I read an article a day or so ago from Breitbart News. It was about how Trump is shaking up the lazy, antagonistic, dishonest American press corps—all for the good of our country.
Why put myself through such an unpleasant experience, given that I vehemently oppose so much of what this Presidency has done to our country, and what it stands for?
The answer to that question is a simple: ‘Know thine enemy, even if it means an extra hit on his website’. So, from time to time, I follow what is being said on Fox News and read the white supremacist sites that are enjoying a newfound public legitimacy under the rubric of alt right patriotism.
And in this I am unusual. Many of us have withdrawn from paying too close attention to the strident daily shitfest that now passes for government. It is too hard to bear. It’s like watching multiple freeway pile-ups, day after day. After a while, your soul shrinks back and you avert your gaze.
Believe me, I get it. As a Brit who is now an American citizen, I am dealing with the emotional whirlwinds of both Brexit and Trump simultaneously. More than once, I have put my head in my hands and wailed despairingly, “Has the whole of my world turned upside down and gone completely insane?!”
But this diary is a call, both to me and to you, to do something different—and not to turn helplessly away. It’s time for action, folks, because the situation is deteriorating fast. And what is happening is not ‘politics as usual’. So here is what I intend to do from now on, and I hope that you will too.
If those who resist this Administration have felt the urge to cut off, so too has that small segment of the population who actively support the President and his crew. Because, unlike me, and maybe you, they only get their news – or, more accurately, propaganda – from conservative or ‘alt right’ media. And, if you put yourself in their shoes for a moment, why wouldn’t they focus only on such sites? They’ve been told, over and over, that the rest of the media is ‘fake news’.
Creepily reminiscent of Nazi condemnations of the “Lügenpresse”, or lying press, Trump and his crew, as we by now all know, regularly portray mainstream media as ‘dishonest’ and ‘fake’. Following their lead, supporters have taken to reviling such outlets and listening only to those that offer a daily barrage of emotionally charged invective against anything that isn’t Trump, Trump, Trump. All they hear is that it’s Trump and them against all the forces of evil arrayed against them (corrupt elites, the deep state, fake news, Shillary, Mexican rapists, Muslim terrorists etc etc). Given this, it’s no wonder they support him ardently, love the way he sticks it to those who oppose him, and believe only he is on their side.
They have been isolated, and quite deliberately. Isolation keeps them biddable. Trump even tweets directly to them, or holds rallies, so that they don’t ever have to tune into media that might dilute or ‘distort’ his message. He says so himself, as do they. Worse, alt right demagoguery has led to a dehumanizing of those who resist Trump in the eyes of his followers. No longer are the rest of us seen as family, friends, neighbors, colleagues. Instead we are weak ‘libtards’ and deluded ‘snowflakes’, deserving of all we get.
We need to counter this bombardment and isloation. Yet many of us, myself included, have withdrawn from discussing politics with our family members and friends who have supported Trump. Our anger, our hurt at the consequences of their decisions, has meant we have unfriended them on Facebook, or refused to join with them at Thanksgiving or July 4. And if we do see them, we deliberately keep the conversation superficial and away from anything that might fan the antagonism on both sides. The upshot is that they almost never access alternate views, and stay squarely within Trump’s influence.
So what do we do? My erstwhile scholarly career was devoted to researching authoritarian movements whose followers only had access to the often paranoid worldview of a leader, and nothing else. Drawing from those experiences, I have two immediate suggestions.
The first is to maintain contact with anyone we know personally who actively supports Mr. Trump. Keep contact going in any way we can. Because just through that contact, we are helping to introduce new ways of seeing the world that quietly subvert what they otherwise hear 99% of the time—thereby creating a small, healthy sense of uncertainty. Don’t argue with them. Don’t get into a political tit-for-tat. Just be yourself, care about them on a human level, and contact them frequently.
This brings me to my second suggestion: when we’re with them, we should act like feeling and fully human people. Describe both of ‘us’ in human terms; and do whatever it takes to undercut the dehumanizing ‘snowflake’ narrative to which they have been repeatedly exposed.
If they mention Trump repealing ‘Obamacare’, for instance, and it’s an appropriate response, we could try a query like ‘But you must be worried that you/your family/disabled veterans/your seriously ill neighbor Mike won’t get insurance after he signs this bill going through Congress?’
They might say ‘No’. It doesn’t matter. After delivering this kind of comment, don’t press the point. Change the subject. We’ve done our work. We’ll respect their powers of reasoning and leave our words to sink in. We have demonstrated both thoughtfulness, and implicitly criticized Trump, without getting into a slanging match. And that will have an effect on all but the most dedicated follower.
Because what I discovered when researching authoritarian movements is that many people, when in the situation of being force-fed information, have doubts. They may not voice them, and especially not to those they think will turn around and say “I TOLD you so”. But rest assured: they have doubts.
So it’s time to push back, my friends, and counter the incessant propaganda. We need to re-engage with those Trump supporters, whether on Facebook, Twitter, at home, or wherever. Stay in respectful, regular contact with them so they hear more than just Trump Trump Trump, hate hate hate, all day long. And don’t allow them not to see us as real human beings.
It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be frustrating and challenging at times, and it means I am going to have to mend some bridges. But experience makes me willing to bet it’s going to pay dividends.
