A blog published earlier, since scrolled off, asks how some people can believe the unbelievable. I started this as a comment to the blog but it ran long enough to turn into a diary on its own. I apologize for not digging for more info to present on the previous author’s diary.
I would like to use this blog about GOP folks disconnect from reality to posit some ideas based on personal observations of friends of mine. Several years ago I joined these former co-workers in bible studies at lunch in a larger group but the four of us continued to meet periodically after we all found work at other places. Myself and two others are computer engineers, and one is (was) a CPA controller for big tech companies. The latter, a woman, SL, is a hard-core evangelical christian, SR is a solid Catholic, and the last, RE, is a devout Southern Baptist. I’m a tepid christian with a broad interpretation of existence of a spiritual something beyond our current life because I have a hard time believing my participation in all of “this” (waving my arms broadly to encompass the universe) goes away at death.
During our latest lunch a couple of weeks ago, SL started the conversation about how Trump’s economy resulted in her receiving huge pay raises and bonuses. She was all a gush over his regulation squashing, tax cutting economic powers. In further political topics RE sarcastically referred to “Robert Francis” DUI incidence (we’re Texans and he refused to say Beto) and SR was his usual quiet stoic not-overtly-political self. (He told me shortly after the election he wrote in a third party name rather than vote for Trump or Clinton).
After enduring this train of conversation, I finally got up the courage to ask, “How can you, as Christians, condone the constant stream of lies coming from Trump? How can you condone his amorality at every level?” I referred to a couple of biblical passages where God explicitly condemns liars of every ilk.
The response was interesting and telling. SE & RE both exhibited body language of embarrassment and shame (my interpretation) buttressed by their both stating later that they would vote for a primary opponent rather than for Trump. SL, though, the evangelical, was immediately defensive in tone and body language. I was sitting facing directly across from her and basically directed the question at her. She denied he lied, and when I pointed to specific examples, declared it was his, “schtick”. I pointed out how his various behaviors were the antithesis of Jesus’ sermon on the mount, or Paul’s epistle on love, and she spat back that David was a man after God’s heart, even with the Bathsheba adultery and David’s arranging her husband’s murder. She stated that she believed Trump converted to christianity and at that point we changed the topic because the buttons I pushed made everyone uncomfortable and none of us wanted to push this further.
The content of the original post equated the suspension of belief to people being in a trance. I don’t think trance is the right state of mind to describe the condition of folks believing the unbelievable. When I questioned their reality, this small sample of folks responded with real emotions and cognitive reactions that bely a trance-like state. I think the issue is one of pernicious, persistent propaganda that over time has resulted in a portion of the population self-selecting themselves into self-reinforcing view of the world that is at odds with objective reality.
My wife is German and over the years I learned enough German to get along. Lately, in light of today’s environment, I’ve been watching a lot of German historical documentaries about WWII, including a lot of speeches by Hitler, Goebbels, et al, whose impassioned oration obviously affected a portion of the population to follow their lead. I keep thinking about with the communications avenues of that day, how effective their spiel was at that time to induce a sufficient portion of their population to accept and engage in war and genocide. I believe that a group of sufficiently power-hungry people have employed an advanced form of propaganda with today’s technology to create a group of “blind” followers who are captured and mentally incapable of critical thinking that encompasses a world outside of that to which they have been trained.
One of the huge tools employed by these people is to cause people to emotionally react to words and names. Over time this population has been trained to emotionally respond to “liberal”, “socialism”, “taxes”, “entitlements”, and to “Hillary”, and “Pelosi”. This creation of emotional responses goes both ways, for example, of late, “oligarch” has been used to evoke emotional responses from the left (as noted by the Judge in Manafort’s trial.) On the right, this form of equating democrats to negative magical words has lead to a huge swath of the “conservative” population vowing never to vote for a “liberal democrat”. I believe a sufficiently significant number of independents identify as being “conservative” because that word still has positive connotations. However, Trump’s hateful vitriol appears to be pushing them away.
Returning to the topic title I found that the reactions of my friends showed that even though all of them are hard core GOP followers, two of them (SR & RE) still had enough moral grounding and critical thinking capacity to recognize and be aware of Trump’s amorality. SL, I fear may never be able to connect to reality. My hope is that when Mueller’s report comes out defining Trump’s pervasive corruption, more of the GOP and independents with a grounding in morality and/or some remaining critical thinking skills will choose a route that dumps (pushes for impeachment) or primaries Trump.
Finally, FWIW, I’ve waxed loquacious on the season’s first Glühwein. This is all rampant speculation and my own opinions on nothing but my own observations of life. I also believe everyone is entitled to their own religion or atheism. That’s your business — all I wish for everyone is peace! It’s past my bedtime so I’ll comment tomorrow as needed.