Once upon a time a lot of people puzzled over how "The Big Lie" propaganda was so effective

[Tom Rinaldo]

The the thing about "The Big Lie", after all, is that it is based on big lies. Big as in obvious, visible in the glare of bright sunlight nothing shadowy about them, lies. Lies as in, there is nothing subtle about it, with ample evidence to the contrary readily available to completely debunk them.

Doesn't matter, it works. "The Big Lie" gets furthered much like "free speech" gets disseminated in the era of Citizens United. "The Big Lie" overwhelms the truth because of how powerfully it gets amplified. Any of the best writers here can speak the truth effectively to thousands of readers, and leave their mark for a day or two.. Rush Limbaugh has peddled poison effectively to millions for decades.

But it is really only the bully pulpit of the Presidency buttressed by the full power of the State that can propagate "The Big Lie" against all of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. We here in America have, most of the time, been fortunate. Most of us have only experienced the highly effective bipartisan "Big Lie" of the glories of "the system", "the establishment", the "free market" and the status quo. We were conditioned to believe that the full spectrum of politics had folks like Bernie Sanders at the "far left" and Ted Cruz at the "far right" with only a tiny fringe of certifiable loonies falling on either extreme side of that political spectrum. In support of that convenient version of reality, one that locked in disproportionate wealth and influence for a small strata of American society, more extreme versions of "The Big Lie" stayed more of an underground phenomena, perhaps occasionally emerging as "conspiracy theories".

Since the early 60's toxic false ideologies such as "White Supremacy" could not be openly embraced at the top of the American political pyramid. Presidents had to at least pay lip service to the pledge of allegiance; "one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. The entrenched status quo had functioned best with at least a veneer of civility promoted. The bully pulpit was used, largely by both major political purposes, for that purpose. I'm not sure what changed to change that construction. Maybe it was simply the inevitable result of ever increasing demographic changes in America as we move toward being a majority minority nation. Maybe key elements of the entrenched status quo realized that they needed a new game plan in order to defend their privileges.

Once upon a time the preferred "The Big Lie" was this; that we were all one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. That relatively benign version of "Big Lie" is becoming passe as "The Big Lie' shifts to promote divide and conquer instead. This is new for most Americans (though not unfamiliar to oppressed minorities). The full power of the Executive, with the majority of Congress falling into line behind him, is being used to pit some Americans against others. The State, the government we were long conditioned to respect as the expression of the entire American people, now openly demonizes some of us. We are not yet sufficiently inoculated as a people against the virulence of "The Big Lie" being delivered to us from "Upon High". It is yet to be seen if we can develop sufficient antibodies to that quickly enough to not, as a nation, become gravely ill

[unblock]

1. donnie has given us great insight into nazi propaganda and how it was so effective

the prevailing wisdom, as far as i knew at least, was that "the big lie" worked simply because it was so big and all you needed to do was tell it confidently and boldly and refuse to back down when challenged. you do have to do those things if you want the big lie to work, but that's not really what's behind it working.

what's behind it working is first creating a culture of tribalism. tell your people that they are wonderful and virtuous and god's favorites and that they are unjustly under attack from all the others outside the tribe.

then, the big lie works not because people believe it, but because you insist on it as a sign of loyalty, as a marker of membership in the tribe. you've created the feeling that the tribe is under attack, you're effectively at war, or some kind of war, and your leader is calling for unity behind this message or that slogan. it's something you then chant or cheer or repeat simply because that's what you do to show support for your side.

his supporters don't "believe" the big lie in the sense of having thought about it, evaluated it, considered it, and deemed it to be truthful.
no, his supporters simply repeat the big lie because the leader said it, and ok, that's what they're going to do to show support.

when challenged, they insist on it angrily and passionately, not because they care about the veracity of the big lie, but because, to them, you're challenging their identity as loyal members of the tribe. to even consider that the big lie might not be truthful is a sign of betrayal or disloyalty. they *can't* consider it, no matter what logic or facts you show them.

they chant "build the wall!" the way a football team shouts "defense!" and it means the same thing to them.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. Great post. I think "believers" boil it down to "True enough"

Their internalized understanding of "the Big Lie is that it is "basically true, no need to fact check" They believe the thrust of the Big Lie is fundamentally true, that it represents a meta truth (though they never would express it that way) so there is no need to sweat the details. Fact checking is just "gotcha journalism" meant to discredit looking at the "big picture" which is what they think "The Big Lie" is really describing.

And that I think is for the reasons that you describe above. For most of history, most nations have been to a great extent identified with those who lead them. The Democratic experiment, of which America has long been the most visible example, attempts to chart a different course. Trump is a reactionary.

You wrote: "what's behind it working is first creating a culture of tribalism. tell your people that they are wonderful and virtuous and god's favorites and that they are unjustly under attack from all the others outside the tribe."

I agree. The new wrinkle is that American national "leaders", in the post WWII era at least (Joe McCarthy never quite became the leader he aspired to be), traditionally defined the enemy as predominantly beyond our borders - the Soviet menace being a key case in point. Immigrants can play that role as the foil against "our tribe" but Trump is willing to take it even further - identifying half of America with that supposed outside threat, as in "the Democrats are the party of open borders, the Democrats are the party of crime".

[unblock]

4. indeed, he defined the tribe down.

the tribe as you said used to be all americans.

to be fair, while our rhetoric has always been nominally about all americans, going back to "we the people" and "we shall all hang together", etc., we've had an uglier history of fully distributing that to all americans, by allowing slavery and denying the vote to women, and by long treating women and minorities as varying degrees of not quite fully free and equal.

donnie has chosen to redefine the relevant tribe along those ugly lines, and call it the real america -- white, male, christian, etc.

in the long run that tribe's day in the sun is coming to an end we will soon become a "majority minority" nation. but they are not fading quietly into the background. they were not ready to accept a black president and having that follow immediately by a woman president was just too much for them.

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. Keen observatron about the election of a Black President followed by a female candidate.

And we agree. As I wrote above "Once upon a time the preferred "The Big Lie" was this; that we were all one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." It once served the interests of those who benefited from the status quo to keep repeating that. The strategy has changed under Trump: liberty and justice for all has become too threatening an ideological platitude for many of them to hold to.

[ck4829]

3. There is a "Big Lie" and there is also a "Big Lied To"

Things like "I don't wanna cause trouble", "It's wrong, but everybody is wrong", "I can't afford to care", "Gotta respect the office", "But both sides...", etc.

[Wounded Bear]

6. See: Religion 101...