While I agree with much of the history overview here, I continue to place my emphasis on the question, "why do economically and racially oppressed Americans regularly cheer on their oppressors?" Why does much of the electorate support intellectually and historically bankrupt ideas? Having read Festinger's work on cognitive dissonance a…
While I agree with much of the history overview here, I continue to place my emphasis on the question, "why do economically and racially oppressed Americans regularly cheer on their oppressors?" Why does much of the electorate support intellectually and historically bankrupt ideas? Having read Festinger's work on cognitive dissonance and Cooper's fifty-year summary of the relevant research, I believe we have to examine this cognitive theory to better understand our democratic inability to learn from our mistakes.
A brief summary with my interpretation, necessarily oversimplified:
Habits of mind and attitudes cultivated and reinforced from birth are very difficult to change. If a relative or family friend helped you significantly in your childhood at a time of fear or crisis, your brain, which desires to achieve closure on most judgments for its own comfort, strongly imprints a positive memory of that person. Let's say that twenty-five years later you
learn from a reliable source that this same benefactor committed serious crimes, ones which
you find specially heinous. Your brain and nervous system is jolted. It cannot reconcile, either consciously or unconsciously, the conflict between long-held truth and contradictory new information. This situation is not sustainable, and so, for its own feeling of security and well-being, it actively suppresses the new information.
Think about Trump's voters: they were impervious to even non-political data. For to accept the truth that DT had committed countless immoral, unethical, and illegal actions over
a lifetime would have been to admit that they themselves had seriously erred in judgment.
Most of us have difficulty admitting we have been consistently wrong about important values.
This is simple; we must respect ourselves at all costs.
To bring this argument closer to the question I stated at the start, these same people would have to look back on a lifetime of being duped by predatory Republicans and neo-liberals. Their minds suppress all the dissonant information to protect its own sanity.
"Most of us have difficulty admitting...." Yeah, but circle back to initial consanguinity. The pre-programmed response is so dominant. Unfortunately, a lot of homo(not so)sapiens seem to get a thrill (dopamine flush) out of vicarious meanness. Bad boy ooh makes me feel good. My lifelong authoritarian "anti-zionist" mom flipped on a dime to "Israel can do no wrong" for a meaner guy on the radio. Thanks for the references. I'll look into all the therapy I can get.
Thanks for your comment. Even though I am a geezer, I am somewhat new to this. The lit of CD is not easy to read, and the original paper and book actually repel your attention. What most impressed me was the experimental design. Reading your comments (and those of others on this site) bring me a bit of optimism.
While I agree with much of the history overview here, I continue to place my emphasis on the question, "why do economically and racially oppressed Americans regularly cheer on their oppressors?" Why does much of the electorate support intellectually and historically bankrupt ideas? Having read Festinger's work on cognitive dissonance and Cooper's fifty-year summary of the relevant research, I believe we have to examine this cognitive theory to better understand our democratic inability to learn from our mistakes.
A brief summary with my interpretation, necessarily oversimplified:
Habits of mind and attitudes cultivated and reinforced from birth are very difficult to change. If a relative or family friend helped you significantly in your childhood at a time of fear or crisis, your brain, which desires to achieve closure on most judgments for its own comfort, strongly imprints a positive memory of that person. Let's say that twenty-five years later you
learn from a reliable source that this same benefactor committed serious crimes, ones which
you find specially heinous. Your brain and nervous system is jolted. It cannot reconcile, either consciously or unconsciously, the conflict between long-held truth and contradictory new information. This situation is not sustainable, and so, for its own feeling of security and well-being, it actively suppresses the new information.
Think about Trump's voters: they were impervious to even non-political data. For to accept the truth that DT had committed countless immoral, unethical, and illegal actions over
a lifetime would have been to admit that they themselves had seriously erred in judgment.
Most of us have difficulty admitting we have been consistently wrong about important values.
This is simple; we must respect ourselves at all costs.
To bring this argument closer to the question I stated at the start, these same people would have to look back on a lifetime of being duped by predatory Republicans and neo-liberals. Their minds suppress all the dissonant information to protect its own sanity.
"Most of us have difficulty admitting...." Yeah, but circle back to initial consanguinity. The pre-programmed response is so dominant. Unfortunately, a lot of homo(not so)sapiens seem to get a thrill (dopamine flush) out of vicarious meanness. Bad boy ooh makes me feel good. My lifelong authoritarian "anti-zionist" mom flipped on a dime to "Israel can do no wrong" for a meaner guy on the radio. Thanks for the references. I'll look into all the therapy I can get.
Thanks for your comment. Even though I am a geezer, I am somewhat new to this. The lit of CD is not easy to read, and the original paper and book actually repel your attention. What most impressed me was the experimental design. Reading your comments (and those of others on this site) bring me a bit of optimism.