Laura Ingraham’s directive given to Lebron James, “shut up, and dribble,” is a good example of how the country’s freedom of discourse is in a state of diminishing return. Laura declared Lebron James unworthy of having a voice. The hostile message was quickly adopted by millions whom turned on Lebron James with similar sentiments, voiced thru the public and social media. As the public saga continued, Laura received backlash. She justified her comments by stating “If pro athletes and entertainers want to freelance as political pundits, then they should not be surprised when they’re called out for insulting politicians.”
Psychological projection is the process of disowning one’s own darker and uncomfortable emotions and personality characteristics, and projecting them onto someone else. In this case Laura Ingraham accused Lebron of insulting a politician, while remaining unaware of her insult to Lebron. Projection places a person in a position of power by humiliating the person they project onto. It’s gas lighting, crazy making, and punishing.
Though projection is an unconscious process, our current political climate incentivizes projection. Relating to people in such a toxic manner normally has a natural consequence of the inevitable loneliness. But if there is no intent to engage in free discourse, then the natural consequences do not apply, and Laura Ingraham is rewarded with a show on Fox.
Projection can be seen everywhere. For instance one specific example has recently come to light. During the debate on October 9th 2017, Trump characterized Hillary Clinton as having run large operations for the sole purpose of silencing the accusers of Bill Clinton. It’s come out to light recently, that weeks after the debate, Trump’s private attorney paid a porn star 130,000 dollars to silence her. At the time she was shopping the story of her past affair with Trump, to news outlets. The payment was made from a phony shell company which was created for the sole purpose of making this payment. The shell company was created at approximately the same time Trump was accusing Hillary of silencing Bill’s accusers.
To give a quick measure of the extent projection has invaded our freedom of discourse, think of terms commonly used such as sheeple, uranium 1, George Soros, and FBI. In each case accusers are guilty of the accusations they wage. Millions of rank and file follow along, while accusing opposing political constituencies of being “sheeple.” Trump has accused the FBI of being politicized against him while trying to rig the justice system and congressional oversight in his favor. Uranium 1 is the accusation Hillary colluded with Russia, while Trump is under investigation for collusion, has laundered money for Russian oligarchs, and to this day conservative talking points are commonly indistinguishable from Russian talking points. Goerge Soros is the liberal billionaire boogey man allegedly pulling the puppet strings of the liberals. Yet the billionaire class controls the country’s wealth and our ideas, and folks such as Laura Ingraham are the purveyors of those ideas.
Lebron James is obviously a secure thoughtful individual. He’s been the primary driver of the NBA’s economic engine for the past decade plus, and he’s a socially conscious individual. But no one is immune to the effects of projection.
Here in lies the slippery slope of freedom we are continuously sliding down. The nature of freedom in a Liberal Democracy is asserted within the context of relationships. People exercise control over events that influence their lives by engaging with other people. We might engage with people from a different branch of government, different business, family, peers, employer, employee, etc. Control in a free world goes thru discourse. Problem solving is turned over and over from people representing any number of angles. The input into problem solving and discourse doesn’t need to be equitable, for all involved to own the outcomes. That’s what freedom looks like. The opposite of freedom is when population A forces ideas on population B, without any ownership of said ideas from population B. To do this it’s necessary to have a concerted and repetitive mouthpiece hostile to freedom of discourse.
Discourse is the method of freedom in any social culture. It’s the reason we no longer live in caves. As such discourse is the frontlines in the battle of freedom; a freedom, which the purveyors of ideas on behalf of the billionaire class, are hostile too.
The challenge isn’t one side forcing ideas on the other. The challenge is discourse. Nothing short of our freedom in a Liberal Democracy depends on it.