As the American media shifts its focus to Trump's second impeachment, they leave behind the question that was a focal point for the last week -- how did we get here? The answers are obvious if complex. When you literally have a quarter of an electorate clinically delusional, bad things figure to be on the menu. I'm not being hyperbolic here. I've given my take on the situation in many past columns, most explicitly in the two listed below. I recommend readers interested in balancing themselves in our present-day American context revisit those columns.
1) Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (May 25, 2020)
2) The Sanity Test of 2020 (December 27, 2020)
There exists no easy out, no quick fix, when half or more of one political party is so mentally damaged as to be unable to process evidence in a rational manner. I'm sure there are many subtle threads that contributed to our current spider-on-LSD cultural tapestry, but there are also threads that have been flashing neon orange as well. Internet echo chambers have largely replaced small newspapers as trusted sources of both information and psychological equilibrium. The fact that Americans now move every five years means that personal internet gestalts feature more continuity than physical interpersonal gestalts in the real world. Getting unanchored in reality has never been easier, the Middle Ages excepted. As in the Middle Ages, many Americans now tend to be cloistered, and the conspiracists bury their heads in the minutia of folios rather than actually observing the world. Science is anathema to them.
So while the media is mesmerized by the politics of impeachment and the logistics of Trumpian insurrection, I'll turn my attention in 2021 to the delusional nature of large swaths of the American public.
I'm not a political writer; never have been. I was able to see pandemic reality and GOP irrationality, and call them out, because I have a knack for evaluating public evidence quickly and understanding when other people cannot. That's the province of the professional sports gambler. It'll be a useful ability in the months ahead.
My next column will be a shout out to a couple of CNN pieces that set the stage for what rational Americans are going to face in the months ahead.
Buckle up. There's no quick solutions for popular delusions.
Bob Dietz
January 13, 2021
