Many people around the world were shocked in the aftermath of World War II. How could “polite” society break down so utterly, so swiftly, and so zealously? Why did authoritarian personality traits come to dominate human affairs, seemingly out of nowhere? How thin is this veneer of civilization, really?
The authoritarian personality is characterized by excessive strictness and a propensity to exhibit oppressive behavior towards perceived subordinates. On the flip side, they treat authority figures with mindless obedience and unquestioning compliance. They also have an aversion to difference, ambiguity, complexity, and diversity.
How did they get this way? Are people born with authoritarian personalities, or is the authoritarian “made” predominately by circumstance?
Authoritarian personality studies
A braintrust of scholars, public servants, authors, psychologists, and others have been analyzing these questions ever since. Some of the most prominent thinkers on the subject of authoritarianism were either themselves affected by the Nazi regime, or lived through the war in some capacity. Other more recent contributions have built on those original foundations, refining and extending them as more new history continues to unfold with right-wing behavior to observe.
Gerrymandering is a political tactic used to manipulate the boundaries of electoral districts to favor one political party over another. It’s essentially the opposite of what the Founders meant by representative democracy — voters are supposed to choose their representatives, and not the other way around.
The practice is named after Elbridge Gerry, a governor of Massachusetts who in 1812 approved a redistricting plan that created a district that resembled a salamander. The term “gerrymandering” combines the words “Gerry” and “salamander.”
The objective of gerrymandering is to create “safe” districts for a particular political party or group by concentrating voters who are likely to support that party into a small number of districts, while diluting their votes in other districts. This is done by drawing district boundaries in a way that groups together like-minded voters or separates them from voters who are likely to vote for the opposing party. It’s a way of cherry-picking one’s constituents, and manipulating the outcome unfairly in your favor — with one net effect being the dilution of the voting rights of your opposition.
Gerrymandering is typically carried out by state legislatures, who have the authority to redraw electoral district boundaries every ten years after the release of the Census data. The redistricting process is supposed to ensure that each district has roughly the same number of residents, but lawmakers often use this opportunity to manipulate the boundaries in a way that benefits their party.
Partisan and racial gerrymandering
There are two main types of gerrymandering: partisan gerrymandering and racial gerrymandering. Partisan gerrymandering is when district boundaries are drawn in a way that benefits one political party over another. Racial gerrymandering is when district boundaries are drawn in a way that dilutes the voting power of racial minorities — which, in turn, tends to help the Republican Party and hurt the Democratic Party.
Partisan gerrymandering can be carried out in several ways. One common method is “packing,” which involves drawing district boundaries so that a high concentration of voters who support one party are all in one district. This leaves other districts with fewer voters who support that party, making it easier for the opposing party to win those districts. Another method is “cracking,” which involves breaking up a concentration of voters who support one party by drawing district boundaries so that they are spread out across multiple districts. This dilutes their voting power and makes it harder for them to win any of those districts.
Racial gerrymandering is usually carried out to dilute the voting power of racial minorities, particularly African Americans and Hispanics. This is done by drawing district boundaries that split up minority communities and dilute their voting power by spreading them across multiple districts. Racial gerrymandering is illegal under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race.
Effects of gerrymandering
The effects of gerrymandering can be significant. By manipulating district boundaries, lawmakers can create a situation where one party has a significant advantage over the other, making it easier for them to win elections. This can lead to a lack of political competition, which can make it harder for voters to hold their elected officials accountable. In other words, gerrymandering can lead to increased corruption in government at all levels.
Gerrymandering also has the potential to create a lack of diversity in government. By concentrating voters of a particular political party or race into a small number of districts, lawmakers can create a situation where the views and interests of some voters are not represented in government. This can lead to a situation where elected officials are not truly representative of their constituents — which is the essence of the American Dream.
Efforts to combat gerrymandering have included legal challenges to redistricting plans, the use of independent redistricting commissions, and the adoption of alternative voting systems like ranked-choice voting. Despite these efforts, gerrymandering remains a significant issue in many states, and its effects can be seen in elections at all levels of government, from school boards to Congress to the White House.
We glibly believed it could never happen here even though we’ve been warned again and again. And in some sense, even though it’s been here all along — hiding in plain sight. It could happen here, and it did, because it’s happened here before. This dictionary of American authoritarianism collects definitions and charts the rise of language, ideology, tactics, and historical movements of American authoritarians, to arm us with the knowledge we need to understand the tricks of the trade.
For a long time it was convenient to think of authoritarian personality as primarily a European problem, or in any case, a phenomenon that happened elsewhere. We are still waking up (…again) to the scope and depth of the problem, while anti-government groups organize relatively openly and we have yet to see justice for the January 6 attack on our capital. There is much work to be done, and in the meantime we can always continue to educate ourselves about our nation’s history — and the role of slavery, white nationalism, and racism in the shaping of the country and the future class structure of today’s America.
The myth of white innocence is toxic to this understanding. Those who say they “don’t see” race or “don’t want to talk about” race put their white privilege on full display in demanding their right to opt-out of the discussion on race. They’re not interested in having a discussion on race — they’re interested in silencing events like the Tulsa Race Massacre and ensuring we lack the language even to describe the horrors being visited upon human beings by the silencers. The only “discussion” they want to have about the matter is spoken in the words of Smith & Wesson, Chapter AR-15.
American Authoritarianism
White supremacy, in fact, in part inspired Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. In turn, the Nazis inspired the original America First movement at the hands of Charles Lindbergh, a notoriously avowed anti-Semite who vociferously opposed America’s involvement in World War II. Lindbergh and the other early movement conservative extremists lost the battle, and the Allies won the war — thus, fascism as an ideology was defeated in the popular mind for a goodly while.
But prejudice and bigotry are beasts that never sleep — only fitfully slumber and simmer beneath the surface. Bigotry has been rebuilding covertly for years and decades, if it can even be said to have gone away. America has always had its strain of autocratic fascination — and that strain of authoritarianism began flirting with what became fascism in the 20th century. The extremists yearning for a consummation of American fascism have continued to work diligently for almost a century, and have now largely succeeded in injecting a virulent form of nationalism, xenophobia, and isolationism into mainstream GOP politics in the 21st century.
The election of Donald Trump in 2016 seemed to unleash these latent forces that have been amassing since the Reagan years, growing more virulent during the 1990s. From Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich of yesteryear to Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ron DeSantis today, the American right-wing is more and more overtly appealing to anti-democratic methods and ideologies — and no longer seem to be regarded as the kooks and cranks of the Republican Party as their equivalents were during the John Birch Society era.
Authoritarianism Dictionary
I’ll be adding to this authoritarianism dictionary over time, as I can chip away at it and as new words get added to the lexicon. It’s highly encouraging that the American people were able to throw off the would-be dictator Trump, but the Republican party continues to press their seditious aims in his name. They continue to trade on the Confederate ideals long defeated, discredited, and dishonored in this nation. Let’s educate each other on the techniques being used against us by the powerful to limit our frames, and to inhibit our awareness, our choices, and our awareness of our choices.
The hour is late, and we must act with all haste.
Term
Topic
Definition
1st Amendment
government
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
2nd Amendment
government
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
13th Amendment
white supremacy
The Amendment that put an end to slavery. It was passed by Congress and ratified by 2/3 of the states in 1865.
14th Amendment
white supremacy
The second Constitutional Amendment passed following the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to freed African American former slaves, along with equal civil and legal rights as specified in the Constitution.
15th Amendment
white supremacy
Third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments, the Fifteenth gave African Americans the right to vote -- and prohibited any type of voter discrimination on the basis of race.
19th Amendment
misogyny
The woman's Suffrage Amendment gave women the right to vote in the United States.
4chan
alt-Right
A notorious internet message board with an unruly culture capable of trolling, pranks, and crimes.
4GW
Fourth-generation warfare, a model of hybrid warfare proposed by William S. Lind (of "cultural Marxism" fame)
8chan
alt-Right
If 4chan wasn't raw and lawless enough for you, you could try the even more right-wing "free speech"-haven 8chan while it still stood (now 8kun). Described by its founder Frederick Bennan as "if 4chan and reddit had a baby," the site is notorious for incubating Gamergate, which morphed into PizzaGate, which morphed into QAnon -- and for generally being a cesspool of humanity's worst stuff.
8kun
alt-Right
The rebranded incarnation of 8chan after being booted offline and haggling with its founder, Frederick Brennan.
abortion
religious extremism
The safe medical procedure for ending a pregnancy.
active measures
Russian
A style of political warfare originating in the Soviet Union in the 1920s incorporating spycraft, disinformation, propaganda, sabotage, and destabilization, among other offensive programs targeting the USSR's geopolitical foes including the United States.
ad populum
Rhetorical fallacy that assumes an opinion shared by the majority is correct -- without consideration of the credentials of the group.
aggrieved entitlement
white supremacy
A term coined by sociologist Michael Kimmel, who documents the perceived emasculation of America's white male uneducated class and their reactionary rage against social justice and marginal groups getting the spotlight.
America's "original sin"
white supremacy
A reference to the institution of slavery.
amoral
abuse & control
Without morality; without empathy or compassion.
anti-abortion
religious extremism
Political movement formed in the 1970s to overturn Roe v. Wade, that has become a major pillar of the Republican Party
anti-Communist
conspiracy theory
The Cold War Red Scare was promulgated by Senator Eugene McCarthy with help from lawyer Roy Cohn -- who later famously weaned Donald Trump in his image. The John Birch Society and movement conservatives seethed about ehe enemies within, as middle America set about booming with the Boomers for an entire generation of widely shared prosperity.
anti-intraception
psychological warfare
Psychologist Theodor Adorno's term for individuals who resist self-reflection and exhibit the absence of looking inward.
anti-racism
A proactive stance against racial prejudice and systemic discrimination, advocating for policies and practices that promote racial equity and justice.
anti-Semitism
Hostility, prejudice, or discrimination against Jewish people, manifesting in social, economic, and political exclusion or violence.
anti-tax
plutocracy
A political position opposing taxation, often advocating for reduced government spending and intervention in economic affairs.
armed robbery
organized crime
The act of stealing from a person or place using weapons or the threat of violence, constituting a serious criminal offense.
aryan
Historically misappropriated by Nazi ideology to denote a supposed "master race," originally referring to Indo-Iranian language speakers.
Ashe experiments
psychological warfare
A series of 1950s social psychology studies by Solomon Asch demonstrating the influence of group pressure on individual conformity.
ASPD
abuse & control
A mental health condition characterized by a pervasive disregard for others' rights, often leading to deceitful, manipulative, or criminal behavior.
assassination
paramilitary
The killing of a head of state or other important figure for political or ideological reasons, as opposed to murder as a crime of passion.
astroturfing
psychological warfare
The deceptive practice of creating the illusion of grassroots support for a cause or organization, often orchestrated by vested interests.
authoritarianism
government
A governance system where power is concentrated in a single authority, limiting political freedoms and often suppressing dissent.
banality of evil
Hannah Arendt coined the phrase “banality of evil” to refer to the confoundingly commonplace motives of the Nazis who perpetrated some of the worst war crimes in history -- they would never have struck anyone as potential mass murderers before the war.
banana republic
plutocracy
politically unstable countries whose economies are monocultures controlled by an oligarchy; puppet states
bandwagon
The phenomenon where individuals adopt beliefs or behaviors because others do, often leading to a majority opinion or trend.
Biblical inerrancy
The doctrine asserting that the Bible, in its original manuscripts, is without error in all its teachings, encompassing theology, history, and science
The Big Lie
A propaganda technique involving the repetition of a colossal falsehood to make it accepted as truth; notably used by Adolf Hitler to describe the deceit he attributed to his enemies.
birth control
misogyny
Methods or devices used to prevent pregnancy, enabling individuals to plan if and when to have children.
birtherism
Conspiracy theory started by Donald Trump claiming that Barack Obama wasn't born in the U.S. and thus, ineligible for the presidency
bitcoin
alt-Right
A decentralized digital currency operating without a central authority, utilizing blockchain technology for secure transactions.
Black Codes
white supremacy
Laws enacted in the post-Civil War Southern United States aiming to restrict African Americans' freedom and compel them to work in a labor economy based on low wages or debt.
black-pilled
A term denoting a pessimistic worldview, often associated with the belief that societal decline is inevitable and irreversible.
BLM
white supremacy
A decentralized social and political movement that began in 2013, aiming to address systemic racism and violence against Black individuals, particularly focusing on issues like police brutality and racial inequality
BLM (Bureau of Land Management)
government
An agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, established in 1946, responsible for administering public lands, primarily in the western United States, overseeing activities such as energy development, livestock grazing, and recreation.
blockchain
alt-Right
Digital ledger of events and transactions that powers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
blood libel
conspiracy theory
A false and anti-Semitic accusation alleging that Jewish people use the blood of Christians, particularly children, in religious rituals.
Blue Checks
psychological warfare
Reference to Twitter's "verified" feature for certain members, who have satisfied the company that they are who they say they are. Originally the feature was meant to identify the official accounts of news sites and reporters, so it has both an association with -- and a legitimate lineage from -- the media industry.
bolt hole
End Times
A type of retreat or refuge for those in the survivalist subculture, to be absconded to in case of disaster or apocalypse (see also: bug-out location).
Brooks Brothers Riot
Sedition Caucus
A coordinated protest by Republican operatives led by notorious dirty trickster Roger Stone on November 22, 2000, aimed at halting the vote recount in Miami-Dade County during the U.S. presidential election, effectively influencing the election outcome
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
white supremacy
Supreme Court decision ordering the desegregation of schools. Resistance to the ruling took the form of "states' rights" advocates, among much else.
bugman
A derogatory term used by some in the New Right to describe liberal men perceived as lacking traditional masculinity and practical life skills.
bug-out location (BOL)
End Times
A predetermined, often remote, refuge selected by survivalists to retreat to in case of emergencies or societal collapse (see also: bolt hole).
Calexit
Sedition Caucus
A movement advocating for California's secession from the United States to form an independent nation, drawing inspiration from Brexit and gaining attention after the 2016 presidential election
Calvinism
The ideology of predestination means you can't do anything to change your fate, but you can *act* like you're saved and that's close enough, to Calvin.
capital gains tax
plutocracy
A tax levied on the profit realized from the sale of a non-inventory asset, such as stocks or real estate, with rates often lower than those for ordinary income, leading to debates over tax equity.
carried-interest tax
A tax provision allowing investment managers to pay capital gains tax rates on their share of profits, rather than higher ordinary income rates, prompting criticism for favoring wealthy investors over average wage earners.
the Cathedral
conspiracy theory
A term used in certain conspiracy theories to describe an alleged alliance of academia, media, and government institutions purportedly working together to promote a unified ideological agenda (see: Curtis Yarvin)
cathexis
A kind of fusion the people of a nation may claim to feel with the fascist leader.
Citizens United
A Supreme Court case that opened the doorway wide to the influence of dark -- i.e. untradeable, not transparent -- money in American politics.
civil society
The sphere of voluntary associations, organizations, and institutions that exist independently of the government and market, facilitating collective action and public discourse.
Civil War
white supremacy
A conflict between factions or regions within a single country, often over political, social, or economic issues; notably, the American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought over primarily slavery.
climate change denialism
The rejection or dismissal of the scientific consensus on the extent and causes of global climate change, often hindering environmental policy and action.
clown world
conspiracy theory
A slang term used to describe a perception of modern society as absurd or illogical, often employed in a derogatory context to criticize contemporary social and political developments
CloudFlare
Big Tech
A company that protects websites from cyberattacks, it dropped support for 8chan after the mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso. The shooter had posted his anti-immigrant manifesto on 8chan before the event, another in a series of eerily similar patterned shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand and a San Diego synagogue.
Cluster B
abuse & control
A category in the DSM-5 encompassing personality disorders characterized by dramatic, emotional, or erratic behaviors, including antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality disorders
collective narcissism
abuse & control
A psychological phenomenon where individuals exhibit an inflated, unrealistic belief in the greatness of their in-group, leading to sensitivity to criticism and hostility toward out-groups.
Columbine Massacre
political violence
The April 20, 1999, school shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, where two students killed 13 people and wounded over 20 others before committing suicide, profoundly impacting U.S. discourse on gun control and school safety.
Communism
government
A political and economic ideology advocating for a classless society where the means of production are communally owned, aiming to eliminate private property and achieve equal distribution of resources.
The Confederacy
political violence
The Confederate States of America, a coalition of 11 Southern states that seceded from the United States in 1860–1861, leading to the Civil War, primarily over the issue of slavery.
conscience
An individual's internal sense of right and wrong, guiding moral decisions and ethical behavior.
conspiracy theory
psychological warfare
A belief or explanation suggesting that events or situations are the result of a secret, often sinister, plot by a group of people or organizations, typically lacking credible evidence.
convict leasing
white supremacy
A system, prevalent in the Southern United States after the Civil War, where prisoners were leased to private businesses for labor, effectively perpetuating forced labor and racial oppression.
copperheadism
white supremacy
A citizen of the North who was against the Civil War and favored negotiating a settlement with the South was referred to, pejoratively, as a copperhead.
covert narcissist
psychological warfare
An individual exhibiting narcissistic traits in subtle or concealed ways, often appearing modest or self-effacing while harboring a strong sense of entitlement and a need for admiration.
Critical Race Theory (CRT)
white supremacy
An academic framework that examines how laws and systems perpetuate racial inequalities, emphasizing the role of institutional and structural racism in society.
Critical Theory
conspiracy theory
A philosophical approach originating from the Frankfurt School of ex-pat Germans who had either escaped or survived Nazi Germany, aiming to critique and change society by analyzing power structures, ideologies, and social injustices.
crocodile tears
A term describing insincere or feigned expressions of sorrow, derived from the ancient belief that crocodiles shed tears while consuming their prey.
crying wolf
The act of raising false alarms or exaggerating dangers, leading others to become skeptical of future warnings, based on Aesop's fable "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."
cultism
The practices and behaviors associated with cults, often involving extreme devotion to a person, idea, or organization, sometimes leading to manipulation or exploitation.
cults
abuse & control
Groups characterized by unorthodox beliefs, intense devotion to a charismatic leader, and practices that may include manipulation, coercion, and isolation from mainstream society.
cultural Marxism
A conspiracy theory alleging that Marxist theorists are subverting Western culture to undermine traditional values, often criticized for its anti-Semitic and far-right origins.
Dark Enlightenment
Also known as neoreaction, a political and philosophical movement rejecting egalitarianism and democracy, advocating for a return to hierarchical and authoritarian governance structures.
Dark MAGA
A fringe movement within the pro-Trump community that embraces authoritarian imagery and rhetoric, often depicted through dystopian and aggressive visuals, advocating for a more radical approach to achieving political goals.
dark money
plutocracy
Political spending by nonprofit organizations that are not required to disclose their donors, allowing for anonymous influence on elections and policy decisions.
death cult
A pejorative term used to describe groups or ideologies that glorify death or engage in practices leading to mass casualties, often applied to extremist organizations or apocalyptic movements.
deep state
conspiracy theory
A term referring to an alleged clandestine network of non-elected government officials and private entities purported to operate independently of elected leadership, influencing and enacting policy without public oversight
democratic socialism
government
A political ideology advocating for a socialist economy characterized by social or collective ownership of the means of production, integrated within a democratic political system that emphasizes political democracy alongside social ownership
desegregation
white supremacy
The end of segregation between white and Black society in the U.S., ending formally in the 1950s and 60s.
disinformation
psychological warfare
Deliberately false or misleading information spread with the intent to deceive or mislead, often used to manipulate public opinion or obscure the truth.
dispensationalism
A theological framework within Christian eschatology that divides history into distinct periods or "dispensations," each marked by specific divine revelations and covenants between God and humanity.
domestic violence
abuse & control
A pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship used by one partner to gain or maintain control over another intimate partner, encompassing physical, emotional, sexual, or psychological harm.
Doomsday Clock
End Times
A symbolic clock created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, representing the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe, with midnight symbolizing the apocalypse; the time is adjusted based on current global threats.
double standard
misogyny
The application of different sets of principles for similar situations, leading to unfair or biased treatment of individuals or groups.
down ballot
government
Refers to political races or issues listed below the top positions on an election ballot, such as local or state offices, which often receive less attention from voters and media.
doxing
abuse & control
The act of publicly revealing an individual's private or personal information without their consent, typically with malicious intent, often leading to harassment or threats.
Drain the Swamp
MAGA
Campaign slogan of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential contest and an ironic political metaphor advocating for the elimination of corruption and entrenched interests within government institutions, signifying reform and transparency; in reality, Trump dramatically increased corruption and self-dealing.
eco-fascist
An individual or ideology that combines environmental concerns with authoritarian, nationalist, or racist beliefs, often advocating for extreme measures to reduce human impact on the environment, sometimes at the expense of marginalized groups.
El Paso Walmart shooting
A mass shooting that occurred on August 3, 2019, in El Paso, Texas, where a gunman killed 23 people and injured 23 others at a Walmart store, targeting Hispanic individuals in what was deemed an act of domestic terrorism.
Emancipation Proclamation
white supremacy
An executive order issued by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the Civil War, declaring the freedom of all enslaved people in Confederate-held territory, paving the way for the abolition of slavery in the United States.
empathy
The ability to understand and share the feelings of another person, fostering compassion and connection by recognizing and appreciating others' emotional experiences.
estate tax
plutocracy
A tax levied on the net value of a deceased person's estate before distribution to heirs, applicable when the estate's value exceeds a certain threshold, and often subject to debate regarding its impact on wealth transfer and economic inequality.
"Eternal Rome"
Ideology positing Russia as a geopolitical bulwark of conservatism against a weak-kneed West (part of Alexander Dugin's reformulation of Eurasianism theory)
ethnic cleansing
exfiltration
cybersecurity
The removal or copying of data from one server to another without the knowledge of the owner
extra-Constitutional
facial recognition
surveillance capitalism
Technology that matches surveillance video and photography with large databases of known subjects' faces to identify them
Fairness Doctrine
1949 FCC policy requiring broadcast networks to present controversial issues important to the public in a non-partisan way, that was repealed under Reagan in 1987.
fake news
disinformation
false flag
Russian
covert operations designed to deceive by appearing as though they are carried out by other entities, groups, or nations than those who actually executed them
fascism
government
fellow travellers
fifth column
fifth world war
Russian
non-linear war; the war of all against all
filibuster
Financial Crimes Enforcement NEtwork (FinCEN)
organized crime
Department within the Treasury that handles and maiontains FBAR filings from US persons holding in excess of $10,000 in foreign banks.
FISA Court
organized crime
FISA warrant
organized crime
fiscal policy
plutocracy
flat earthers
conspiracy theory
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)
psychological warfare
Legal statute requiring those persons lobbying on behalf of a foreign government or other entity to register such with the U.S. government.
foreign bank account report (FBAR)
organized crime
Required disclosure to the US treasury by persons holding in excess of $10,000 in funds in foreign banks.
forensics
law enforcement
forever wars
The Frankfurt School
Freedmen's Bureau
FreedomFest
Conservative evangelical event annually in Las Vegas
Free Speech
free trade
plutocracy
fronto-paralimbic area
Part of the brain associated with empathy, along with the anterior insula
fundamentalism
Gab
alt-Right
GamerGate
alt-Right
genocide
gerrymandering
government
The practice of selecting voter districts based on party registration lines so as to make it easier to control larger blocks of the elctorate.
gift tax
plutocracy
"global cabal"
conspiracy theory
euphemism in far-right Russian discourse to refer to a perceived "Jewish conspiracy" behind the international order of institutions like NATO and the EU
globalists
Grand Jury
16 to 23 people impaneled to hear evidence from a legal prosecution, and decide if said prosecution has a caseworthy set of evidence to bring charges.
Greensboro Massacre
white supremacy
Great Awakening
Great Migration
white supremacy
Great Society
government
greed
Guantanamo
happy talk
Tim Snyder's term for the ubiquitous affect of technology & unquestionable conviction that tech is helping significantly and never harming.
human trafficking
organized crime
hybrid warfare
psychological warfare
hypercapitalism
incel
misogyny
"involuntary celibate" -- a male individual who believes society owes him sex
inflation
plutocracy
information warfare
disinformation
integralist
interest rates
plutocracy
internationalist
conspiracy theory
Another word for "globalist" or "cosmopolitanist," all of them also words for Jewish people
interposition
white supremacy
Dubious theory underpinning the idea of states' rights, which is that individual states have veto power over any laws passed by the federal government
Iran-Contra
iron triangle
A conspiracy between organized criminals, corrupt government officials, and business leaders to turn the state into a kleptocracy -- or "rule by thieves"
Jim Crow South
white supremacy
Johnson Amendment
prosperity gospel
Allowed televangelists to funnel tax-free riches into luxury goods and political advocacy
Karen
white supremacy
kayfabe
The "play pretend" convention of presenting a staged performance as if it were spontaneous and authentic -- a trope of professional wrestling.
kleptocracy
Literally, "rule by thieves" -- a system of government in which the people at the top steal wealth from the nation and its people for themselves and their cronies.
Kochtopus
plutocracy
Term for the sprawling political machinery of the Kansas-based billionaire Koch Industries inheritees, Charles and David.
kompromat
Russian
compromising material on a head of state or other important figure; typically used for blackmail purposes
lamestream media
alt-Right
late Republican period
A way of stating a common belief on the New Right, that America is a kind of late-stage Rome awaiting its Caesar
leaderless resistance
liberalism
government
Political and ethical framework based on individual liberty via human rights and equal protection
libertines
literacy tests
lobbying
government
"Lock her up!"
MAGA
Chant led by Mike Flynn at the RNC in 2016, referring to Hillary Clinton's email scandal which turned out to be a nothingburger
Logan Act
government
Lost Cause religion
conspiracy theory
After the Civil War, the Confederates never accepted defeat. Instead, they wove a noble victim mythology into white southern Christianity, in an attempt to memory hole the terrorism they'd wrought -- and wished to continue practicing without scrutiny or accountability, thank you very much.
lynching
white supremacy
Extrajudicial murder, sometimes publicly, of Black men and women -- often for invented crimes
Machiavellian
machine learning
Big Tech
Mafia state
organized crime
A systematic corruption of government by organized crime syndicates.
MAGA
MAGA
"Make America Great Again" -- one of Donald Trump's campaign slogans.
malignant envy
psychological warfare
malignant narcissism
abuse & control
"man code"
Mentioned by Raffensberger in relation to the Trump extortion call: that if Trump hadn't lied about it in public, he might not have released the tape, just chalking it up to "private criminal attempts between two men" aka "man code"
manosphere
misogyny
Marxism
government
the matrix
mental predation
abuse & control
#MeToo
misogyny
microaggressions
micropenis
misogyny
micro-propaganda machine
The “micro-propaganda machine” (MPM) — an influence network that can tailor people’s opinions, emotional reactions, and create “viral” sharing episodes around what should be serious or contemplative issues
millennarianism
conspiracy theory
minority rule
mirror neurons
misogyny
misogyny
MK Ultra
Reportedly a CIA program in the 50s that conducted research into mind control and brainwashing -- its findings were apparently so shocking that the program was shut down and never heard from again.
money laundering
organized crime
Attempts and processes to obscure the sources of funds moving into or through a system
multiculturalism
narcissism
abuse & control
narcissistic collusion
abuse & control
natality
Hannah Arendt's term, and her most hopefuly theory for the future of humankind -- that it will continually be renewed by the literal birth of new generations of humans to reinterpret the human condition and our existence in the world.
national debt
plutocracy
national deficit
plutocracy
national security
NDA
Non-disclosure agreement
negging
abuse & control
neomania
obsession with the new -- a hallmark of American culture
neo-reactionaries
New Deal
government
New Jim Crow
white supremacy
New Right
non-linear warfare
Russian
normalcy bias
novichok
Russian
military-grade nerve agent developed by Russia and used in the poisoning of former FSB agent turned Putin critic Andrei Skripal and his daughter in Lonson in March, 2018
nullification
white supremacy
NRx
neo-Reactionary, an extremist techophilic ideology popular on the right
obstruction
Oklahoma City bombing
oligarchy
plutocracy
one-party state
government
open source intelligence
intelligence
oppo
intelligence
short form of opposition research
outrage industry
surveillance capitalism
PAC
Palantir
surveillance capitalism
paralipsis
disinformation
A rhetorical device in which the speaker feigns ignorance of the thing he or she is saying; "Saying / not saying" -- it offers a thin veneer of plausible deniability in a naked attempt to escape accountabilitty for saying exactly that.
paralogic
psychological warfare
paranoia
Extreme fear to the point of (or beyond) psychological pathology.
pathocracy
organized crime
patriarchy
misogyny
peculiar institution
white supremacy
slavery
peonage
white supremacy
plausible deniability
organized crime
Plessy v. Ferguson
government
1896
plutocracy
government
Political rule by the rich.
political correctness
poll tax
ponerology
The study of evil
populism
government
post-leftist
postmodernism
disinformation
post-truth
disinformation
Potemkin village
government
Any structure or facade built expressly for the purpose of making the situation appear more favorable than it really is
Powell Memo
plutocracy
Lewis Powell's 1970s memo to the wealthy white male elite, in anger over the crackdown against tobacco companies, as a call to arms to organize politically against "anti-capitalist" forces
PR
abuse & control
public relations
previous question rule
A parliamentary rule present in the initial decades of the Senate, borrowed from British law, that allowed the majority proponents of a bill or measure to call an end to debate about the provision with a short warning period of usually about 5 minutes.
Progressive Era
government
propaganda
abuse & control
prosperity gospel
prosocial behavior
psychopath
abuse & control
psyops
Russian
Psychological operations
PUA
misogyny
"Pick Up Artist" -- a self-styled lothario who helps train other would-be casanovas in his ways of manipulative charm
Pulse Nightclub shooting
race riots
white supremacy
race war
white supremacy
The goal of the accelerationist neo-Nazi idealogues is to start a race war and bring down the American government
RAGE
abuse & control
Retire All Government Employees
rape culture
misogyny
Reagonomics
conspiracy theory
the "real economy"
conspiracy theory
What folks on the New Right consider legitimate parts of the American economy: farm and factory jobs that used to sustain a middle-class income
Reddit
Big Tech
the regime
conspiracy theory
regression
repression
retweet
Big Tech
When a Twitter user amplifies the tweet of another, by "retweeting" it out to her or his network
RICO
Right anterior insular cortex
Part of the brain associated with empathy; psychopaths have a deficit here
right-wing authoritarian
government
Roe v. Wade
Ruby Ridge
white supremacy
running out the clock
RWDS
paramilitary
Right-wing Death Squads -- an acronym used by Proud Boys and worn as patches by some members and branches
sadism
abuse & control
sadopopulism
government
Sandy Hook school shooting
abuse & control
savior complex
Like the arsonist who sets the fire and then calls it in to play the hero, right-wingers with the savior complex are constantly holding up the sky as the Evil Democrats try to destroy everything good and holy -- and they want CREDIT for it, dammit!
Second Wave Feminism
misogyny
Section 230
Big Tech
senicide
sexual assault
misogyny
sexual harassment
misogyny
shadow profiles
surveillance capitalism
Data that Facebook collects on people who are not members of Facebook, via association with their friends who are
sharecropping
abuse & control
shared reality
show trials
Russian
Signal
Big Tech
encrypted messaging app
Silicon Reich
sit-ins
Nonviolent demonstration method used heavily in the 1960s
SJW
white supremacy
Social Justice Warriors -- used as a pejorative by the alt-Right
socialism
government
sociopathy
abuse & control
sockpuppet accounts
disinformation
Fake social media accounts used by trolls for deceptive and covert actions, avoiding culpability for abuse, aggression, death threats, doxxing, and other criminal acts against targets.
SMS
Big Tech
texting
special interest groups
government
spearphishing
cybersecurity
An email designed to appear as if from a trusted source, to solicit information that allows the sender to gain access to an account or network, or installs malware that later enables the sender to gain access to an account or network
spite voter
government
stand your ground
stochastic terrorism
paramilitary
suffrage
government
The right to vote, sometimes referred to as "the franchise."
SuperPAC
government
supremacy
surveillance capitalism
surveillance state
abuse & control
swatting
alt-Right
hoaxed reports to emergency services intended to provoke a SWAT team response at the target's home; a form of Internet-based attack used by Gamergate, the alt-Right, and other groups and individuals
symbiosis
symbolic violence
tax avoidance
plutocracy
tax fraud
organized crime
tax havens
plutocracy
Third Wave Feminism
misogyny
totalism
psychological warfare
total war
Russian
trial balloon
psychological warfare
Information put out or leaked to the media to gauge public reaction.
trickle-down economics
conspiracy theory
truth decay
conspiracy theory
The Turner Diaries
white supremacy
Tulsa Race Massacre
white supremacy
A mob of murderous whites descended on the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, dubbed Black Wall Street, and razed it to the ground. They dropped homemade bombs in the first ever domestic aerial attack on American soil. Over three hundred Blacks were murdered and hastily buried or burned. Police and other state officials were complicit; no one was ever charged for the crimes and insurance companies refused to honor Black business owner's claims from the destruction of their livelihood and senseless slaughter of their friends, families, and community.
Twitter
Big Tech
Uberman
unmasking
cybersecurity
Intelligence protocol redacting American identities from transcripts of foreign intercepts
vast right-wing conspiracy
volcel
Voting Rights Act
white supremacy
Waco, TX
paramilitary
wag the dog
abuse & control
wage gap
misogyny
war crimes
Watergate
watering hole
cybersecurity
hacker attacks that infect entire websites
whataboutism
Russian
Classic debate tactic of old Soviet apologists to deflect criticism of Soviet policy; whenever an American would levy a critique, the response would be, "What about the bad things America does?"
white collar crime
organized crime
white nationalism
white supremacy
women's liberation
misogyny
word salad
World War I
WWI gave job opportunities to blacks in the North, causing a great migration -- as well as a backlash and resistance from Southern law enforcement.
World War II
Yes California
Movement to secede from the US entirely, run by Marcus Ruiz Evans, Louis J. Marinelli
Blood libel is a very old anti-Semitic myth that has stubbornly persisted for centuries, one of several conspiracy theories that have scapegoating the Jewish people for all of society’s ills at their core. The heart of the false claim is that Jews murder non-Jewish (or Gentile) children to use their blood for apocryphal religious rituals, during Passover and other prominent Jewish holidays.
Originating from a series of stereotypes about Jews amassed through the ages, blood libel is also intimately related to the global cabal conspiracy theory and was heavily used in Nazi ideology to justify the horrors of the Holocaust. Somewhat ironically, the Nazis claimed that the Jewish people were inherently violent and murderous — and used this baseless claim as justification of their own systematic program of violence and murder of over 6 million Jewish people in Germany during the 1930s and 40s.
The outlandish claims of blood libel have been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked by scholars, historians, anthropologists, psychologists, and an armada of dedicated truth-tellers — yet the stickiness of the myth persists, even after the consequences of this toxic belief system of antisemitism became apparent during World War II. Today, the blood libel myth has been given new life in the modern revision known as the QAnon conspiracy theory — a movement which contains elements of blood libel, global cabal theory, and a hodge podge of other fantastical and fanatical belief systems that have hooked gullible populations throughout history.
Who were the early conservatives? They emerged out of the group of former fascists and Nazi sympathizers in the US.
1930s opposition to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal
2 main right-wing factions then:
libertarians — right-wing economics faction led by Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, & Friedrich Hayek. Favors dramatically cutting taxes (aka trickle down economics), reducing social spending, while increasing the military budget dramatically — a math that does not add up, numerically or historically speaking.
The ascension of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States gave permission to all the closet fascists practicing ketman as conservatives to come right on out and let their freak bigotry flags fly.
All the little white power sleeper cells and now networked anti-government militia groups were let off the chain and invited to take a swing at our national sovereignty and see if they could steal the American government for him. Thanks to the strength and integrity of numerous civil servants and others they did not succeed — however, the festering mass of fascism isn’t going anywhere much just yet.
It’s also no accident this whole Twitter takeover drama is happening just before the mid-terms. The right-wing needs to inject some juice into the splintering base, some of whom are wavering as the actual (intentionally) obscured vision of the GOP leaks out (i.e. destroy government altogether).
Conspiracy theories are not new. Covid-related conspiracies may be new, but conspiracy theories about pandemics and contagious diseases have been around for centuries. Anti-vaccination hysteria goes back decades. The QAnon conspiracy theory may be new (or maybe not really?!), but conspiracy theories themselves are a tale(s) as old as time — or at least time as we know it, from the start of recorded history.
What is a conspiracy theory?
Conspiracy theories are simple explanations for complex phenomena, that often involve a secret group (often some type of global cabal) who are pulling the strings of world events behind the scenes. There is most commonly little to no credible evidence supporting the beliefs of the conspiracy theory, instead relying on superstition, speculation, coincidence, or simple rumor to back up their claims.
We are fundamentally wired to be storytellers. It’s intuitive why this ability might be hard-coded into our brains, as it so clearly relates to survival, self-preservation, and our ability to navigate and succeed in a complex world. We need to be able to understand cause and effect in an environment of many rapidly shifting variables, and storytelling is a framework for weaving coherent narratives that reduce our anxiety about the great uncertainties in the environment around us.
Conspiracy theories tap into psychological needs
Conspiratorial thinking is far more common than we think, and can ebb and flow in populations based on prevailing conditions. Our ability to see patterns in randomness and dissemble stories on the spot, along with numerous other cognitive and psychological biases, make us vulnerable to belief in conspiracy theories.
Great Replacement Theory is a conspiracy theory animating the radical right wing that claims non-white immigrants are being brought to the U.S. and the west to “replace” white voters with their woke political and cultural agenda. Those who believe this white supremacist ideology see routine immigration policy as a white genocide and extinction of the white race. They also point to low birth rates among white europeans and the promotion of multiculturalism, or “wokeness,” as responsible for the alleged effects.
The term “Great Replacement” was popularized by French writer Renaud Camus in his 2011 book “Le Grand Remplacement.” According to Camus, the alleged replacement is a result of the European elites intentionally allowing mass immigration and promoting multiculturalism to undermine national identity and traditional Western culture.
The Great Replacement Theory has been widely discredited and criticized by experts, as it is based on misinformation, selective data, and biased interpretations. It is important to note that this theory often fuels xenophobia, bigotry, racism, and anti-immigrant sentiments, and has been linked to a number of far-right extremist attacks worldwide.
Demographic changes in Western countries are driven by a complex interplay of factors such as economic migration, political instability, globalization, and changing birth rates. These factors are not part of any orchestrated plot, but rather reflect broader social, economic, and political trends. Unfortunately, it’s in the interest of the right-wing to keep its rabid base riled up — and the Great Replacement Theory conspiracy is an effective tool for generating anger and injecting vitriol into the broader political discourse.
I’ve been reading Erich Fromm’s Escape from Freedom and it’s synthesizing a few things together for me in new ways — prime among them the realization that collective narcissism is the shared root ideology of both Christian nationalism and Nazism. First off, I’d recommend it:
Next, I’d like to thank it for reminding me about the insidious dangers of Calvinism and the Protestant Work Ethic, as described in sociologist Max Weber‘s most cited work in the history of the field. Beyond the problematic authoritarianism of John Calvin as a person himself, the ideology of predestination coupled with a paradoxical obsessive compulsion with working yourself ragged is a noxious brew that fed the Protestant extrusion of American capitalism as well as the murderous violence of its Manifest Destiny.
Reformation Ideologies
Calvin — like Luther before him — was reacting to the social and economic upheavals of his day which, during the Reformation, were all about the middle class emerging from the security and certainty of feudalism into a far more dynamic world of competition, isolation, and aloneness. It held promise but also peril — hope along with, inescapably, fear.
During the Middle Ages, humankind had retreated from the aspirational virtuousness of the Greek and Roman civilizations and descended into almost 1000 years of darkness, as compared to the dazzling intellectual brilliance of the millennium before it. Those who would prefer cultish cowering in self-righteous ignorance over the humility of fallible science and critical thinking managed to topple a glittering civilization and scatter it to the wolves. It was a return to cruel and arbitrary happenstance, a horrifying Hobbesian world of pestilence and pathology.
The Republican National Committee, in perhaps the most stunningly stupid self-own in the history of modern politics certainly in my lifetime, finally said the quietest part out loud: that in their official pronouncement, the events at the Capitol on January 6 constituted “legitimate political discourse.” Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger were censured by the RNC in the statement as well, for their role on the January 6 Committee and their investigation into these “legitimate” events involving a murderous attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
Yale historian Joanne Freeman had this to say about the RNC statement:
The RNC statement about “legitimate political discourse” is a line in the sand.
Democracy vs. Authoritarianism is on the ballot in 2022
If there’s any upside to the dark situation we’re in, it’s these gifts Republicans keep on giving — further debasing themselves each time you think they can’t possibly stoop any morally lower — that we can use to our advantage to turn out our base in record numbers in these upcoming midterms. We did it in 2018, and there’s no reason to believe we can’t do it now. Trump’s support is waning, not growing — and the fractures within the GOP are widening, not tightening. Plus, we’ll have 8 million new 18-year-old eligible voters we can potentially reach — the vast majority of whom statistically speaking, are going to be progressive Democrats.
None of the other policy questions or culture wars will matter if we cannot solve the most fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: do we still believe in the ideals of the Constitution, the rule of law, and the vision of a self-governing people shared by the Founders? Or do we want to hand over the keys to the nation to the erstwhile billionaires, old money heirs, and trust fund playboys who want to drag us back to some perverted nostalgic fantasyland that’s part Leave It To Beaver, part wild west, and part Silence of the Lambs?
Meanwhile Bob has made The Authoritarians available free of charge here, and I absolutely encourage you to read it — it’s fascinating stuff and he’s an entertaining as well as informative writer. In this post I’ll do my best to summarize the main points of the book, because I know people are busy and not everyone has time to read a whole book much less scrape together hours to volunteer and do activist work.
Bob Altemeyer The Authoritarians
Dr. Altemeyer defines authoritarianism as “something authoritarian followers and authoritarian leaders cook up between themselves.” Followers submit blindly to the leaders and give them too much free rein to do anti-democratic, brutal, and tyrannical things. Power corrupts absolutely, and power seems to corrupt authoritarians most of all.
He classifies the authoritarians into three primary groups:
Authoritarian followers — typically this group follows the established authorities in their society, including government officials, clergy and traditional religious leaders, business leaders, and self-appointed gurus of all stripes. They tend to have a “Daddy and Mommy know best” approach to the government, believing that authorities are above the law. Psychologically, authoritarian followers exhibit a high degree of submission to authorities they accept as legitimate, high levels of aggression in the name of those authorities (if so called upon), and a high degree of conventionalism and conformity. They tend to be bigots, with prejudices against many types of groups.
Authoritarian leaders — tend to be Social Dominators, who long to control people and affect others’ lives. They are overall highly prejudiced and bigoted, do not believe in the American value of equality, and feel justified in wielding great power over society with little qualification and even less self-reflection. They believe the world is divided into wolves and sheep, and they have no qualms fooling the sheep into opening the pasture gate so they can eat. “Might makes right” is their personal motto.
Double Highs — about 10% of any given sample score highly on both the social dominance test and the right-wing authoritarian scale, which is odd given the social dominator’s otherwise reluctance to be submissive. They exhibit extra prejudice and extra hostility — beyond either the social dominators or the RWAs. They tend to be the “religious” social dominators, who had a fundamentalist upbringing, or had a conversion experience as an adult (George W. Bush, e.g.) and now tend to believe in some form of Strict Father Morality.
More traits of authoritarian followers
They tend to feel more endangered in potentially threatening situations that most people do (think: Dick Cheney‘s descent into bunker mentality after 9/11)
More afraid than most people; they tend to have overactive amygdalas
Were raised by their parents to be afraid of others — both parents and children have told researchers so
More likely to issue threats than low authoritarians
Most orthodox — were raised fundamentalist and are highly repressed
Most hardline
Believe “whatever I want is right”
Paradoxically, want to “be normal” very badly — they tend to get tugged by the people around them
Authoritarian aggression
Authoritarians prefer not to have fair fights out in the open — they tend to aggress when they believe their hostility is welcomed by established authority, or supports established authority. They also often aggress when they have an obvious physical advantage over the target — making women, children, and others unable to defend themselves as ideal targets. These cowards have the gall to feel morally superior to the innocent victims they assault in an ongoing asymmetrical warfare between supremacists and marginalized groups.
To make matters worse, authoritarians do their dirty deeds in the shadows and scream bloody murder at anyone who dares try and expose their dark secrets to the light. Their theatrical and performative self-righteousness is just an act to avoid accountability and responsibility for what they do — even unto themselves.
Moreover, authoritarians are extra punitive against lawbreakers they don’t like (though exceedingly permissive for lawbreakers they *do* like, which is infuriatingly hypocritical), because they believe fervently in the value of punishment. Many advocate child corporal punishment — spanking and worse — for children as young as 1 year old. Authoritarian followers tended to report feelings of “secret pleasure” when hearing of the misfortunes of high school classmates who had misbehaved, believing they got what they deserved in life.
It would be accurate to think of authoritarians as “little volcanoes of hostility,” almost heat-seeking their way into authority-approved ways to erupt and release their pent-up anger. Many of them do not, and will not ever realize that their fundamentalist upbringing has sadly left their brains underdeveloped, and ill-equipped to navigate the modern world with its rapid changes, accelerating inequality, advancing climate change, and political instability.
Lethal Union
When a social dominator becomes an authoritarian leader, and leads his authoritarian followers down malevolent roads from informing to threatening to vigilanteism, researchers refer to this state of affairs as a “lethal union.” It’s a highly dangerous and volatile time for a democracy, one warranting caution and vigilance from concerned citizens.
Throughout history, these are the situations that tend to devolve further into aggression, political violence, civil war, genocide, and worse. We need to be very damn careful about who we elect as our leaders — we cannot allow our government to be captured by special interests and the narrow, quixotic delusions of old billionaires outshining daddy and staving off death.
More books about authoritarians
If you’ve already read Bob Altemeyer The Authoritarians, or you’re just looking for more resources on authoritarianism — here’s a list to get started:
It is going to become increasingly more difficult to discern from fact from fiction, here in this world that seemingly quickly flipped from a world of The Enlightenment to a world of dark disinformation. From artificial intelligence to vast propaganda machines, from deep fakes to fake lives — it’s going to require more from us to be able to detect what’s real.
Already we can’t rely on old cues, signposts, and tropes anymore. We’re less credulous about credentials, and trust isn’t automatic based on caste, title, or familiar status markers.
Go slow and look for mimics
Here’s one key to more accurate reality detection: take more time to spot the fake. Don’t judge too quickly, because it can take time to weed out the fakesters and the hucksters — some are decent mimics and can fool people who are in a hurry, not paying much attention, or attracted to some irrelevant other quality about the ersatz knockoff and thus forms an affinity with them based on something else entirely. Some drink the Kool-Aid for various reasons.
Clues of fraud
Those who cling absurdly to abstract symbols are often fakes. And in general, any folks who feel like they are just trying a little bit too hard might be fake. Then, of course, there are the full-on zealots and religious nutbags. These theocrats are definitely faux compassionate Jesus-lovers. What better cloak than the robes of a religious man (or, less frequently, woman)? It’s the perfect disguise.
No wonder so many child abusers hide out in churches of all kinds, from famously the Catholic to the more recently-outed (though not surprising) Evangelical Southern Baptist Church. No one will ever suspect them, or want to confront them if they do. Plus, they have Democrats to absurdly try and pin the blame on repeatedly, despite a lack of a shred of evidence.
We need to know what our opponents are up to. There is much to learn.
Much more to come — stay tuned!
Behavior
Type
Definition
ad baculum
rhetorical
Appeal to violence
ad hominem
rhetorical
Attack the person instead of their ideas.
aggression
tactical
Issue threats and/or violate boundaries.
argumentum ad passiones
emotional
"I feel it (or I feel *strongly* about it), therefore it must be true."
assault
tactical
Assert the opposite of reality
rhetorical
Simply state the opposite of what is true
banning books
legislative
Book banning is a form of censorship in which government officials or organizations remove books from libraries, school reading lists, or bookstore shelves because of objections to content, ideas, or themes.
Believes oneself to be superior and requiring of association with high-status people
pathological
Related to supremacy and collective narcissism, this worldview is one of extreme entitlement and expected deference.
Black & white thinking
cognitive
A pattern of thought characterized by polar extremes, sometimes flip-flopping very rapidly from one extreme view to its opposite. A symptom of many personality disorders.
Blame Democrats
rhetorical
"I'm not responsible for my bad behaviors: DEMOCRATS ARE!"
bullying
emotional
Intimidating, harming, or coercing -- usually of someone who is perceived as vulnerable.
charisma
emotional
Cloying, often superficial or fake charm
charm
emotional
Compelling attractiveness that fascinates, allures, or delights
closed mind
cognitive
not open to an argument from facts
Cognitive dissonance
cognitive
Having an incongruent value system, or believing mutually exclusive things -- as well as behaving without consistent ethical principles; a sense of randomness to one's approach to life.
cognitive distortion
Communicate by emotional contagion
behavior
Communication is difficult or impossible
behavior
confusion
Consistent inconsistency
conspiracy theories
contempt
counterattack
Creating unnecessary chaos
emotional
Create conflict to get attention and get a chance to get what you want.
Crocodile tears
emotional
DARVO
tactical
Deception
demagoguery
emotional
Seeks support through an appeal to desires and prejudices of voters instead of rational arguments.
Demand mirroring of their emotions
behavior
Denying plain facts
Diverting attention
Do not perform emotional work
behavior
emotional abuse
Emotional manipulation
emotional
Envious of others and believes others are envious
pathological
Exaggerating one's achievements and talents
pathological
Expecting special favors and unquestioning compliance with your expectations
pathological
extortion
fears change
weakness
fears difference
weakness
flying monkeys
fraud
frivolous lawsuits
Gaslighting
Cause you to question your own sanity -- very dangerous to do this to people. The effects are long-lasting and difficult to do; it can take many years to heal from this kind of insidious abuse.
Grandiose sense of self-importance
pathological
grandiosity
grooming
Hard to give to; reject efforts to give help
behavior
high need for closure
Prefers to resolve situations quickly and reduce uncertainty as immediately as possible
hypocrisy
Consistently fail to live up to their own stated ideals, and the things they demand of others.
idealize, devalue, discard
The narcissistic abuse cycle
Interpsonally exploitative; takes advantage of others
pathological
irrational anger
Lacks empathy; unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others
pathological
lawsuits
Love to play victim and hero
emotional
They want your emotions oscillating all over the place, because it gives them more opportunities to swoop in and capture you at a vulnerable moment and earn your trust -- so they can violate it.
Lying
Malignant envy
Masters of deceptive and misleading stories
rhetorical
Mind games
emotional
Motivated Reasoning
cognitive
They start with the premise they want and work from there -- they are bad scientists, but good lawyers.
Moving the goalposts
tactical
narcissistic rage
narcissistic supply
One-way street
Expect loyalty from you while offering none in return
oppression
panem et circuses
Paranoia
emotional
Nurturing and maintaining enemies
Passive-aggression
emotional
Perjury
legal
Lying under oath, in court or in a deposition
Phobic
emotional
Their main aspect is fear, from bouts of phobia indoctrination
Play the victim
emotional
Preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success
pathological
Projection
cognitive
Accusing your opponent of doing the thing that you yourself are doing.
Provoking anger
behavior
repression
Requires excessive admiration
pathological
Resist repairing relationships
behavior
retconning
rewriting history
rigidity
sadism
emotional
scapegoating
tactical
Just blame Democrats, no matter how absurd
secrecy
Covert actions; lack of transparency
See roles as sacred and inviolable
behavior
Seek enmeshment, not emotional intimacy
behavior
Selective Exposure
self-aggrandizement
emotional
Sense of entitlement; expects others to make unreasonable sacrifices
pathological
shame
emotional
Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors and attitudes
pathological
Splitting
cognitive
See the world as with them or against them (splitting)
stonewalling
stubbornness
supremacy
emotional
Take a thing and turn it into its moral opposite
Label a good thing bad so you can smear it, or a bad thing good so you can support it
Motivated reasoning is a common daily phenomenon for all of us, assuming we’re human and/or interact with other humans. It’s a cognitive science term that refers to a type of emotional bias in which we have a tendency to prefer decisions or justifications based on their personal desirability vs. an unbiased examination of the facts.
Thinking and feeling aren’t anywhere near as “separate” in the brain as is commonly believed — they are very intertwined, and it’s also incredibly difficult for us to understand or detect from moment to moment which parts of our stream of consciousness are “thinking” and which are “feeling.”
What’s worse, we have other biases that exacerbate the motivated reasoning bias — like the “Lake Wobegon Effect” wherein we tend to overestimate our own abilities vs. others. So, we’re overconfident — at the same that we are less rational than we think we are. That can be a volatile combination — especially when found in individuals who hold a lot of power, and make decisions that affect people’s lives.
For we know not what we do
It can be infuriating to deal with people who are using motivated reasoning to make decisions instead of critical thinking: they tend to work backwards from the conclusion they wish to reach, and ignore evidence that contradicts their pre-existing beliefs. The way they deal with the cognitive dissonance of conflicting information is simply to toss the new information out, instead of evaluating it. Generally, though, they are unaware that their brain is in the habit of making that easier choice, and tend to get angry when this is pointed out.
The filibuster is an archaic rule that was at first only there by accident, then whittled into a sharp blade of minority rule by Southern plantation owner and virulent white supremacist John C. Calhoun — a man credited with laying the groundwork for the Civil War.
The South Carolina plutocrat strategized on behalf of wealthy aristocratic ambitions in the 1820s and 30s. Dubbed the “Marx of the master class” by historian Richard Hofstadter, Calhoun consumed himself with an obsession over how to establish permanent rule by his 1% brethren. He was an early proponent of property over people — the original “just business” kind of cold calculating supremacist that would come to typify the darker southern shadow culture of America.
Calhoun came to the conclusion that the Founders had made a grave mistake when creating the nation, and had put in too much democracy and too little property protection. He had a conviction that collective governance ought to be rolled back, because it “exploited” the wealthy planter class such as himself. During his time in the Senate he engineered a number of clever devices for the minority to rule over the collective will of the public — dubbed a “set of constitutional gadgets” for restricting the operations of a democratic government by a top political scientist at the time.
Public choice theory and Charles Koch
Slaveholding Senator John C. Calhoun inspired a series of men in the future to take up the torch of minority rule and its apparatus. James McGill Buchanan combined ideas from F. A. Hayek with fascist strains of Calhoun’s ministrations in the Senate to pack a conservative economic punch with public choice theory.
A young Charles Koch was exposed to Buchanan’s re-interpretation of Calhoun’s re-intepretation of the founders’ intentions, and embarked on a lifelong mission to indoctrinate the world in the religion of hyper-libertarian Ayn Randian fiscal austerity.
New lie, same as the old lie. The old lie is that America was never intended to be a democracy — which is doublespeak nonsense. The old lie is that the Declaration of Independence was wrong — that all men are not created equal; that the entire reason we founded a new nation was somehow misguided. But “conservatives” have been fighting fervently for this original Big Lie since time immemorial.
So: Charles Koch is the new John C. Calhoun. He and his vast navel-gazing empire of “think tanks” and other organs of self-regurgitation have managed to brainwash enough people and operate enough bots to make it almost a coin toss whether the average citizen believes the nation was founded as a democratic republic or an authoritarian theocracy.
The filibuster is one of the strongest minority rule tools in their toolbox.
