When I was a teen during the “W” years I knew the Republican Party was not for me. At the time I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I got mean spirited, sinister vibes like racism & nationalism but back then no one said it out loud. Like you’ve said again and again Trump made the implicit into explicit. Just when I think they cannot top themselves in sheer cruelty, I’ll be damned they do it again ( and my chest pains return). I Wouldn’t put anything - ANYTHING - past GOP…. End of rant
I agree up to a point with the argument that the Right wants to hurt Biden's America. Yet I don't believe that Fox News and right-wingers would be super gung-ho about promoting vaccination if Trump had won, precisely because of other points like catering to anti-vaxxers and the outrage algorithms.
Underlying many of the reasons that Dan provides for why the GOP is willing to embrace misinformation and disinformation that is harmful, even deadly, to its voters is that is a continuation of a strategy necessary to solve the “conservative dilemma,” or “plutocrat dilemma:” How does the GOP, the party of plutocrats, win support and power to enact policies that are, in fact, not at all popular, such as keeping taxes on the wealthy low, and minimal regulation of corporations? One of the key strategies has always been to focus on cultural issues (e.g., abortion, guns, etc.), so that the focus is not on the policies that are actually the GOP’s agenda. Vaccine disinformation, anti-Fauci rhetoric, and fighting mask mandates are tailor-made tactics for carrying out this strategy of keeping the focus away from the GOP’s actual positions.
Can I rate this right up there as one of your top posts of all time? And I'm right there with you. The 2022 game is gonna be 'blame Biden' for pandemic and subsequent deaths, supply chain-shortages, CRT, the border 'crisis', the January 6th insurrection.
I like the injection of hope in using the term "post-trump era," but are we, really? Is it more accurate to say we're living in the shadow of the trump era, but not quite "post?" The country seems currently to be reaping what he has sown.
Excellent. May I suggest two further points? One, the Wilhot (sp) quote is dead on, but you can and should also quote Cory Robin’s insightful work on conservatism. Second, another element in the conservative opposition is fear of the success of a government program. The underlying fear is of dismantling structural racism.
It makes sense that the demented R's might use the Russian playbook of "chaos" to increase/create their autocratic power structure. Bill Barr did his best to make the executive branch "supreme". (Hatchet Man by Elie Honig is great BTW) You have a sense that R's feel that with their gerrymandering super powers they can handle some deaths in their own party. It is sickening. You only hope that some of the survivors start to realize they have been lied to.
This isn't new, though, right? I mean the Southern Strategy and earlier campaigns like McCarthyism are foundational to this. I read Joe Feagin's "White Racial Frame" and it explains a LOT about why and how this is the strategy and the structure of government. Tradition! To the point of killing people. I feel like this creeped into the mainstream when Sarah Palin was given a platform. But I also think it was there all along. After all, as Douglass states, "power concedes nothing..."
One aspect of the targeted disinformation campaigns is the subject is always just beyond the low-information voter's reach.
Economics, science, sociology, immigration - these are all deep-dive issues that require attention to both detail and broader forces at play.
Targeted, divisive and sensationalized disinformation, leveraging complex issues with 'simple' answers that resonate with a low-information, easily triggered base is the propagandist's dream.
Tell them they are under attack. Tell them that anyone standing in their way is a traitor. Never apologize. Never retreat. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
I still do not understand how Republicans can think anti-vax propaganda can be a survival strategy. It means their ever-smaller base is shrinking even more. It means that their only pathway to power is by greater and greater voter suppression of "the other". We are looking at an ugly future if they gain power again.
When I was a teen during the “W” years I knew the Republican Party was not for me. At the time I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I got mean spirited, sinister vibes like racism & nationalism but back then no one said it out loud. Like you’ve said again and again Trump made the implicit into explicit. Just when I think they cannot top themselves in sheer cruelty, I’ll be damned they do it again ( and my chest pains return). I Wouldn’t put anything - ANYTHING - past GOP…. End of rant
I agree up to a point with the argument that the Right wants to hurt Biden's America. Yet I don't believe that Fox News and right-wingers would be super gung-ho about promoting vaccination if Trump had won, precisely because of other points like catering to anti-vaxxers and the outrage algorithms.
Underlying many of the reasons that Dan provides for why the GOP is willing to embrace misinformation and disinformation that is harmful, even deadly, to its voters is that is a continuation of a strategy necessary to solve the “conservative dilemma,” or “plutocrat dilemma:” How does the GOP, the party of plutocrats, win support and power to enact policies that are, in fact, not at all popular, such as keeping taxes on the wealthy low, and minimal regulation of corporations? One of the key strategies has always been to focus on cultural issues (e.g., abortion, guns, etc.), so that the focus is not on the policies that are actually the GOP’s agenda. Vaccine disinformation, anti-Fauci rhetoric, and fighting mask mandates are tailor-made tactics for carrying out this strategy of keeping the focus away from the GOP’s actual positions.
Can I rate this right up there as one of your top posts of all time? And I'm right there with you. The 2022 game is gonna be 'blame Biden' for pandemic and subsequent deaths, supply chain-shortages, CRT, the border 'crisis', the January 6th insurrection.
I like the injection of hope in using the term "post-trump era," but are we, really? Is it more accurate to say we're living in the shadow of the trump era, but not quite "post?" The country seems currently to be reaping what he has sown.
Excellent. May I suggest two further points? One, the Wilhot (sp) quote is dead on, but you can and should also quote Cory Robin’s insightful work on conservatism. Second, another element in the conservative opposition is fear of the success of a government program. The underlying fear is of dismantling structural racism.
It makes sense that the demented R's might use the Russian playbook of "chaos" to increase/create their autocratic power structure. Bill Barr did his best to make the executive branch "supreme". (Hatchet Man by Elie Honig is great BTW) You have a sense that R's feel that with their gerrymandering super powers they can handle some deaths in their own party. It is sickening. You only hope that some of the survivors start to realize they have been lied to.
This isn't new, though, right? I mean the Southern Strategy and earlier campaigns like McCarthyism are foundational to this. I read Joe Feagin's "White Racial Frame" and it explains a LOT about why and how this is the strategy and the structure of government. Tradition! To the point of killing people. I feel like this creeped into the mainstream when Sarah Palin was given a platform. But I also think it was there all along. After all, as Douglass states, "power concedes nothing..."
Now we know why the GOP does it. But it’s similarly, if not more important to understand why the base believes it.
One aspect of the targeted disinformation campaigns is the subject is always just beyond the low-information voter's reach.
Economics, science, sociology, immigration - these are all deep-dive issues that require attention to both detail and broader forces at play.
Targeted, divisive and sensationalized disinformation, leveraging complex issues with 'simple' answers that resonate with a low-information, easily triggered base is the propagandist's dream.
Tell them they are under attack. Tell them that anyone standing in their way is a traitor. Never apologize. Never retreat. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Brilliant insights as always. Thanks Dan.
I still do not understand how Republicans can think anti-vax propaganda can be a survival strategy. It means their ever-smaller base is shrinking even more. It means that their only pathway to power is by greater and greater voter suppression of "the other". We are looking at an ugly future if they gain power again.