversify and learn to get along with others unlike themselves.
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- OnlySky, Adam Lee, 4 Oct 2024: Is the US headed for a cold civil war?, subtitled “A majority of Americans fear that political violence is imminent. But it may not take quite the form we imagine.” Responding to an Open Society Barometer report.
Some of the findings are reassuring. Worldwide, overwhelming majorities of people still desire to live in a democracy and value human rights as a force for good. Despite the clamor of the culture war, only a tiny minority opposes rights for migrants, LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups. The issues that people rank as their biggest concerns, like climate change and inequality, are real and legitimate.
On the other hand, there’s a small but non-trivial faction that pines for authoritarian rule. And while most people support democracy, there’s widespread skepticism about whether democratic states can deliver on their promises. It’s not surprising, in an age of polarization and collapsing trust, that we’re increasingly cynical about whether elected officials truly represent the public, whether they can deliver on their promises or even want to.
Further topics: negativity bias, Mitt Romney, the Right’s taste for violence, a cold civil war, the cult of personality.
The eventual death of Donald Trump will be the real test of whether the fascist fever on the right cools. The faction of Republicans champing at the bit for violence is devoted to him and him alone, with the fervor of religious fanatics following their messiah. He has no heir apparent, and so far, no other politician has shown the ability to capture his audience. When he passes from the scene, it’s possible that his cult will become rudderless, and will dissipate or splinter into infighting. The movement he founded has imperiled American democracy and America itself, but it may not survive him.
- OnlySky, Adam Lee, 4 Oct 2024: Is the US headed for a cold civil war?, subtitled “A majority of Americans fear that political violence is imminent. But it may not take quite the form we imagine.” Responding to an Open Society Barometer report.
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High principles are defied in favor of protecting tribal allegiance
High principles have been developed in an attempt to overcome tribalism, but while many in the population claim fidelity to these principles, in practice they ignore or defy them. Allegiance to the principles serves only as tokens of tribal membership. This tribal membership is so important, members justify to themselves outright lying, in violation of those principles.
- The Atlantic, Adam Serwer, 3 Oct 2024: What Conservatives Mean by ‘Freedom of Speech’, subtitled “They believe that right-wing speech should be sacrosanct, and liberal speech officially disfavored.”
“You can’t yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater. That’s the test. That’s the Supreme Court test,” Walz said.
“Tim. Fire in a crowded theater? You guys wanted to kick people off of Facebook for saying that toddlers should not wear masks,” Vance replied.
The equivalence that Vance draws between social-media moderation and Trump trying to stage a coup is ridiculous, but revealing in terms of how conservatives have come to conceive of free speech: They believe that right-wing speech should be sacrosanct, and liberal speech officially disfavored. Walz is simply wrong about the Supreme Court standard for what kind of speech can be outlawed, but the invocation of that archaic test does illustrate how safety can become an excuse for state censorship. It just so happens that social-media moderation is not state censorship, because social media is not the government.
Historical background follows.
So there was no fire, no crowd, and no theater. What actually happened was that some people had unpopular political beliefs and the government wanted to throw them in jail, and the Supreme Court said that was fine. That also happens to be the kind of thing that Trump wants to do as president, the kind of thing that the arch-conservative Supreme Court has decided he should have immunity for doing.
And then more background. The article concludes,
As for Walz, he foolishly cited an archaic standard that the Supreme Court has thankfully abandoned, one that in actuality shows how dangerous it can be for the government to pick and choose which speech is acceptable.
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His opponents Trump and Vance, however, do not think that such an approach is dangerous at all. A government that chooses which speech to punish and which to promote is their ideal situation, provided that they are the ones in charge. - The Nation, Sasha Abramsky, 4 Oct 2024: Trump—and His Supporters—Are Now Reveling in Blatantly Fascist Calls to Violence, subtitled “Trump’s base loves it not because the former president wants to fight crime but because he wants retribution.”. Invoking “the Duterte and Bolsonaro playbooks.”
Throughout his awful tenure, Rodrigo Duterte, former president of the Philippines, gloried in the extrajudicial killing of drug dealers, users, and other criminals; similarly, Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right ex-president of Brazil, pushed for the police—who killed 22,000 people in a five-year spree during Bolsonaro’s time in office, including 6,357 in 2019 alone—to gun down criminals “like cockroaches.”
Trump, in Erie, called for shoplifters to face “one really violent day” and “one rough hour” at the hands of the police, arguing that it was Democratic policy to coddle offenders, and that taking the gloves off in the fight against street crime was the only way to render communities safe again. In a rambling speech notable both for its utter lack of syntax and its extraordinary embrace of illegal violence by state and federal agents, Trump declared ruefully: “They’re [police officers] not allowed to do it, because the liberal left won’t let them do it….
- Media Matters, 4 Oct 2024: Right-wing cable news networks have pushed false claims about non-citizens voting relentlessly, subtitled “In the past three weeks, Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax together have made at least 141 baseless claims pushing falsehoods about noncitizen voting”
- NY Times, Paul Krugman, 3 Oct 2024: Why Trump Is Lying About Disaster Relief
[L]et me note that Trump has been a true innovator in political dishonesty. Lots of politicians have misrepresented their personal histories or the content of their policy proposals — Trump does that, too. But he has also constructed a whole dystopian fantasy world, trying to persuade voters that America is a nation with a collapsing economy overrun by violent immigrants.
In reality, America has low inflation and low unemployment, and the average worker’s purchasing power is higher than it was five years ago. Yes, some Americans are struggling, but that was as true when Trump was president as it is now.
At the same time, violent crime, homicides in particular, which rose significantly during Trump’s last year in office, has come down and appears to be continuing to fall.
Krugman’s point is that this line of attack seem to be “losing its political mojo.” So a “new fake source of fear and outrage” is needed. And so Trump attacks immigrants, and trash-talks America.
- Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin, 4 Oct 2024: Opinion | Trump is left with lies, both terrible and cruel. With many examples.
There are psychological explanations for his lying. There are historical and political explanations for his lying. But the consequences of his lies — stoking fear, hatred and distrust of democratic elections — are disastrous for democracy, which depends on a shared understanding of reality.
- LGBTQNation, Daniel Villareal, 4 Oct 2024: MAGA influencers spread lie claiming Pete Buttigieg is HIV-positive. Based on no evidence whatsoever, of course. Another example of spreading a lie and then belatedly claiming it was only “satire” or a “parody” (thus revealing the conservative sense of humor is malicious).
- JMG, 4 Oct 2024: JPMorgan: Trump Is Lying, Our CEO Didn’t Endorse Him. Trump claimed this on his Truth Social account, and hasn’t removed the post. “He knows that the rubes will never find out it’s a lie.”
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Much of the population does not believe in the science that has enabled the technological progress that has made their worldwide society possible.
Despite the advanced level of human culture, the underlying scientific and technological progress is rejected by much of the population, who prefer intuitive, fantastical, conspiratorial thinking. Virtually without exception, these beliefs are based on animus toward outsiders (i.e. tribalism, racism, xenophobia), and supernatural thinking combined with a misunderstanding of how the world actually works.
- Salon, Nandika Chatterjee, 4 Oct 2024: Marjorie Taylor Greene pushes conspiracy theory claiming “they” control the weather, subtitled “The Georgia Republican previously attributed wildfires to space lasers”
- Washington Post, Dana Milbank, 4 Oct 2024: Opinion | Who put these oddballs on the ballot? Could it be … Satan?, subtitled “GOP conspiracy theorist Michele Morrow is in a dead heat to become North Carolina’s top educator.”
“The evil, demon-possessed people who worship Satan have been using this to try to keep their youth,” Morrow said in a video she posted on Facebook in 2020. “They’ve been using it as a drug that is more powerful than street drugs. … It is gotten through children who are being tortured and know that they are about to die. Guys, this is deep, it is evil, and it is real. It is truly happening, and we have got to stop it.”
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Conveniently for our survey, these tendencies align, and many individuals within this species are aware of these alignments and even label themselves into categories to advertise their alignment. There is thus a continuum within the species on the third planet, with one end pushing the species “back” to basic tribal identity the prioritizing any behavior that promotes animalistic survival; the other end pushing the species “forward” in terms of great awareness the species’ place in the universe, and the overcoming of tribal allegiances in favor of abstract principles of freedom, equality, and liberty. It remains to be seen which social force will ultimately drive the species. Our surveys of similar species do not suggest an optimistic outcome.
