It can be hard to figure out what many right-wing idealogues believe, because they prefer to remain covert and operate in the shadows. They’re hard to pin down. I find it useful to have a list of questions ready to go for whenever I may meet an Evangelical, or a fascist, or a libertarian — […]
How to detect fake from real 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 […]
Research has shown that emotional repression causes authoritarianism (Altemeyer, Adorno, Stenner et al). Fundamentalist religious groups favor the most repression, culturally — ergo, fundamentalist groups are at the highest risk for nurturing authoritarian traits. Emotional repression is the keystone of fundamentalist parenting. The strict application of “Biblical law” as cherry-picked by extremists is inherently contradictory […]
The whitewashing of the Civil War to assuage white Southern guilt, Lost Cause refers to the historical gaslighting of the former Confederates. New mythology reinvented our nation’s greatest internal conflict as if it had been more of a technocratic war over states’ rights and the limits of federal power, instead of the truth — which […]
Unthinking is a kind of militant stance against thinking, for oneself and others. It goes beyond a simple distaste for or preference against thinking, and on into something of a dedication, mission, or serious zeal for anti-intellectualism. As well, the Unthinking mentality includes a sort of reverence for instinctiveness and impulsiveness, and a distaste or […]
Baptist Evangelical minister Tim LaHaye’s 12-volume series of novels about the Rapture have sold over 65 million copies, and kept the apocalypse top of mind for the nation’s Evangelicals. Jesus is coming back any day now, and when he does, he is for some reason going to favor all the fat pasty oligarchs who did […]
Magical Thinking abounds in late-stage capitalism Magical thinking is a form of purely imaginative cognition exhibited in childhood, in which children pretend that they will be able to get whatever they wish for without regard for the actual realities of the world. Not limited to children, magical thinking is a common trait exhibited by the […]
Magical Thinking is a development phase we all go through as children. Unfortunately, some never come out of it fully. It’s a juvenile way of imagining you can wish reality into existence through the sheer force of your mind. There is a role for Magical Thinking in key contexts, such as creative fields — as […]
Extremism is a mentality; a black and white worldview. It’s a willingness to go too far to meet one’s objectives — to violate moral boundaries in pursuit of one’s aims. A political extremist is an individual or group adhering to ideologies that are far removed from the mainstream beliefs of society. These ideologies often promote […]