Etiquette



DP Etiquette

First rule: Don't be a jackass.

Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

In the last 48 hours

In the last couple of days, scans of news reporting provide more urgent reasons for fear that a major authoritarian MAGA attack on our democracy and rule of law is imminent. California governor Newsome is warning that djt is destroying democracy. At a djt speech in North Carolina, a pro-military crowd jeered at djt's political enemies including Biden and Newsome. A MAGA backlash is forming over corporate support for planned protests against djt's dictator-style military parade. About 1,800 protests are planned, and djt openly promises to use military force to crush them, even though protest organizers are explicit that the protests will be legal and peaceful. 

Images of isolated local riots create an irrational feeling of rising national chaos and deadly threat.


My post earlier today highlights frightening similarities in tactics that vicious tyrants use to gain power, crush political opposition and subvert the law. One of the tactics is to create the illusion of social chaos and grave national security threat. That is happening right now. 

Recent social science research reinforces reasons for fear of the rise of djt as an American dictator. One study found, not surprisingly, that perceptions (real or illusory) of social breakdown ("anomie") fuels fear and a desire for an authoritarian leader who promises to stabilize and control things. Fear makes some people willing to sacrifice their freedoms and rights in exchange for a false perception of safety and stability. But as usual, the researchers have no plausible proposal to combat tyrants that create illusions of widespread social breakdown:

This may mean that authoritarianism can be effectively countered by measures that reduce or help people cope with their feelings of uncertainty, for example, by providing meaning and purpose. This may be by clarifying "the why" of political actions, explaining the sense of policies, or emphasizing the values that guide political decisions.

Note the weasel words "may mean" and "can be." What measures will definitely help people cope? Just look at the situation we are in. Minds are closed. Inconvenient facts and truths are lies. MAGA people's identities and dignity feel threatened. MAGA people are pissed off. Something has to be done. In politics, it seems that the preferred coping measure for a lot of scared people seeing illusory (or real) social breakdown is to support a dictator. That is how they cope. 


“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” - George Orwell, 1984


National Guard troops in LA, no food, water, provisions 
or orders about what to do
SF Chronicle newspaper: We published real photos of 
US National Guard troops sleeping on a floor in LA
MAGA critics: The photos are fake


Voltaire, 1765: "Certainly, whoever can make you absurd can make you unjust" -- This critiques how authoritarians manipulate belief to justify injustice. The original French emphasizes the link between forced acceptance of illogical ideas (absurdités) and subsequent unjust actions.

Marvin Lowenthal (1936) and Richard Dawkins (2006): "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

Norman L. Torrey, 1960 translated Voltaire: "Certainly anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices."