Americans’ dangerous and deadly delusions didn’t start with Donald Trump | Opinion
I am outreach coordinator for the UN-affiliated NGO, International Medical Crisis Response Alliance. One dilemma we’ve encountered lately is responding to foreign colleagues who ask: “What is going on in your country? Millions refuse vaccination for political reasons? President Trump incited a coup attempt and his followers are blaming Democrats? Are Americans insane?”
One of our practice areas is international psychology, so I’ve got the credentials to respond to the sanity question: Why do more than 35% of voters — and 60% of Republicans — vigorously continue to support the policies of the most medically inept and dangerous presidential administration in American history at the potential cost of their lives?
Think of it this way: Today’s average Tiktokking, Facebooking and Twittering American, with little time for extended analytic thought, is a prime candidate for Pavlovian conditioning, which can succeed beyond Pavlov’s wildest dreams. For more than 40 years, electronic media has cultivated the eight-second attention span, the vid-byte, the knee-jerk response.
The next step, sociopolitical indoctrination, was easy.
In the flush Reagan-Bush years, Republicans learned the value of wrapping themselves in endless patriotic imagery — flags, yellow ribbons, weeping eagles etc.— praising the military and highly weaponized law enforcement, damning gun control, striking aggressive poses against foreigners and circumscribing easy enemies — liberals, for example. The political target was an agitated electorate immersed in bombastic and emotional patriotism and knee-jerk xenophobia. Millions of true believers, hungry for a unified American tribal identity, loved it.
Since then, the right has ferociously maintained one of the most convincing e-propaganda campaigns in history, and there has been little to counter it. Since 2004 (when my parents mapped me onto their Republican email forums), I’ve been receiving mails with titles such as “Antifa Celebrates after Cop Is Killed.” It’s a campaign focused on a conservative demographic with little tolerance for the vagaries of cautious objectivity. With the 2009 debut of online entities like the tea party, daily email barrages have been pumped out with increased frequency and vehemence riddled with subtle misrepresentations, blatant lies, false quotes from celebrities, photo-shopped images and an us vs. them lexicon worthy of Goebbels.
Today, Trump-aligned email-based news platforms such as The Epoch Times, Blabber Buzz Alerts, the Daily Signal and the Conservative Newsroom transmit daily inflammatory mailings like “Vaccination Mandate Tyranny,” abetted by talk radio, Fox News, Twitter posts, Facebook memes and Instagram images. Demagogues-in-the-making, like Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, spout provocations and inaccuracies, while Trump himself continues to claim (with the vigorous support of 66% of Republicans) that he is the “real president,” blurting out unrestrained, anti-scientific belligerence while millions cheer themselves hoarse. Ashli Babbitt, killed by a police officer as she rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, is being reconstructed as a martyr to the cause.
And it goes on, metastasizing into the national psyche until events like the Capitol attack become nightmare reality. The relentless indoctrination is so immersive that for millions, reality has become terra incognita. Americans like my parents are adrift in a sea of cherished misinformation. It’s where established media are dismissed as either “fake news” or “deep state,” leaving no choice but a delusional alternate reality. It’s where nothing outside the Trumpist universe is factual. As noted by Israeli and German colleagues, the parallels to Fascism are inescapable.
Playing to their voting base, major Republicans have lately traded responsible statesmanship for agenda loyalty. When elected representatives actively bow to the electronic media-fed delusions of their electorate, with many embracing the anti-mask, anti-vaccination agenda, attitudes are promoted that are essentially criminal endangerment of the American public. Internationally, when internet and social media are co-opted by people like Republican strategist Steve K Bannon to disseminate bad science for political purposes (e.g. Yan Li-Meng’s accusations of COVID being a Chinese biological weapon), a dangerous precedent is set.
Opposition to this onslaught of groupthink has been largely ineffective. Those not exposed to the daily barrage of email and social media propaganda fail to realize its penetrance and effectiveness. Instead of cleverly strategic responses to widespread misinformation, we often get a lukewarm series of cautious, vetted arguments that too often no longer resonate with a large segment of the American public.
An unprecedented threat requires a novel and unprecedented approach. There is no reason why accurate science, the rule of law and democratic fundamentals cannot be conveyed through an alternate set of strategically targeted social-media platforms, also wrapped in American flags, respect for the military and patriotic symbolism, but focused instead on exposing blatant misinformation and delusions.
Those who understand the danger must focus on reaching fellow citizens languishing in a propaganda swamp. This is a dangerous new phase for the world’s longest-surviving republic, and our awakening to it must involve skill, intelligence and strategic daring.
Ana L. Martinez is international outreach coordinator for the U.N.-affiliated International Medical Crisis Response Alliance.