Fascism is based in psychological warfare. The Republicans sell lies to manipulate public opinion, and have since Reagan’s trickle-down and tax cuts pay for themselves. That was based on psychological manipulation used in tobacco ads — “More doctors smoke Camels than any other brand”.
Hitler and Goebbels convinced Germans that they should kill their fellow Germans who were handicapped. Not just to be ok with it, but to want it.
Democrats don’t have a messaging apparatus that even comes close to what Republicans have. Democratic messaging is fractured and ineffective.
Democrats think this is high school debate club, where facts matter and the goal is to appear smarter than the other side, mostly with over-intellectualized drivel.
Republicans are street thugs cranking up hate and fear machines. They want to keep people in the lower two levels in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. There individual critical thinking can be suppressed and guttural tribalism can take root and flourish. They want the public to distrust government and Democrats.
Republicans manufacture grievances, then sell themselves as the super heroes who will rescue them from evil, like the fraud Mysterio on Spiderman Far From Home, who used drones to manufacture creatures that were just optical illusions:
Reagan was the first Republican fake superhero, and they worshiped him — until Trump came along.
[Tangent: Trump did not create the Republican cult. It was created by billionaires going back to Reagan, and has been building ever since. That was the beginning of the end of the Republican Party as we knew it. But Reagan was the dead figurehead of the cult worshipers. Trump simply was more of a con man and was willing to lie more than any other Republican candidate in 2016. He stole the role of cult leader from them. But as he did not create the cult as Hitler and Jim Jones did, and he is not really the one pulling the strings (billionaire masters are) Trump can be easily replaced with a new figurehead. They can use the same psyops to turn the cult on Trump, cast him as a fraud who does not truly believe in what the cult does.]
Republicans don’t want to win a debate. They want power, and they are willing to lie, cheat, and steal to get that power. They don’t want to win a debate with logic and facts to persuade people to agree with them. They want to manipulate belief systems to achieve their victory.
And they pay no price for their lies. Most of the media, out of a misplaced sense of fairness, treats Republican lies as one side of a factual argument.
This psychological war is funded by sleazy GOP billionaires who want power — and profit. Democracy is an obstacle to their power, an obstacle that must be removed. Power over taxes, regulations, and the ability to direct federal spending into their pockets. If they have to sell lies, hate and fear to do that, no problem. That’s how they got rich anyway. AND they pay no price for that. In fact, they get richer.
Democrats can beat fascism ONLY IF we recognize that we are in a psychological war and are committed to a clear, consistent and coherent messaging that connects with people where they are, directly and effectively counters the psyop lies, hate and fear BS from Republicans, and are willing to engage in psychological warfare to WIN.
Expose their frauds and illusions. Create doubt. We are not trying to convert cult members. We need to prevent more from drinking the snake oil, and rescue those at the fringe who were leaning in to hear more.
Sadly, Democrats seem to prefer altruistic endeavors, focusing on right versus wrong, while the foundation of democracy crumbles beneath them, and allowing the Republican psyops to spread.
Additional Readings:
George Lakoff — Trump has turned words into weapons. blogs.berkeley.edu/...
