We didn’t lose our minds… they were stolen
How we were divided… and how to fix it…
The recent criticisms of Democratic Party messaging are more than warranted and long overdue. Unfortunately, this criticism may very well be too late as the Republican Party seems to have thoroughly captured the minds of millions of us through decades of slowly escalating disinformation and fear-mongering. The Democrats not only remained unaware of the creeping and long-lasting effects of Republican rhetoric, but they were also unwitting partners all along.
There is a big difference between a divided nation and a nation that is being divided, and America is the latter. Politics in America is butt-ugly at this point and it is getting uglier by the minute. It is literally impossible to keep up with the toxic messaging that is spewing out of conservative voices — ranging from subtle to shocking but always nonstop and always from multiple sources. They are feeding Americans a steady stream of crazy conspiracies to believe, new people to hate, and concocted ideas to fear — all of which, they are quick to point out, can only be remedied by the Republicans. They provide the “threat” and the “haven” — both of which are illusions.
These folks understand that fear is one of our strongest and most primitive emotions and therefore one of our weakest points, and they play it, and us, perfectly to get what they want out of us. There is much more to this than just fearing someone or something and the fear-mongering does much more damage to us than we realize. It is very important to understand the psychological tendencies related to fear, self-esteem, etc. that we all share and how they can be, and have been, used to exploit us.
What follows is a cursory overview of some of the psychology behind our behaviors, all supported by years of research and studies. One thing to keep in mind is that the behaviors outlined below are not necessarily associated with lower intelligence — people with higher intelligence simply come up with more sophisticated logic and reasoning to justify their emotional responses which are driven by their subconscious.
Fear
Readers may be familiar with the idea that fear will quickly put us into “fight or flight” mode when we sense danger, bypassing reason, analysis, and logic in the name of efficiency. While we rely on fear to protect us from immediate threats, the fear of persistent threats can take its toll on us, and because much of it is processed in our subconscious, we have no clue how it impacts our behavior.
Protracted or aggregated fear makes us retreat to the familiar, but when we retreat, it is not only from the perceived threat but also from anything or anyone different from us. Fear reduces our ability to rationalize and we are more likely to “see” additional evil or threat in those that are different than us and, just as dangerous, it allows us to ignore or accept the negatives or even the evils of those who are similar to us.
Readers may not be familiar with the elephant in the room… and our heads. Without exploring this too deeply (references are at the bottom), we are all cursed with mortality awareness (the understanding that our existence here is temporary and out of our control). The only reason humanity has been able to deal with this burden is that our subconscious drove us to create or embrace social constructs such as religion, tradition, heritage, family, patriotism, consumerism, wealth-building, etc. to give us a sense of greater meaning for our existence, a connection to something that transcends us, or even a sense of immortality.
The deeply important comfort these constructs provide (dealing with our own mortality) makes us highly protective of them and creates two responses in us. The first is that when we are reminded of our mortality (or feel threatened) we tend to fall back on these constructs and look negatively at other constructs, ideas, and people that are different. The second is that threats (real or perceived) to our constructs, especially those such as religion and heritage, are interpreted by our subconscious as threats to our existence or threats to the meaning of our existence. This can trigger a “mortality defense” in us that will drive us to do whatever it takes to protect ourselves from these threats, actual or otherwise.
All of this is well-understood and has been proven out by social psychologists through hundreds of experiments performed around the world. This area of psychology is known as Terror Management Theory and is very important to this discussion as it points out that seemingly benign fear-mongering can actually deeply affect listeners and push them to dangerous behaviors — all the way to the acceptance of genocide.
Self-esteem
There is more to self-esteem than driving around in a big truck or a Lexus (explicit self-esteem). It’s also about our place in society (implicit self-esteem) — are we fitting in, do we belong, are we contributing, or are we successful to the degree that our society expects?
America has been suffering through decades of wealth-driven ideologies and policies that have shrunk the middle class, moved more and more of us into poverty, and have all but removed any hope for getting ahead. All of this slowly erodes our self-esteem as we feel ourselves being left behind by the rest of our country. We want that existence back — we want our country back — we want to fit in.
Humans need strong self-esteem more than we realize and one way to restore our self-esteem is to look down on others. This provides at least some, albeit false, sense of dignity or superiority by making us believe we are better than at least some people. Unfortunately, our subconscious will tell us exactly who we should look down upon… those who are different from us. Importantly, and like protracted fear, it doesn’t matter if they have caused our suffering or not — they are different and that is all our subconscious cares about. Having low self-esteem can also make us vulnerable to the influence of others as we subconsciously look for those who can help us out of our mess and thus restore our pride and place in society.
Low self-esteem works hand-in-hand with fear. When our self-esteem is in poor shape we are more susceptible to fear, more willing to look down on those who are different than us, and more likely to be swayed by others. If we are told that some specific people or ideas have caused our suffering, then all the better. This is especially true when those who provide us with these scapegoats are charismatic or in positions of authority (news anchors, pundits, politicians, presidents, and even preachers). Looking down on “others” is a general-purpose tool that our subconscious uses to repair our self-esteem, but that self-esteem is turbo-charged when authority figures tell us who or what we should specifically fear and blame for our (supposed) failures… and what we should do about them. Also, there has been plenty of research that shows the fear created by climate change is causing people with low self-esteem to act even more negatively toward nature (denial of climate change, increased consumerism, disregard for endangered species, etc.)
Group Association
As fear or damaged self-esteem makes us withdraw, we are greatly relieved when we learn (or are told) that others are suffering along with us. Even without physically interacting with them — just knowing they exist — gives us a much-needed sense of belonging. This is further exacerbated by the internet and social media which creates a 24/7/365 virtual back porch where our new-found group interactions bring us validation, amplification, and even expansion of the fears and the threats that brought us together. Being a member of a group, even if vaguely labeled as “not those others”, provides a sense of safety. Those who are most like you are probably the ones who will restore your world.
Not only do we identify with the group, but the group can become our identity as we continually strive to reshape ourselves to be more like the people in our group — no matter how radical the group becomes. We readily ignore facts or embrace conspiracy theories if that helps to prove our commitment to the group. The safety we find in our group is more important to us than truth. The denial of climate change shows that we can discard facts that aren’t even an attack on us or our group — it is the source of the “fact” that is all-important. The refusal to wear a mask or receive a Covid-19 vaccine reveals the power of our subconscious, as all too many of us are willing to sacrifice ourselves and even our children to remain in the group.
When our self-esteem is in desperate need of repair we eagerly embrace and even obey the charismatic voices who promise to alleviate our internal subconscious suffering. If candidate Trump had one message, it was “there are many forces that are working against you and only I can save you”. We are empowered when public leaders at the highest levels openly, even if disingenuously, have our back. We believe that such leaders will return what has been taken from us.
Being part of group gives us a sense of power, and for many Americans, this new feeling of power makes up for all the years that we were wrongly cast aside — and we will not let go of this power. Conversely, moving away from a group is difficult, because not only would you be heading off into the unknown, you would also be betraying that which gives your life meaning.
Physiology
Studies and experiments have shown differences between liberals and conservatives when it comes to sensitivity to threat, group membership, negative bias, etc. There is ample evidence that even brain structure comes into play as those people that identify as conservatives tend to have a larger and more responsive amygdala (the fear processor in our brain) and at the same time, those who identify as liberals showed more activity in their anterior cingulate cortex which is believed to be related to accepting change.
It is also understood that Conservatives are also more likely to lean on tradition, heritage, and well-defined hierarchical structure for both family and society. Liberals, on the other hand, typically have less structure and let their children explore a bit more and learn for themselves.
All of the above is just part of being human. None of it is necessarily bad, and if we were left purely to our own devices then humanity would probably get along fairly well, but unfortunately, people have always been under the influence of leaders one way or another. We are all vulnerable to this, and it’s pretty easy to see how our subconscious processes and the abundance of ill-intentioned voices can easily align against us. Unfortunately, because most of this impacts our subconscious, we are unable to recognize it, even in our resulting conscious and very public behavior.
Through no fault of our own, many of us have been put in a position that has made us extremely vulnerable. This has primarily been because of decades of wealth-inspired policies such as trickledown economics, runaway (and one-way) capitalism, the free-market ideology, etc. all of which resulted in a decimated working class, a massive shift of wealth, a corrupted government, and a melting planet. Many of us rightly feel that we have been left out of a society that measures success by consumerism and wealth — we have nothing, not even hope. This has led to the problem America is facing today, where many of us have diminished self-esteem, making us more vulnerable to the daily barrage of ideas and people to fear, which allows us to be intentionally herded into those ready-made safe-havens (such as The Tea Party and MAGA), which ultimately makes us easily manipulated and controlled.
There are plenty of voices involved with all this and their agendas could include any of the following (and probably more):
- Fear-mongering and manipulation being done simply for a paycheck
- Lower tax rates for the wealthy so they can pocket more for doing less
- The continuation of pro-wealth policies
- Political power grabs to appease their benefactors or their egos
- A marginalized government that provides fewer protections to its citizens
- A wealth-controlled government that no longer represents its citizens
- The destruction of Democracy by external actors and their internal minions
And all of this is wrapped in an emotional appeal to our love of country and our vague craving for what we think we once had, making us love our country to death. The “psychological intersection” of fear, poor self-esteem, group association, and newfound power can be used to make us do things that we normally wouldn’t do on our own — such as marching on a campus or attacking the Capitol.
Those of us who identify as conservative are a bit more vulnerable to this rhetoric than others because of a stronger relationship with heritage and tradition, greater resistance to change, a stronger desire for hierarchy and authority, and more active fear processing. None of these are wrong or bad, but they are being ruthlessly used against us.
Words are powerful and they have more impact on people than most of us realize; because of this, it is important to choose those words wisely — especially these days. We don’t necessarily have to coddle everyone all the time, but being aware of what messages will fan the flames will guide us in tempering what we say. If done correctly, not only will we reduce the digging in of heels, but we will give listeners more constructive things to think about and work towards. There are discussions to avoid or reframe and there are discussions to carefully highlight. Elections are won and lost by a handful of votes and more thoughtful messaging could make a difference.
Let’s wrap this up with some hints to Democrats on how to improve the messaging of your accomplishments and how to reduce your triggering of the Right and the number of talking points they provide to Conservative media…
- Avoid lecturing and lecturing tone of voice — nobody likes to be told what to do or want
- Quickly, robustly, and continuously reverse course on “defunding the police” — the police provide safety, thus reducing fear and opportunities for those highly damaging fear-mongering talking points
- As good as it may make you feel, leave the statues alone and only go after the very top of the NRA (the majority of members want improved gun control)
- Avoid triggers — focus on the actual and immediate needs of the audience, not on greater ideas such as transformative or sweeping changes. Remember that an inclusive America is interpreted by many on the Right as an America that excludes them.
- Avoid explaining policy with a spreadsheet — use emotion and find folks’ heartstrings
- Get the Democrats and their constructive voices back out in rural America and keep them there — and do it now
- Find and develop new mechanisms to push through the barriers of information that conservative media has created (billboards can be strategically placed and are not impacted by social media filtering algorithms)
- Go after Republicans while avoiding triggers — focus on how they are hurting families and America — point out their lies and their lack of respect for their own base
- At this point, nobody is going to change their mind on immigration, abortion, etc. but these topics will make some voters forget about every positive the Democrats do or talk about…
Do all the above continuously — do not wait for election season A few sound bites here or there will not undo the non-stop messaging from conservative media, will not be heard on conservative media (unless it is a trigger), and will soon be drowned out from multiple conservative sources.
Resources
These are just a few of many resources available to learn more about our psychology and our politics
A very good starting place — The Ernest Becker Foundation
A significant number of interviews with thought leaders provided by the Hub of New Ideas (Especially Episode 2 on Bigotry and Episode 12 on Self-Esteem)
How fear increases climate denial
A deep dive into our fears and how they control us
A random sampling of the many articles on the web:
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-supporters-2654459460/
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/05/alternative-facts
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/this-article-wont-change-your-mind/519093
https://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html
