Political Theatre category archive
Presidential Participation Trophy 0
Will Bunch suggests that President George the Worst does not deserve to receive an award that has variously been shared by Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, and Rep. John Lewis.
Methinks he has a point.
(Broken link fixed.)
A Line on Lines 0
Thom and his guest suggest that, if persons are willing to stand in line for iJunk, they should be capable of standing in line for a ballot.
Aside:
This was posted the day before the election, but it’s relevant any time.
“The Other” 0
In a piece that I suspect fear will be quite useful in examining the results of this election, regardless of the outcome, Cannon Thomas explores the dynamics of “us” vs. “them.” Here’s a bit:
Here’s what mobilization against “them” looks like:
- We identify people or groups of people who are a threat to what we value and begin to have intense automatic emotional reactions to them. These emotions are well-studied and arise before we have even mentally processed the content of what the other person is saying.
- That gut emotional response shapes and informs all of our opinions and attitudes. The reaction precedes any rational awareness of the content of the issue, and our attitudes are very hard to change from that point. We create very elaborate and convincing arguments for what we already felt. People are wired to assume what they see is all there is, so we fail to realize that we are becoming entrenched in a very limited perspective.
- We minimize or marginalize the other person or group. We process them as less human, more limited or impaired on a moral level, and as less “right” than we are. How else could they fail to see what is so obvious to us?
- We mobilize against them to protect what is “right” or “good.” Sometimes we do it with the sense of being engaged in a moral good; sometimes we do it with a frustrated defensiveness. Regardless, we fight for what we believe is right.
The result, in any situation where cooperation is required, is disastrous.
Remember, for Republicans, everybody else is a “them.”
“A Pointless Waste of Time” 0
David points out that fact-checking Trump is a pointless waste of time, because his dupes, symps, and fellow-travelers don’t care and everyone else is already on to him.
Recommended Reading 0
Shaun Mullen rounds up a list of the best books about Russian Impulses.
Playing the Victim 0
A letter to the editor of my local rag exposes the con.
Herky-Jerky 0
Jeremy E. Sherman explores the moves and motives of “total jerks.” Here’s a bit from his intro:
Some people love the way he’s putting total jerk liberals in their place to make America great. Some people just think he’s a total jerk. Either way, his behavior is a golden opportunity for us all to attend to the most fundamental moral challenge ever: How to identify and thwart total jerks.
“Lessons in Leadership” 0
My boss at my first full-time job was a really good boss. (Like many good bosses, if he had a failing, it was that he would try too hard to save the jobs of persons who had demonstrated that they richly deserved to be separated from the organization.)
One day after I had known him long enough to feel comfortable do so, I asked how he got to be so skillful at managing people. He replied, “Welllll, I think about what my first boss would have done.
“Then I do the exact opposite.”
Ronald E. Riggio suggests that the same statement applies Donald Trump’s leadership you-could-hardly-call-it-a style.
False-Flagging Interests 0
PoliticalProf explains the cynical cycle of the conservative con.
Articles of Faith 0
David Atkins calls the roll of what modern American conservatives must believe in order to be, well, modern conservatives. In the aggregate, assembled all in one place, the list is mind-blowing. Here’s a bit of it; the rest is at the link.
To be a modern conservative is to believe that thousands of desperate Central American migrants are being paid by George Soros–himself a symbol and often a substitute code word for Jews, also coded as “globalists” in mainstream Republican rhetoric–to come to the United States to vote illegally and disrupt the midterm elections.
To be a modern conservative is to believe in a ludicrous, grandiose conspiracy of tens of thousands of organizers, undocumented people and elections officials to implement voter impersonation fraud at scale.