How did a country founded on religious freedom and dedicated to preserving the rights of its people end up here? Or, more to the point, why did we end up here?
It is the height of irony that the Republican Party in America today wants all of us to practice the same religion, belong to the same race, believe in the same limited and unrealistic gender roles, and maintain what the conservative members of SCOTUS call an “originalist” view of the Constitution — meaning, we get our understanding of the world from the scholars of the 17th century.
In short, in a country that’s supposed to represent the best hope for democracy in the world, Republicans want us to behave as if we’ve learned nothing about astronomy, chemistry, physics, sociology, biology, or psychology in the last ~300 years.
Here, where 30–40% of our population believes in manufactured realities and is willing to “fight like hell” to protect them, and the other ~70% spends all its time deflecting gibberish disguised as “truth,” leaving them little time to assess and address the problems of the real world . . .
Why did we end up here?
I’ll give you a hint: it wasn’t an accident.
Semantic infiltration — one of the tyrant’s most effective tools
Semantic infiltration is a fancy way of describing how some people demonize concepts or people by weaponizing the words they use to describe them. The abortion issue is a perfect example.
. . . no matter how pro-choice Democrats frame the issue, by adopting the language of anti-abortion Republicans, they have already lost the war of messaging. After all, through the dichotomizing of the abortion debate, for one camp to be pro-life, the other must be anti-life. Right? — The Daily Pennsylvanian
So, if Dems are anti-life, they must be pro-death. If that’s true, then killing and eating babies isn’t that big of a stretch.
Semantic infiltration can make a complex problem seem simple. It’s why people who have never read the Constitution think the Second Amendment says you can give an 18-year-old an assault rifle. Of course, nobody gets that from reading the Second Amendment — it comes from semantic infiltration on the Republican side.
Politicians use it deliberately to confuse the population so they will support the politician’s agenda regardless of whether the politician returns the favor and supports his constituents.
Putin and Trump are masters of semantic infiltration
The key to manipulation via semantic infiltration is how it builds on itself. It’s like the human version of the algorithms social media uses to suck people down the rabbit hole.
You start with something that sounds reasonable.
“Who here wants to protect babies?”
Then you find examples of botched abortions (even if you have to get photos from questionable sources that may or may not be doctored).
Then, finally, you show these horrific images to people who now know, for the first time, that these appalling surgeries are occurring “all over America,” and it’s up to YOU to stop them.
After all, “You want to protect babies, don’t you?”
Pick a subject, any subject. There is a template for this, and autocrats have perfected it. Putin used it (with the help of the Internet Research Agency) in the lead-up to BREXIT. The Russians continued their highly successful misinformation campaign during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election and throughout Trump’s presidency. And they’re still doing it now.
Putin uses semantic infiltration regularly in discussing the war in Ukraine. Bolsonaro used it to stoke the recent uprising in Brazil — calling it a way to “save Brazil.” It’s the essence of the tyrant’s handbook.
The way to get people to act against their self-interests is to redefine those interests for them.
Critical thinking skills are our only weapon
The only known weapon against semantic infiltration is critical thinking. That’s why Republicans don’t like higher education or science. Once people learn to think for themselves, semantic infiltration doesn’t work so well.
In 2016, people with good critical thinking skills thought Trump couldn’t be elected. That’s probably because they could see what a moron he is, and they assumed no thinking person would elect a moron to be president.
But not so fast! A moron might elect another moron to be president — you didn’t think of that, did you? You should have. It’s happened before. When George W. Bush became president, someone in San Francisco covered the Bush St. sign with the word “puppet.”
Bush was the first puppet president. Trump was the second, but that’s not the only thing they have in common.
Republicans are ruled by the rich who prefer stooges they can manipulate. During the Florida recount in the Bush v. Gore presidential election of 2000, when loud and raucous Republican activists showed up (FYI: Roger Stone was among the agitators then, too), the counting stopped.
Rather than risk violence, SCOTUS handed Bush a victory despite what could have been a victory for Gore. Where do you think they got the idea for January 6?
The election of 2000 was the first time I realized that wealthy men were manipulating the non-thinking Republican base. The American people have never elected these men, but they control this country because they have the bulk of the money in this country. (Wealth inequality has very practical consequences.)
The financial power of American corporations now controls every stage of politics — legislative, executive, and ultimately judicial. With its January 2010 decision in the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court removed all legal restraints on the extent of corporate financial involvement in politics, a grotesque decision that can have only one effect: maximizing corporate — not national — value. Today’s CEOs have been granted the power to direct political payments and organize PAC programs to achieve objectives entirely in their own self-interest, and they have been quick to use it. — Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance
However, the jig may finally be up. For this scheme to continue to work, the critical-thinking skills of the American public must continue to deteriorate — informed people don’t vote for leaders who steal from them.
Republicans can only win if they can find more uninformed voters
The problem with the Republican status quo is that it requires ignorant people to maintain their ignorance. Based on the election results in 2020 and 2022, there aren’t enough uninformed Republicans in America today for Trump to win in 2024 — but it’s closer than many of us would like.
Perhaps the religious right thought by outlawing abortion in as much of the country as possible, they could produce the lemmings they need to do better in the future. But that won’t help them next year.
They’ve already made fools of themselves by contradicting their own statements (as if YouTube doesn’t exist and nobody will ever discover their inconsistencies).
They’ve also managed to kill themselves off in droves by pretending COVID is a hoax and vaccines don’t work.
Now Republicans want us to believe we are all being threatened by those whose gender identity, sexual orientation, race, religion, or lifestyle choices differ from theirs.
How is the idea of someone different a threat to anyone?
We’re not saying they can’t practice their religion, choose their partner, or select their pronouns — but they are punishing us for wanting to make those same choices for ourselves. And yet, somehow, they fail to notice this hypocrisy.
The good news is that as the human race evolves, more and more of us will learn tolerance and develop the willingness to embrace people from different cultures. And as the right-wing crazies bemoan the 17th century, when men were pigs and women were chattel, we will welcome a future where people can be themselves without fear of culture wars ginned up by rich white guys who just want to rule the world, like they used to.