After I wrote what you are about to read (if you choose to do so), I started thinking about censorship. Spoiler alert: I did not come up with anything earth shattering. But I did do a lot of navel gazing while writing, since I, like most humans with heartbeats, have some opinions relating to the American presidential election last week.
Also, because the results of the election seem to have unleashed a tsunami of truth telling, I am thinking a lot about political beliefs, and the ways that disagreements about these can but don’t have to cause people to literally end friendships (see calls to disassociate with loved ones who voted for Trump…vs. experiencing curiosity instead: https://mariannewilliamson.substack.com/p/trump-takes-a-hammer-to-the-e… ). It reminds me of a time in the very recent past, when the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” was created and when speaking a certain kind of truth - that which questioned the Official Narrative - caused bureaucrats to censor and double down, and individuals to in many cases enforce the bureaucrats’ bidding no matter how ludicrous these diktats became. In other words, my experience during covid lockdowns - by no means unique, but certainly the truth as I saw it - was to watch totalitarianism rising in real time.
Here is a summary of Matthias Desmet’s theories of the psychology of totalitarianism (I always remember what I read somewhere: no pure form of totalitarian government has ever existed…which is why it behooves us, I believe, to notice at any given time whether it is rising or falling):
- Modern science and technology have led to feelings of loneliness and disconnection from social and natural environments, which have contributed to the emergence of totalitarian states.
Totalitarian states rely on a specific group formation called mass formation, where individuals lack critical distance from the group's beliefs and become willing to sacrifice everything for the group's cause.
A new kind of totalitarianism, known as technocratic transhumanist ideology, is emerging, with an emphasis on extreme technological control and leadership by experts.
Classical dictatorships are based on fear, while totalitarian states rely on mass formation and the manipulation of collective ideologies.
Mass formation leads to a loss of individual agency, intensified fear, and the development of a fanatical belief system tied to a specific ideology or narrative.
Totalitarian systems control private spaces as well as public and political ones, and their control is maintained through the reporting of dissonant voices by individuals indoctrinated by the mass formation ideology.
To prevent the rise of totalitarianism, individuals must speak out respectfully against dominant narratives, avoid falling prey to alternative mass formations, and challenge the materialistic rationalist view of the world that contributes to vulnerability to manipulation.
https://glasp.co/youtube/p/how-mass-formation-psychosis-takes-over-soci…
I find Desmet’s theories remarkably accurate and compelling, and I have tried to “speak out respectfully against dominant narratives” since before I ever heard of Desmet, in early March 2020 when I finally began noticing what was happening. At first I felt completely alone, but thought it would be a simple matter of facts and math that would persuade folks I knew to stop panicking and see what I saw, and calm down the freaking-out, authoritarian politicians. Five years later, I am not nearly so lonely, but not because my naïve tactics of persuasion actually worked! For nearly five years, friends and strangers have informed me that my questioning of the party line was “dangerous“ and “unacceptable” and furthermore, in many cases, that they wanted to stop having contact with me. This was the first time I can remember having a personal experience with this sort of groupthink, partly because I had been engaged in it myself (but on the groupthinking side of things) For whatever reason, this time I saw it and started talking about it, and so quickly, more than just a few friends cut ties with me.
I now know that similar estrangements were playing out between MANY folks who expressed dissenting views while facing an onslaught of criticism from their nearest and dearest. Stop Talking About Forbidden Topics, was the subtext of the criticisms…Because Then We Will Welcome You Back Into the Social Order. Otherwise…We Are Done With You.
On the other hand, when I was on the receiving end (of exclusion by draconian mandates as enforced by individuals either for personal reasons or on behalf of organizations), something just sunk out the bottom of my heart. I found that I did not want to put any further energy into such relationships, even while I wondered, as the years went by, how I could mean so little that no apology was forthcoming.
It has seemed so unlikely that an equilibrium will be found: how to diffuse the ugly power that seeks only more power, how to pick up the shattered pieces in so many countless personal lives, how NOT to be subsumed by a political machine that works well for only a very few…when one is not at all hobbit-like and is really really exhausted? When will it again be possible for political disagreements between individuals to simply remain divergent opinions, rather than cause for social shunning and feuds?
There can never be rules for speech and relationships that are always true. It’s a double negative paradox, maybe? There are times when anyone might have a valid reason for not wanting to have a particular discussion. There are times when requests to Stop Discussing Something In The Moment do NOT include requests for the other to censor themselves for all time and in all contexts. There are honest struggles in the challenge of upholding the right to free speech, in addition to demonstrably egregious attempts to squelch it. Individuals often have valid reasons for asking others to do things. There are people whom we love dearly, even when they disagree with us, and even when we perceive their choices to be made under the influence of powers we find abhorrent, and even when they hurt our sensitive snowflake feelings.
Well, back to the navel gazing, I guess. This is what I find myself ruminating about these past two weeks, coming up with way more questions than answers, as usual. But what an interesting interlude on November fifth! I could literally feel the narrative shattering into a trillion jillion pieces of nothing. Dust! Totalitarianism falling! (For now.) What comes next is unclear, but it is certainly not the mass formation of the past five years. And I suddenly felt great freedom to celebrate, an experience maybe out of the twilight zone.
My first thoughts on the morning after the election comprised total vindication, satisfaction writ large: So THIS is what a red wave feels like! Such sweet relief!! An actual widespread rejection of censorship and elitism and “far left” ideology! Wahooooooo!!!
I hadn’t exactly known what I would feel for either outcome, ahead of time. And these were my own opinions and emotions, of course, and I in no way expect you to share them. I know many people felt entirely otherwise two weeks ago, as I personally did back in 2016. But that was then, and THIS is now: a second term for Trump, and I am SO relieved!!
Wait, “President Donald Trump” and the word “relieved” in the same sentence?! And along with “totalitarianism falling” in the same essay?! And with me the author, a formerly identified as leftwing female, no less?!
I’m just saying what I experienced, a unique yet enormously communal feeling of relief, because as if I had X-ray vision I could “see” all across the country, people just like me, celebrating! But these celebrating folks were NOT actually just like me, and we were celebrating for all different reasons - those were two of the great things: so many people both similar to and also UNLIKE me, such a diversity of backgrounds and situations and experiences and beliefs, were actually politically united for a split second in this grand American experiment! People who understood, just for one example and even when our lawmakers don’t, what the economic squeeze is doing to average people, and how stupid it is for politicians to censor people rather than trying to understand them.
All these things and more were running through my head, along with a powerful curiosity concerning what January will bring, moments before some fascinatingly righteous democrats starting encouraging leftwing folks to disown friends and family who voted for Trump or otherwise subscribe to Incorrect Beliefs.
Really? From the party that used to talk about Tolerance? (I really should have gotten the memo back after Clinton’s Deplorables, I guess.) You mean we should only remain friends with people if they agree with us on every topic you have decided is most important?? (And who ARE “you”, anyway?!)
My continuing thoughts, as the post election moment continued to fade, were:
Harris and the far “left” establishment may have no idea why she lost (making vindication far less sweet).
It is quite possible that Trump and many of his followers don’t fully understand why he won (so they could very, very easily squander the current, curious potential of a truly multipartisan stint of governing).
The “victory” of this red wave is not (yet) that something major has happened, although if Trump’s appointment of RFK Jr. and others to positions of power within the administration actually happen, incredible swamp-draining could occur, the likes of which I have never dared hope for, and to the immediate benefit of those who value free speech, real food and agriculture, better Health Care choices, and (dare we hope?) _not_ WW3. (Not in my lifetime have there been such interesting political possibilities, for better or worse.)
No, the real victory, to me, is that for a few moments on that Tuesday into Wednesday morning, a bunch of people from so many unlikely corners (even the Amish came out to vote for food sovereignty) witnessed a collectively sweeping mandate against gaslighting as a method of federal control. It is true that Donald Trump is no Mother Theresa. It is not at all clear what populism will bring. But populism cannot be censored and lectured and suppressed away, and that is one of the truly Democratic things Donald Trump’s victory makes clear.
For four years, millions of Americans have been saying, I can’t pay my bills, I can’t afford a decent place to live, I have no way to save, I don’t want forced vaccinations, I don’t need to be taught “how to think.”
And in direct response, completely sidestepping the actual issues, the reigning establishment who called themselves “left” said, You are racist! You are sexist. You are transphobic, uneducated, anti-science, anti-vaccine, anti-immigration, anti-environment, and we have decided that only a few protected characteristics of identity, primarily ones over which you have no control, are now the basis for us deciding whether you are deserving of pity…and YOU don’t have any of those characteristics. So we will ask you to step aside please, and stay out of sight. Further, we will never ever talk about money and poverty because the economy is doing so much better now, and you are stupid if you don’t see that and can’t balance your budget. You should always listen to our doctors, and take and give your kids whatever drugs we tell you to, and that’s a top priority, it’s one way you pledge allegiance to The Party. You are ignorant and toxic, and if you disagree with our opinions you should stay home and be quiet and if you don’t we will Shut. You. Down.
Yeah. I think that about sums up the apples-to-kiwis that I have watched and experienced as “national discourse” for the past four years especially. It’s bullshit, and there’s nothing “progressive” about it.
And I’m not the only one tired of the witch trials, the McCarthy-style accusations toward anyone who doesn’t fall into line with the establishment narrative as parroted by the dying legacy media, the shadow banning and censorship directed by the government in cooperation with most major social media outlets. We are tired of years of pretending that economic well being is secondary to any/everything else, a luxury belief afforded only by those whose income is higher than almost everybody in the country. We are tired of all of this coming from the Democratic Party, formerly the party of the working class.
I was registered as a democrat for my entire adult life until very recently. I wanted to participate in the democratic process, such as it is, and vote in the democratic primaries. I stopped registering democrat after I voted in the primary a few years back…when Biden was installed as nominee BEFORE the primary was even held in my home state, just like Harris was installed without consulting voters this time around. Who runs our two political parties, anyway?!?! I never get to vote for THEM, nor even learn who they are.
But I digress: the real reason I no longer register as a democrat is because now and for years already, the party has been urging followers to confine themselves to an echo chamber, cut off ties with friends and family members who think “wrong,” and otherwise reject realities such as: we have a surprising amount in common with our fellow humans, no matter their political affiliation or beliefs or voting records. There are lots of other pressing issues in the world besides Donald Trump. In fact, there is actually more to life than politics! And there are WAY more than two ways to look at the world.
Due to Donald Trump having won a second term as President, I feel safer admitting: I actually like the way the world looks, warts and all, after I stopped defining over half of the population as Ignorant and Dangerous. (I am not proud that I didn’t feel so comfortable admitting that three weeks ago, but I’m just being honest here, since we’re on the topic of a political party that likes to talk about feelings an awful lot.) I like nice people, no matter what their political beliefs happen to be. And, even nice people sometimes disagree with each other. I want my kids to grow up with robust ethics and morals…AND for them to welcome a diversity of beliefs in their friend circles. I do NOT want my kids to threaten others with censorship and cutting off ties if their friends’ beliefs (or their friends’ parents’ beliefs) are different, and I want my kids to freely speak their own truths (as long as they pretty much agree with their mother, of course).
I wonder if the “party switching” that happened between “red” and “blue” in the 1800s is something that is happening right now. Is it possible that Trump might end up becoming a more Bernie Sanders’ type president than Bernie could ever have been? Is it possible that big gains could be made for food and health policy in the coming years? What is to become of misguided wars, pollution and overdevelopment and toxins and fossil fuel use in our world? I don’t know, and predictions always fall short of reality. But in any case, I am curious what will happen in January 2025, even while I work on the personal growth necessary to make Satisfaction less contingent on vindication and more on finding zen-like enlightenment. But hey, I’m only human! 😁 and so today, at this moment, I must be content with finding hope in curiosity and speaking my truth.