Conservatives, even in the 1950s and 1960s, were creating a cult-like political system that prized orthodoxy over critical thought, alternative evidence, or empirical reality. This is the shadow under which the politics of disorientation operates for movement conservatives. On this point, historian Robert Toplin explains at the History News Network how:
Individuals who seek a broader understanding of the present political standoff in Washington may find Hofstadter’s thoughts on these matters poignant.
Richard Hofstadter recognized that evangelical leaders were playing a significant role in right-wing movements of his time, but he noticed that a “fundamentalist” style of mind was not confined to matters of religious doctrine. It affected opinions about secular affairs, especially political battles.
Hofstadter associated that mentality with a “Manichean and apocalyptic” mode of thought. He noticed that right-wing spokesmen applied the methods and messages of evangelical revivalists to U.S. politics. Agitated partisans on the right talked about epic clashes between good and evil, and they recommended extraordinary measures to resist liberalism.
The American way of life was at stake, they argued. Compromise was unsatisfactory; the situation required militancy. Nothing but complete victory would do.....
Sound familiar?
Movement conservatism is compelling for so many people because of its visceral emotional appeal, and how the mindsets of conservative authoritarians are oriented toward accepting a binary, good or evil, fear-centered, and dominance-oriented view of the world.
Moreover, movement conservatism is obsessed with protecting “real America” and "real Americans".
This functions both as salvation and as something at risk by “liberals,” “progressives,” people of color, immigrants, gays, or whatever other group is viewed as a threat to the status quo of the “good old days.” Alas, this “real America” never truly existed.
Nevertheless, this illusory world must be protected at all costs because it is central to the “politics of disorientation,” a highly theatrical and Spectacular driven political belief system that today’s conservatism uses to make sense of the world.
The culture of illusion and distraction, wherein entertainment is a stand-in for full and authentic human experiences, enables the Reality TV-esque popularity of demagogues like Donald Trump, and the litany of ridiculous policy positions — again divorced from empirical fact or reality — offered by the leading Republican candidates. Here, Fox News, a “news” operation that has made right-wing talking points interchangeable with “facts,” represents the culture of illusion in full operation. That Fox News is America’s highest rated “news station” and actually has the most ignorant and uninformed viewership of any major news media outlet, signals to how entertainment is confused with substance in the culture of illusion and distraction. The masses are asses in such a system, not because such behavior is “natural,” but because such behavior is normalized and encouraged.
The right-wing media is one of the most effective propaganda operations in modern history!
Lies and Deception: The Right-wing media, the elites in the Republican Party, and its various interest groups, are engaged in a systematic campaign of deception toward the American people. This is philosopher Leo Strauss’s theories on truth and leadership in action.
As explained by political writer Jim Lobe:
…Not only did Strauss have few qualms about using deception in politics, he saw it as a necessity. While professing deep respect for American democracy, Strauss believed that societies should be hierarchical – divided between an elite who should lead, and the masses who should follow. But unlike fellow elitists like Plato, he was less concerned with the moral character of these leaders. According to Shadia Drury, who teaches politics at the University of Calgary, Strauss believed that “those who are fit to rule are those who realize there is no morality and that there is only one natural right – the right of the superior to rule over the inferior.”
This dichotomy requires “perpetual deception” between the rulers and the ruled, according to Drury; while Robert Locke, another Strauss analyst says,”The people are told what they need to know and no more.” While the elite few are capable of absorbing the absence of any moral truth, Strauss thought, the masses could not cope. If exposed to the absence of absolute truth, they would quickly fall into nihilism or anarchy, according to Drury, author of ‘Leo Strauss and the American Right'
Movement conservatives, and Republican voters, en masse, are utterly confused about the nature of reality, and respond with rage and anger when confronted by facts — a version of the Dunning-Krueger effect, in which where people are ignorant but do not have the expertise or awareness even to know just how ignorant they are — because they have been systematically misled.
Current conservative propaganda pushes an hallucinatory ideology. This is a dangerous system of belief wherein people are unencumbered by reality and embrace distorted views of the world and the people around them, often driven by stereotypes or other types of hatred, which then works to legitimize destructive behavior.
Hallucinatory ideology helps to create the recalcitrance and hostility to the very idea of political compromise and the open authoritarianism that form the brand name of conservatism and the Republican Party in the Age of Obama.
Thus we find ourselves. And the question-- one that has lingered over American politics since the election of a Black and Democratic president drove the right wing et all into mouth-frothing derangement still remains:
Will normal politics on display in last week’s Democratic debate be able to defeat the willful ignorance and insanity of the Republican Party in November of 2016?
Movement conservatism is compelling for so many people because of its visceral emotional appeal, and how the mindsets of conservative authoritarians are oriented toward accepting a binary, good or evil, fear-centered, and dominance-oriented view of the world.
Moreover, movement conservatism is obsessed with protecting “real America” and "real Americans".
This functions both as salvation and as something at risk by “liberals,” “progressives,” people of color, immigrants, gays, or whatever other group is viewed as a threat to the status quo of the “good old days.” Alas, this “real America” never truly existed.
Nevertheless, this illusory world must be protected at all costs because it is central to the “politics of disorientation,” a highly theatrical and Spectacular driven political belief system that today’s conservatism uses to make sense of the world.
The culture of illusion and distraction, wherein entertainment is a stand-in for full and authentic human experiences, enables the Reality TV-esque popularity of demagogues like Donald Trump, and the litany of ridiculous policy positions — again divorced from empirical fact or reality — offered by the leading Republican candidates. Here, Fox News, a “news” operation that has made right-wing talking points interchangeable with “facts,” represents the culture of illusion in full operation. That Fox News is America’s highest rated “news station” and actually has the most ignorant and uninformed viewership of any major news media outlet, signals to how entertainment is confused with substance in the culture of illusion and distraction. The masses are asses in such a system, not because such behavior is “natural,” but because such behavior is normalized and encouraged.
The right-wing media is one of the most effective propaganda operations in modern history!
Lies and Deception: The Right-wing media, the elites in the Republican Party, and its various interest groups, are engaged in a systematic campaign of deception toward the American people. This is philosopher Leo Strauss’s theories on truth and leadership in action.
As explained by political writer Jim Lobe:
…Not only did Strauss have few qualms about using deception in politics, he saw it as a necessity. While professing deep respect for American democracy, Strauss believed that societies should be hierarchical – divided between an elite who should lead, and the masses who should follow. But unlike fellow elitists like Plato, he was less concerned with the moral character of these leaders. According to Shadia Drury, who teaches politics at the University of Calgary, Strauss believed that “those who are fit to rule are those who realize there is no morality and that there is only one natural right – the right of the superior to rule over the inferior.”
This dichotomy requires “perpetual deception” between the rulers and the ruled, according to Drury; while Robert Locke, another Strauss analyst says,”The people are told what they need to know and no more.” While the elite few are capable of absorbing the absence of any moral truth, Strauss thought, the masses could not cope. If exposed to the absence of absolute truth, they would quickly fall into nihilism or anarchy, according to Drury, author of ‘Leo Strauss and the American Right'
Movement conservatives, and Republican voters, en masse, are utterly confused about the nature of reality, and respond with rage and anger when confronted by facts — a version of the Dunning-Krueger effect, in which where people are ignorant but do not have the expertise or awareness even to know just how ignorant they are — because they have been systematically misled.
Current conservative propaganda pushes an hallucinatory ideology. This is a dangerous system of belief wherein people are unencumbered by reality and embrace distorted views of the world and the people around them, often driven by stereotypes or other types of hatred, which then works to legitimize destructive behavior.
Hallucinatory ideology helps to create the recalcitrance and hostility to the very idea of political compromise and the open authoritarianism that form the brand name of conservatism and the Republican Party in the Age of Obama.
Thus we find ourselves. And the question-- one that has lingered over American politics since the election of a Black and Democratic president drove the right wing et all into mouth-frothing derangement still remains:
Will normal politics on display in last week’s Democratic debate be able to defeat the willful ignorance and insanity of the Republican Party in November of 2016?
