Those who have read my entries for the last year know that my favorite 2020 word was "delusional," and my favorite phrase has been "cognitive dissonance." I have admittedly worn them out.
The rest of the world, however, is now catching up. Most media conversations for the last two weeks have centered on who is responsible for the degree of Republican electorate delusions in this country and what can be done about it. Commentators have avoided the term "insanity" as that is inflammatory at a time when we are supposed to pivot towards Kumbaya. Thus, media lays the blame on a handful of manipulative GOP leaders and the hypnotic promulgations of social media. "Delusion" therefore becomes a common term.
Pinning down the provenance of people being irrational, however, isn't likely to be helpful regarding existing mass delusions. Delicately ignoring the intractability and ubiquity of Americans being nuts does not solve the issue of their being nuts. It likely makes things worse. My personal suspicion is that attempts to heal a deluded chunk of the electorate without labeling them as deluded is a snipe hunt. I liken it to labeling Norman Bates as a taxidermist in hopes that he won't notice that he's psychotic. We shall see.
I've circled back to cognitive dissonance many times in the last hundred posts, and it's good to see that the phrase has entered mainstream nomenclature. I leave you with a quote from Daniel Hodges, a D.C. cop who was seen crushed in a doorway by Trump rioters in a famous video.
"The cognitive dissonance and the zealotry of these people is unreal. They were waving the Thin Blue Line flag and telling us 'we're not your enemies' while they were attacking us, and you know, killed one of us."
There are no solutions for popular delusions.
Bob Dietz
January 20, 2021
