Reframing Reality
Confusion reigns and it is not all accidental. The process, known in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) terms, is called reframing. When used for personal modification, reframing “is changing the meaning of a communication by changing the context, the frame size or other changes that put the communication into a situation where the meaning is altered.” Unfortunately, under current political circumstances, it is almost the entirety of consensus reality that is being altered.
The concept is not new. What is occurring is reminiscent of what former German Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, employed known as The Big Lie. His infamous quote, “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes truth,” has profound meaning in today’s world. Social media now expedites the transfer of information with few checks on authenticity. As Kellyanne Conway famously stated, they use “alternative facts” and are both comfortable and adept in misleading the American public; and it goes far beyond crowd size.
Public discourse on a variety of topics is inundated with oppositional claims of fake news. Adequate proof exists that all sides have made errors in reporting and sometimes stretch the truth. The issue is not about absolutism, it is about the gross imbalance in equivalency. As such, it is the alt-right, supported by GOP surrogates, that dominate the controversy with verifiably false or misleading commentary. Most readers will recognize that precipitating and exacerbating this effort is President Trump. At his rallies, repeatedly he points to those journalists and camera crews at the back and incites the obsequious audience with his taunts. In fact, he even has claimed credit for coining the phrase fake news, even though it has been used for decades.
A popular postulate is that one can tell a politician is lying because their lips are moving. There is no doubt that prevarication has been prevalent in politics throughout history. There are, however, several recent innovations that should be of concern. One significant issue is that while some of our leaders intentionally make demonstrably false or misleading statements, it is those doing fact-checking who become the ones accused of disruption. Others issues include the increased tempo and often malicious tone of the comments. As of May of this year, the Washington Post had documented over 3,200 false or misleading statements made by Trump since he took office. That number rises nearly daily. Comments of the past week, such as Trump’s claim that the American GDP has doubled or tripled under his watch is patently ridiculous; yet believed by his base.
Significant support for the administration’s machinations come from alt-right media platforms. As acknowledged by one of their prior major contributors, Fox News has become the equivalent of state run media and is now on par with Pravda. One difference seems to be that rather than simply reporting the party line, they often interject material that then becomes policy, or at least White House talking points. The recent appointment of former Fox News executive, and Roger Ailes apologist, Bill Shine, as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, was an unbelievably blatant move.
Fox News is hardly alone as the cacophony reverberates throughout right-wing talk radio. On Wednesday (11 July) Rush Limbaugh was pontificating about the problems produced by “leftists,” whom he theorized dominate much of the U.S. Government’s and academia’s infrastructure and thus are responsible for policy positions and decisions. In his diatribe he addressed those professionals as “over-educated eggheads.” In his view, people who actually know something about the topics they are involved in are to be shunned. In other words, they are “elitists” because they know stuff. The essence of his view appears to be that it is better to have people who don’t understand the history or implications of policies making such decisions as urban intellectuals cannot be trusted. That rings well with his audience.
The emphasis is on reframing the term “elite” by changing the context from a positive attribute (i.e. an elite athlete) into a negative one, thus creating a counteractive foil around which to galvanize opposition. In this current dialogue, “elite” has become a disparaging word, at least as it pertains to social or political interactions. However, the same people who denigrate well-educated and socially conscious individuals, conversely proffer the “America First” doctrine which is elitism on a far more grandiose scale. Not isolated to America, and to the detriment of humanity, nationalism is sweeping many parts of the world.
Obviously, Rush was following the lead of Trump as the latter continuously roils up his base at ego-inflating rallies in which he too attacks “elites” while pretending to be champion the forgotten folks. Recently, in North Dakota he castigated “elitists” noting that he had more money than they did and claimed to be “smarter than they are.” Most amazing was that the audience in that landlocked state cheered the notion that they “had bigger boats.”
Many of those who have done business with Trump know he is a con artist, and a really good one at that. His business model was based on hyping projects and constantly overstating the facts. As ascribed to by the litany of lawsuits, some of which still plague him, he failed to follow through on many of his contracts. Just ask the people he has stiffed. Whether he understands what he is doing or relies on innate skills is debatable. Now known is that he does not adequately prepare for even the most critical interactions. A self-described “stable genius,” when entering meetings, he relies on a megalomaniacal, and undeserved, level of confidence in predicting the outcome. The country is the poorer for it as epitomized in his disastrous recent European trip. To succeed he needs something or someone to blame. Deserved or not, very frequently that person is Obama. However, when none exists, he, like some others, creates one.
Disparagement of intellectuals is not a new tactic for officials who want to create a phantasmagorical adversary. It was prevalent in the rise of several communist government. Mao’s Red Guard was formed to purge those who did not support communist ideology and focused their aggression on teachers and professors. In Cambodia it was taken to extremes with mass murder in the killing fields. There, guilt could be adjudicated for literacy as evidenced by simply owning a pair of reading glasses. Of course it is not just communism, as anti-intellectual tactics previously have been effectively employed in in the U.S. The goal is to separate the middle class (sometimes called the mob) from the natural intellectual leaders. In democracy, all votes are equal and it doesn’t matter if the citizens understand the issues or attributes of those for whom they cast their ballots.
There is little doubt that much of the extant turmoil is the result of massive ineptitude at the highest levels of government. There does, however, appear to be the potential for a more sinister underpinning, that at least some of the perpetrators fully comprehend. In working with NLP cofounder, Richard Bandler, years ago, we learned that an excellent way to influence people was to create mental confusion. In reality, they become much more susceptible to unrecognized persuasion when a fugue state is induced.
Also noteworthy is that intelligent people can be manipulated as easily as those less astute. Already known is that Trump’s base constituents are less educated than their progressive counterparts. It would be a mistake, however, to think that there are not many highly educated Trump advocates. In following their internet posts, it is easy to determine that they too have departed from favoring facts and rely on trusting the source. While clearly illogical from an intellectual standpoint, emotion seems to create scotomas that are irrevocable.
Trump does understand that repetition and relentless pursuit can eventually result in capitulation of opponents. Unfortunately, it is the citizens on America, who are now being ground under – whether or not they know it. There is a reason that Trump likes a chaotic state of affairs. He has learned to manipulate public opinion by adroitly using it. What is equally clear to those who understand what is occurring, this reframing is not being done for the good of either the country or humanity.