I would like to offer some additional food for thought on the points Thom is making here. When it comes to politics, I think the late Hunter Thompson nailed the process Thom talks about. Thompson pointed out that lying instills "fear & loathing." Fear & loathing has been a mainstay of Republican methodology used to scare and enrage voter…
I would like to offer some additional food for thought on the points Thom is making here. When it comes to politics, I think the late Hunter Thompson nailed the process Thom talks about. Thompson pointed out that lying instills "fear & loathing." Fear & loathing has been a mainstay of Republican methodology used to scare and enrage voters to reject their Democratic Party opponents' programs and platforms.
Trump has successfully used fears such as the radical liberal Democrats are passing laws to "groom" your children in school to be queer or to surgically change their gender. They might stoke fear that you will lose your job to somebody you consider racially inferior to yourself, or fear that the Democrats will raise your taxes to fight some stupid war far-far away that has nothing to do with you. Then Trump turns that fear into loathing through rambling amplifying rants about fictional events like immigrants eating your pet cat or dog.
Hitler's head of Nazi propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, pointed out that repetition triggers confusion that, in turn, triggers rationalization to resolve the discomfort that confusion generates in our brains. For too many, the illogic of repeated lies is resolved by pseudo-logic. One might think: "Trump would not lie repeatedly, he is richer than me and therefore smarter than me, so it must be true." Or, they might think that, "If it was a lie, by now somebody would have called him on it. However, the only people calling it a lie are Democrats offering no proof and they are motivated to beat him in the election." By the time the mainstream media finally does disprove a lie, it is so deeply embedded in the minds of believers that the proverbial tie goes to the liar.
Ezra's poetry was overly obscure, intentionally, I think, to garner a profundity typical of fascist self-branding. Some lit professors I saw too were cautious in their coverage, thinking his poetry must be great because they were included in top ranked categories, but with little actual interpretation. They covered him and quickly moved on, leaving little time for class discustion.
I would like to offer some additional food for thought on the points Thom is making here. When it comes to politics, I think the late Hunter Thompson nailed the process Thom talks about. Thompson pointed out that lying instills "fear & loathing." Fear & loathing has been a mainstay of Republican methodology used to scare and enrage voters to reject their Democratic Party opponents' programs and platforms.
Trump has successfully used fears such as the radical liberal Democrats are passing laws to "groom" your children in school to be queer or to surgically change their gender. They might stoke fear that you will lose your job to somebody you consider racially inferior to yourself, or fear that the Democrats will raise your taxes to fight some stupid war far-far away that has nothing to do with you. Then Trump turns that fear into loathing through rambling amplifying rants about fictional events like immigrants eating your pet cat or dog.
Hitler's head of Nazi propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, pointed out that repetition triggers confusion that, in turn, triggers rationalization to resolve the discomfort that confusion generates in our brains. For too many, the illogic of repeated lies is resolved by pseudo-logic. One might think: "Trump would not lie repeatedly, he is richer than me and therefore smarter than me, so it must be true." Or, they might think that, "If it was a lie, by now somebody would have called him on it. However, the only people calling it a lie are Democrats offering no proof and they are motivated to beat him in the election." By the time the mainstream media finally does disprove a lie, it is so deeply embedded in the minds of believers that the proverbial tie goes to the liar.
Ezra's poetry was overly obscure, intentionally, I think, to garner a profundity typical of fascist self-branding. Some lit professors I saw too were cautious in their coverage, thinking his poetry must be great because they were included in top ranked categories, but with little actual interpretation. They covered him and quickly moved on, leaving little time for class discustion.