Read on Twitter
The collective anxiety is the by-product of two unfortunate realities of the Trump era:
1)You’ll never go broke if you consistently bet on the ignorance/depravity of 1/3 of this country.
2)One-half of the country doesn’t believe in evidence. The other half can’t trust it.
1/ https://twitter.com/tborop44/status/1317127791570259969
1)You’ll never go broke if you consistently bet on the ignorance/depravity of 1/3 of this country.
2)One-half of the country doesn’t believe in evidence. The other half can’t trust it.
1/ https://twitter.com/tborop44/status/1317127791570259969
Despite evidence showing Trump is going to lose (possibly badly), there’s an interesting dynamic occurring where both sides have been conditioned to disbelieve evidence:
-The Left suffers from post-2016 election PTSD
-The Right continues to live in alternate-reality defiance
2/
-The Left suffers from post-2016 election PTSD
-The Right continues to live in alternate-reality defiance
2/
Back in 2016, there was a feeling of “inevitability” surrounding Clinton, that was coupled with dismissiveness of Trump due to his ignorance, incivility, and incompetence. The combination of inevitability and dismissal created the shock, that causes the PTSD four years later. 3/
The other factor is that Trump/Republicans know the only way they can win the election is 1) by suppressing votes…. 4/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gops-agenda-under-trump-voter-suppression-pandemic-denial-and-a-personality-cult/2020/10/19/49000fe6-1235-11eb-ad6f-36c93e6e94fb_story.html
….and, 2) by not only looking the other way when foreign enemies interfere with democratic elections, but by corruptly exonerating a treasonous president who extorts that interference… 5/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1241370247187365890
As a result, no poll number is reassuring. If anything, similar to a serial abuser uncharacteristically engaging in a random act of kindness that ultimately proves to be a disingenuous, manipulative sadistic ploy to further psychologically-traumatize the victim….6/
….the encouraging poll numbers feel like a manipulative ploy, by a cruel, gaslighting, serial-abuser that is using a previously trustworthy gauge (polls) to get people to believe, for one final time, in an antiquated version of a reality that no longer exists…. 7/
The flip-side to this is that many Trump supporters have essentially adopted the position that the Left had back in 2016: inevitability. 8/
Yes, there are some in the alternate reality-creating/enabling class who are starting to hedge (Murdock, Cornyn, etc.)… 9/ https://www.businessinsider.com/rupert-murdoch-predicts-landslide-biden-victory-over-trump-report-2020-10
But there are millions of people who exist solely in the Right Wing Media Echo Chamber informational ecosystem, and who have been fed a sanitized version of reality about Trump, his fitness, his competence, his popularity, his invincibility…10/
….which along with their own cult of personality hero-worship, has created such a delusional grasp of reality and unrealistic expectations, that they can’t even begin to conceive of a possibility of Trump losing.…11/
This is where the real danger exists because Trump’s narcissism is incapable of allowing him to lose fairly/gracefully.
12/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1119736855795097600
12/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1119736855795097600
Similarly, many of Trump’s supporters are so heavily invested (ego/identity) in Trump’s infallibility, that they’re incapable of admitting they were wrong. 15/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1164331850975723520
The cognitive dissonance-averting solution for Trump & his cult of personality base?
Claim the election was rigged, b/c according to this narrative, Trump didn’t lose the election, & the base wasn’t “wrong” to foolishly hero-worship a “loser”, or buy into his infallibility. 16/
Claim the election was rigged, b/c according to this narrative, Trump didn’t lose the election, & the base wasn’t “wrong” to foolishly hero-worship a “loser”, or buy into his infallibility. 16/
The "rigged" election narrative also fuels a fundamental tenet of Trumpism: Grievance.
A "rigged" election doesn’t just steal the presidency from the cult leader, it robs Trump’s base of their ego-protecting, self-concept of being “right”.
It robs them of their identity.
17/
A "rigged" election doesn’t just steal the presidency from the cult leader, it robs Trump’s base of their ego-protecting, self-concept of being “right”.
It robs them of their identity.
17/
How low are Trump and his cult willing to go? That remains to be seen.
Trump has no bottom, there is nothing that is beneath him.
The question is how low will his cult followers go to vindicate Trump/themselves, and what will they number if they do? 18/
Trump has no bottom, there is nothing that is beneath him.
The question is how low will his cult followers go to vindicate Trump/themselves, and what will they number if they do? 18/
Other relevant tweets/threads: 19/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1101108717624340481
Thread....23/.... https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1177178331910828032
A thread addressing the roles that personality traits, brain physiology, identity, celebrity, confirmation bias, emotional fulfillment, and sociological factors ("binary institutional conditioning") play in Trumpism: 25/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1212741922793476102
Thread....27/..... https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1304772282284343302
