Pillow idiots prophecy and flying saucers...which will be fulfilled?
We will never correct the maelstrom of misinformation infected fellow humans who believe the lies…big and small promulgated and set loose by the cartel of republicans, fux news and evangelicals. The lies, deceptions and violence are all in service to maintaining white supremacy, white privilege and white ego.
Of course this is nothing new. But it helps if we understand that there really is no hope for those lost in the Republican wilderness. The vast majority of people caught up in this are doomed to an existence of fear and hatred, most not willingly. This is nothing new, psychologists will helpfully explain the desire to cling to preconceived notions, especially if others seem to concur, even in the face of compelling contrary evidence. Cultish behavior manifests all over the place, most especially where there is a vacuum of critically based education.
I ran across a profound example of this when reading a book called “The Bomber Mafia” by Malcolm Gladwell. It’s a short book about the decision making process during World War II about how the character of strategic bombing would be managed. More to the point it is about how highly educated and well meaning people can become so fixated and subsumed by their beliefs that they can see no other way as being acceptable.
Author Gladwell, in making his point, uses an example from a cult that formed after World War II called the Seekers. Gladwell quotes a research psychologist named Leon Festinger who observed this cult and reported on its evolution. In it he relates “the leader of the Seekers was a woman named Dorothy Martin, who claimed to be in contact with a group of aliens she called the Guardians”. The idea was that the world was going to end on a certain date and she and the cult members would be rescued by a flying saucer just before the end came.
The cult members left their jobs, gave away all their possessions and left their families in service to this flying saucer event. As each time and date passed with no world ending event nor any flying saucer showing up, she just changed the timing and so on went the waiting. Eventually after several delays she said god had contacted her and changed his mind and all was well because of their belief in her prophecy.
The psychologist Festinger observed at the end of this that belief, commitment and irrevocable action will not be defeated by “unequivocal and undeniable evidence that the belief is wrong”. What happens when these kind of people hit a wall of evidence against their beliefs? They double down.
We Americans have entered an unusual phase in our democratic journey. We have a cult of Seekers who have acquired status and power. They call themselves republicans or conservatives, often at the top of their lungs screaming about their unassailable patriotism. These people are un salvageable, they through no fault of their own have been swept up by forces beyond their ability to understand, control and critically examine.
To expect any kind accommodation or partnership with these people is pure fantasy. They have fallen into the abyss and the abyss is not giving up its prey.
Come August 13, 2021 pillow dudes prophecy of trump being reinstated as president is nothing more than flying saucers and moving time tables.
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