Author: reillymgray

Below are some notes from “Can we save loved ones from Fox News:  ‘I don’t know if it’s too late or not'” by Chauncey Devega (November 23, 2018  salon.com) in an interview with Jen Senko, director of “The Brainwashing of My Dad,” on surviving those Fox News-fueled holiday gatherings.” I need to further process these notes, but have run out of time this week.  I think these notes can help in understanding Fox News consumers, however.

Fox News (FN) “…viewers are being fed a steady diet of lies and disinformation in the service of an alternate reality where the facts are rejected in favor of right-wing talking points.”  Research shows that Fox News watchers “…actually know less correct information about current events and other important public matters than people who watch other news networks — or who do not watch cable news at all.”

“…Fox News was never about honoring the obligation of the free press to speak truth to power or help the American people make informed decisions about political and social matters.  Fox was explicitly designed to parrot the style and narrative of sports talk radio where entertainment and profit-seeking are more important than the truth, and the world is divided up between right-wing conservatives ( the ‘good guys’ and ‘the home team’) and the Democrats, liberals and progressives (the ‘bad guys’ and ‘the enemy).”

Fox News has become Trump’s “…de facto state-sponsored media …where Trump’s war on democracy is cheered on, his leadership is endlessly praised, and white supremacist or eliminationist rhetoric is mainstreamed.”

Fox News watchers are taught “…that Democrats, black people, anyone who is not a white male”  …or non-feminist female “…is evil.”

In addition to Fox News, many are consuming Rush Limbaugh on the radio and an avalanche of emails from right-wing websites.

Fox News is effective because it “…operates through fear” …and emotion.

The creator of Fox News, Roger Ailes knew that viewers were hooked by “…emotion, simple sentences, repetition, fear, interrupting the guests and using high-impact visuals.”  It’s not a news broadcast, it’s a show.

The ticker running at the bottom of the screen presents everything as “breaking news” or some type of “alert” no matter how mundane.  “This is exciting… and it can actually become addictive.”  Fox News provides viewers with excitement and purpose.  They “…feel part of a team.  They feel special.  There’s like an in-group. Fox News is also like a cult because it’s exclusive and the other side isn’t just wrong, they’re evil.”

“…Fox News makes it seem like you’re their friend and you’re special because you tuned into them.  You’re now part of their club. We’re talking to you.  We’re here for you.  We understand you.”

“Information backfire” will also make Fox News viewers even more resistant to new information and real facts when they are confronted by them.

They are stuck in a right-wing Fox News bubble.

“For outsiders, Fox News is absurd.  It is bad political theater.”

“The main thing is the fake anger.  The shows revolve around anger.  The themes are repeated.  ‘We know something isn’t right.  The system is rigged.'”

“…for people getting sucked into the Fox News cult alternate reality, the hosts and guests are giving me an explanation for why the system isn’t working.  These viewers get sucked in.”

“The hosts and producers and other professionals at Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and other parts of the ring-wing media are very good at what they do.  They’re very convincing.  They are skilled at telling their audience that they will do the thinking for them, boil it down, make it simple.”

“If we could take away all the right-wing media there would still be differences of opinion in America.  But it wouldn’t be this great divide.  The country would not be filled with such a large amount of hate, suspicion and fear that is encouraged by Fox news and the right-wing media.”

“That is what motivates them in their lives.  They get used to the fear and that excitement.  Fox News causes a feeling of devious excitement.  It is an addiction.  We need to give Fox News right-wing addicts something to replace those feelings with.”

How can someone be pro-life if they’re pro-gun, anti-environmental protection, anti-safety net and anti-universal healthcare?  Your right to be born is protected, but after that you’re on your own on a sick earth, where you’re more likely to be a victim of a mass shooting than any other top nation, without the financial means and healthcare to lead a quality life unless you were lucky enough to be born into the ever-shrinking middle class or above.  Forty percent of our working citizens live at or below the poverty level according to Steven Brill in his book Tailspin.  Babies born to these families need our help and protection beyond their birthdays.  Vote for the common good!   Let’s fix the system!

I previously posted a blog exploring the costs of wealth addiction to American democracy.  I’m now going to explore another destructive addiction that alters behavior and also damages democracy:  addiction to power.

According to Nayef Al-Rodhan in “The neurochemistry of power has implications for political change” (2-28-2014 theconversation.com), “Power, especially absolute and unchecked power, is intoxicating.”  Its effects can cause “…lack of inhibition, poor judgement, extreme narcism, perverted behavior, and gruesome cruelty.”  Possessing power causes the release of dopamine creating an “…addictive ‘high’  in much the same way as drug addiction …people in positions of power will seek to maintain the high they get from power, sometimes at all costs.”

This helps explain how otherwise intelligent, honest people engage in spinning and twisting the truth, and telling outright lies.  They are trying to feed their addiction.  I would’t leave my wallet in plain view of a drug addict even if they were someone I loved, because I know their addiction is more powerful than their sense of honor.  Likewise, leaving politicians, powerful CEOs, attorneys and others with access to nearly unlimited power is dangerous.  We need checks and balances “…to avoid the inevitable consequences of power” (Al-Rodhan).

Addiction to wealth and power is currently destroying our great democracy.  Big money must be removed from government and government must govern for the common good. When politicians lie, they are not lying for their party or their constituents, they are lying to maintain their access to power and apparently they will say anything, even when it contradicts their own previous statements.  I often ask myself, how can this person believe what they are saying when the opposite obviously is true.  Now I know, it is their sad attempt to feed their addiction.  I hope they can live with themselves when this is all over.  It is our duty to reel this in…  VOTE for integrity and the common good!

 

In Tailspin the author, Steven Brill, writes that “Americans have been divided into two groups:  The vast majority who count on government to provide for the common good, and the minority who don’t need the government for anything and even view the government as something they often need to be protected from.”  He continues, we “…depend on the common goods a government is supposed to provide.  That is the purpose of government, and a country whose government fails to fulfill that responsibility …is on its way to becoming a failed state.”

The minority (wealthy) has convinced the majority (everyone else) that they don’t need government and that a true patriot is totally self-reliant.  This has created anti-government militias and a reduction in the funding of federal programs like public education, labor protection, environmental protection, and national research and development.  It created a belief that government needed to  be disrupted and weakened and this has resulted in the election of the most destructive president in history.  Right-wing media has been touting anti-government sentiments for years convincing those who need to be protected by the government to, ironically, destroy it and then they have been obfuscating the truth as the destruction occurs on a daily basis.  Is the state failing or has it already failed?  What can we do?

 

“The main reason Trump won wasn’t economic anxiety.  It wasn’t sexism.  It wasn’t racism.  It was anti-elitism” (Burlington County Times 10/13/2019 reprint of Washington Post article by Joel Stein titled “Impeachment is an Elitist Trap”).

According to Wikipedia.org, elitism is the belief or attitude that individuals who form an elite — a select group of people with an intrinsic quality, high intellect, wealth, special skills, or experience — are more likely to be constructive to society as a whole, and therefore deserve influence or authority greater than that of others.  The term elitism may be used to describe a situation in which power is concentrated in the hands of a limited number of people.

Corporations and the wealthy have taken over the U.S. government and economy causing both to work in their favor (because they feel they deserve it) at the expense of us lowly workers.  Trump supporters are correct in their perception that the elites are causing our economic problems.  However, they chose the wrong person to fight it.  Trump comes off as an anti-elitist because of his limited vocabulary, lack of decorum and inexperience, but he isn’t working for us because he is an elitist wannabe!  He lacks the class,  knowledge and confidence to be accepted by elites and those, for instance, who are invited to Davos, an elite club that excluded him until he became President.  His first act as President was to provide this elite with a massive tax cut that only enriches the wealthy in an attempt to impress them.  He is not helping his supporters!  He only needs them to get re-elected so he can continue to enrich himself and those in the group he wants join.  When will they see the truth?

Trump believes he has “…great and unmatched wisdom.”  This causes him to believe he is  his own best consultant and that he doesn’t need to ask the experts.  This self-delusion is dangerous to our country and, more importantly, our democracy.  He has methodically fired or dismissed those who disagree with his decisions of which many are based on disproven conspiracy theories taken from the tabloids or ideas planted in his brain by autocrats from U.S. hostile countries.  This is insane and frightening.

The first and true sign of great intelligence is recognizing and knowing your own limitations, everyone has them so denying them is just plain ignorant.  You know what you’re good at and you ask for help with what you’re not good at.  It is that simple, but his narcissism keeps him from seeing this truth.

In The Death of Expertise, Tom Nicholas says that the death of expertise is caused by rampant narcissism.  Many now believe that they know best, better than the experts.  For instance, we have Jared Kushner thinking he can bring peace to the Middle East, Ivanka thinking she is equipped to intelligently converse with world leaders with decades of knowledge and experience, and Don Jr. believing he has the authority to denigrate proven statesman and public servants.  Three boarding school, trust fund kids with no real expertise in government or foreign policy believing they are somehow magically qualified to fill these positions.

This is just scary and I can’t see where it ends.  It’s not just Trump and his offspring.  The narcissists are lining up to take over leaving the experts buried under a pile of unproven superficial concepts and conspiracy theories.  I got no answers.

 

 

Trump said his phone conversation with the president of the Ukraine was perfect and I say it was perfectly impeachable.  It is illegal to a ask a foreign government to interfere in an United States election and to threaten to withhold congressionally approved security funding until dirt on your political opponent is found and turned over.  The released Whitehouse  transcript of this conversation confirms the contents of the whistleblower’s complaint.  This is a slam dunk impeachment, no further investigation is needed.  GET ER DONE!

Someone posted an essay attributed to Steve Harvey on Facebook last week.  I did not fact check to make certain that these were actually Harvey’s words, but I felt the concept was worth sharing as I continue to try to understand support for Trump.

Trump’s base sees a two-fold problem which is depleted economic opportunity and security, and the immigrants they blame for their economic problems.  They blame the corrupt, out of touch government that caused or allowed this to happen.  They see the government as broken and as something that must be destroyed and rebuilt.  They see all politicians as the enemy, but are particularly hostile to democrats and liberals.  They believe Trump’s wealth and success keep him from being influenced by lobbyists and wealthy donors.  They see the problems as urgent and unfixable.  They don’t care how despicable, dishonest or immoral Trump is because he’s the one who is going to change government, fix the economy and return it to what it once was.

They don’t see the incompetence and the self-dealing and the lies.  They cheer the breaking of our institutions and norms and they don’t care about our standing in the world.  They believe that this destruction will somehow fix government and return it to a golden time that never really existed for everyone.   For the rest of us, who only see the destruction and not the unrealistic vision of how things could be in Trump world, we’re on a runaway train with no one at the helm and no one maintaining the tracks, that is heading toward a crevasse spanned by a broken bridge.

Maybe impeachment is the answer, if not, the 2020 election.  So Vote!!!

Accountability for years of wrongdoing has not stuck to Teflon Don, but guess what, it only takes one scratch to compromise the non-stickability of a Teflon pan.  Will the information provided by this week’s whistleblower cause the first deprecation of this invisible amour that is the result of unearned wealth along with the demeanor of an entitled schoolyard bully?

Apparently, Trump asked the leader of the Ukraine for dirt on Joe Biden’s son in exchange for military support.  Joyce White Vance, a former U.S. Attorney in Alabama tweeted, “If this turns out to be what the whistleblower complaint is about & it’s accurate, Trump must leave office immediately, a president can’t offer US aid to a foreign country in exchange for prosecution of a political opponent. Heaven help us if we can’t all agree.”

Is this the fatal scratch that will cause us to toss this useless pan into the trash?  Don’t let false claims of fake news and witch hunt keep you from seeing the scratch.

 

Mocking a reporter with a disability, outrageous and derogatory claims about Mexican people and a highly limited vocabulary was enough for me to not vote for Trump.  Then the events at Charlottesville and the subsequent pro-white nationalist comments made by Trump convinced me that he did not possess the leadership qualities that Americans deserve.  After those days, I felt a sense of dread and fear that our country was in danger of losing its standing in the world as “… a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere” (Ronald Reagan).  None of these observations were the product of media opinion or fake news.  They were the unadulterated behaviors of an unfit President.  I was very perplexed by the fact that not everyone felt the same way.  This conundrum was actually the impetus for this blog as I explored why others still supported Trump.

Even after two and half years of watching our institutions and world alliances being torn apart and witnessing over 12,000 documented lies espoused by the President, many still support Trump.  Just before I began this blog in November 2017, a respected retired police officer who worked and lived and still lives in my community, wrote a pro-Trump letter to the editor of our county newspaper.  He could not understand why everyone was so critical of this wonderful President.  Now, just this past week, two years later he wrote another pro-Trump letter to the editor.  In it, he is intrigued that other opinions published in the paper “…attack our president with unsubstantiated baseless, fact-less fairly tales.”  He claims that, “…the phony media will stop at nothing to berate our president with wild, imaginary commentary.”  He says that the “…socialist left uses nothing but propaganda, lies and distortions in an attempt to have our president removed from office.”  He continues saying “I challenge anyone from the donkey party to provide factual information that President Trump has violated any federal law commensurate to an indictable, impeachable offense.  There are none, period.”  WOW!!!

The next day another reader called out this author, saying read the Mueller Report and watch another news source other than Fox News.  It is also obvious to me that the retired police officer is living in an information bubble that he refuses to leave and he believes anything outside the bubble is a lie.  Trump is already an unnamed co-conspirator in a felony case and has engaged in many impeachable offenses which do not have to break federal laws to be enforced.  And, this does not even mention the half dozen or more credible counts of obstruction of justice outlined in the Mueller Report.  It is exasperating that an intelligent and productive member of my community can be so out of touch with the truth.  And, sadly, he probably feels the same way about me! LOL

In the article “A Complete Psychological Analysis of Trump’s Support” by Bobby Azarian Ph.D (psychologytoday.com, December 27, 2018), the author outlines 14 reasons some Trump supporters would follow him off a cliff.

1. Practicality Trumps Morality – Tax cuts, deregulation and the promise of jobs are more important than Trump’s behavior.
2. The Brain’s Attention System is More Strongly Engaged By Trump – His showmanship (conman behavior) and simple language resonate with some at a visceral level.
3. America’s Obsession with Entertainment and Celebrity – It doesn’t matter what he says because he’s so amusing to watch.  For that reason, some supporters will forgive anything he says.
4. “Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn” – Some supporters want Trump to be rebellious or to introduce chaos into the political system as they have such distaste for the establishment and democrats.
5. The Fear Factor:  Conservatives Are More Sensitive to Threat – Apparently being liberal or conservative can be determined by biology and evidenced by a brain scan.  For instance, conservatives fear illegal immigrants and feel protected by Trump.
6. The Power of Mortality Reminders and Perceived Existential Threat – Triggering thoughts of death tends to shift people towards the right which is evidenced by Trump’s fear-mongering.
7. The Dunning-Kruger Effect:  Humans Often Overestimate Their Political Expertise – Not only are people misinformed, they are completely unaware that they are misinformed.  People cannot be reached because they mistakenly believe they are the ones who should be reaching others.
8. Relative Deprivation:  A Misguided Sense of Entitlement – Some believe that their lack of perceived and deserved success has been unfairly usurped by others who are equal or inferior.
9. Lack of Exposure to Dissimilar Others – Many Trump supporters have experienced less contact with minorities than other Americans.
10. Trump’s Conspiracy Theories Target the Mentally Vulnerable – Some people are more susceptible to conspiracy theories and magical thinking, and are directly targeted by Trump and his media allies.
11. Trump Taps into the Nation’s Collective Narcissism – Collective narcissism is an unrealistic shared belief in the greatness of one’s national group who believes it represents the “true identity” (in-group) of a nation.  It perceives itself as being disadvantaged compared to out-groups who are getting ahead of them unrightfully.
12. The Desire to Want to Dominate Others – Social dominance orientation refers to people who have a preference for the societal hierarchy of groups, specifically with a structure in which the high-status groups have dominance over the low-status ones.  They are typically dominant, tough-minded and driven by self-interest.
13. Authoritarian Personality – Authoritarianism refers to the advocacy or enforcement of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom, and is commonly associated with a lack of concern for the opinions or needs of others.  Those with an authoritarian personality are attracted to and accepting of Trump.
14. Racism and Bigotry – Not all Trump supporters have prejudice against ethnic and religious minorities.  However, Trump routinely appeals to racist and bigoted supporters.

 

After all this, it is still personally disconcerting that our collective sense of reality would be so different.  I question my news sources and fact check.  I try to identify my personally biases.  I try to understand how others support Trump without being judgmental.  I fear the damage Trump is doing to our country, and moreover, I fear that not everyone can see the damage before it is too late!