Election 2022 and Beyond: Crazy Talk for Beginners
So. Has the fever broken? Does the “red wave” nothing-burger in the November election signal an end to what some have called “crazy talk” in our public life? Probably not.
The “normies,” as normal politicians are described now, won in many races and our own Doug Mastriano did finally concede to Josh Shapiro four days after results were final in the race for Pennsylvania’s governor. But his people are not going away. Most are not likely to change their minds. Maybe now, during a momentary lull in the action, we should claim a moment to take a careful look back at how crazy talk works and how we might protect ourselves against it, and then consider how this surprising election may offer an unexpected opportunity to move forward.
Right away it’s important to recognize that when what we are calling crazy talk is taken up by professionals and systematically deployed it becomes a part of psychological warfare, part of a well-recognized craft around the world. Soldiers and intelligence operatives are trained in it. Great for overthrowing governments in small countries with limited resources. But can there be such a thing as psychological civil warfare in an advanced country like our own? Can it happen here? Maybe so. We may, in fact, be right in the middle of one despite the rise of the “normies” in the recent election.
Who may be paying for this psychological civil warfare is a question I can’t really answer definitively. Pretending like I could would amount to some serious crazy talking of my own. But if we take a look at who benefits from political division, ineffective government and a touch of craziness in “we the people,” a number of candidates do come to mind: foreign adversaries wishing us harm, corporations seeking to avoid regulation, politicians seeking to win elections. Imps and gremlins are in on it too, I’m sure!
However that may be, let’s face it, crazy talk may feel good at times and provide a certain amount of emotional relief to some. Passing on false claims or outrageous anecdotes on social media may sometimes seem like an innocent bit of fun. A personal favorite of mine is the Tall Tale that school districts will now have to provide litter boxes for students who identify as cats. Pure poetry! But crazy talk of this sort damages all of us because it makes real communication difficult and pretty much rules out the possibility of conversation between the major tribes that dominate and divide America.
What’s in the crazy talk tool box? How does it work? As for the tool box, it’s full. Way too many tools to be discussed in a short article. So let’s just look at three for now: denial, disinformation, and demonization.
Ironically, a key element of crazy talk involves not talking—by denying that an inconvenient problem or situation exists in the first place. Covid wasn’t serious, Biden didn’t actually win in 2020, climate change is a hoax. You know the drill! Denial is sweet, sweet because it frees us from a sense of responsibility for something uncomfortable that we don’t want to face. But denial is also dangerous, even deadly at times. Those of us who have dealt with a friend or family member who is alcoholic or addicted to drugs know this in our bones.
Disinformation, it seems, is the essential companion of denial. To make denial seem reasonable, you need an alternative version of reality with a little something to back it up. A vivid but irrelevant anecdote, a little “data” that’s been properly cooked, an expert who in on the deal.
Most dangerous of all perhaps is demonization where your adversary becomes less than human but also looms as an existential threat. Those who are a little hard to demonize like Joe Biden are portrayed as doddering fools, only half awake at best, manipulated by handlers tucked away somewhere in the “deep state.”
Demonization is dangerous because it often has consequences. The neighbor with the annoying yard sign becomes the communist Democrat. How many times has that term appeared in our local paper over the last couple of years? With repetition, it begins to seem—at least to some—like a real thing somebody might be. Locate that communist Democrat in a story about destroying America and the term takes on a magical power, a power to turn a neighbor into a thing, an enemy with almost cartoonish superpowers.
All this matters because those who have studied civil wars in other countries tell us they begin with demonization of one tribe by another. Within five years after the demonization begins, war breaks out. In Gettysburg, given its history, a good many folks turn up with what can seem like a somewhat romantic take on civil war with blue and gray armies conveniently assembled—for the most part—on a field somewhere outside of town and away from civilians. But modern civil war is a different beast entirely, and we are fools if we forget that.
Civil war now in the United States would be a dirty war indeed. Right-wing militias, already heavily armed, would likely kick things off. “We have the guns. Who do you think will win?,” a wannabe soldier recently asked a reporter. But the truth is, the other side would quickly arm up and both sides would go after the targets they can get at. Civilians, as usual, would pay the price.
Do we really want twenty years like Ireland’s time of “troubles”? Do we really want death squads at night and hapless, helpless government by day?
The surprise Democratic success in the November election has set the stage for something new. Let’s study up on the issues, sit down for a conversation with everybody at the table, and get busy building a future in which we can all flourish.