I was going to put this as a separate post, but this hasn’t even been up for a day. So here is a twofer for the S,N reading public.

My worst fears

Here it is. I’ve been working under the assumption that right wingers are operating on a more or less consistent worldview. Their worldview may be foreign to me, given how much it prioritizes the dogma of reactionary evangelical Christianity over the finding of empiracal science. Or the way they ignore responsible economists to follow their trickle down supply side fairy tales. Or the way they prioritze their bigoted fears of women, LGBTQ people and anyone who isn’t paler than a sheet of copier paper in a snowstorm. But still, more or less understandably consistent to their stated values (which I consider to be a horror show).

But what if. What if the thought leaders and billionaires of the reactionary right are not only worse than I thought, but what if they are operating on supervillain level evil? What if they are openly courting war, plague, pestilence and environmental and economic collapse, because it’s the only way they can see to go forward without changing? What if they openly welcome the disaster of global warming, the disruption of mass-migration, and the very real possibility of WWIII, because they think that killion billions is the way forward? What if they look at overpopulation as a problem and don’t mind engaging in passive and active methods to remedy it? What if they think they and theirs can ride out the shitstorm in comfort so they do what they can to actively bring about those outcomes, and fight the rest of us who want to avoid them?

Because if they aren’t operating on that level it would be nice of them to do something that would signal otherwise.

Helmut,

Somebody on LGM posted something that’s worth remembering WRT conservatives and the expected “outcomes” of their policies;

Having grown up a right winger, and having stayed more or less familiar since then with the various flavors of right wing “thinking,” it’s important to understand that a whole lot of it isn’t really aimed at achieving “goals.” It’s basically reasoning from first principles – white people are Good, America is (or was) Great, America is Freedom, People with Money are Smart, God is on Our Side – and letting those principles play out in the world. Where there are concrete goals, they are usually very short-term in orientation and derive naturally from the first principles – Make a Profit this Quarter, Shut that Uppity Brown Person Up, Convert this Person by Sense or by Sword. When the “goals” are longterm, they are so vague as to be meaningless slogans – Make America Great Again, The South will Rise Again, Drown the Government in a Bathtub – and only serve to increase the numbers of their coalition.

Ally this sort of mindset to the kind of amoral hypercompetent technocrat that any modern organization needs to function and you have a powerful tool for Making Things Happen. No conspiracy required.

How DARE they chant “not my President”! That’s only for when Democrats are elected, after all. (And I’m sure Chuckles could recall how Clinton’s Presidency was considered dubious as well, right down to warnings for him not to appear at military bases.I mean, if he worked at it, but why should he?

I’ve been working under the assumption that right wingers are operating on a more or less consistent world-view.

I don’t think that you can consider yourself wrong for doing so, and think that you might possibly be unnecessarily over complicating things, as is our want, given the desire for completion, consistency, and ultimately, fairness.

I think that the “selection” of Trump (to be here after added to Provider’s style-book when referring to the election past) proves, sadly as it may be, that the persons under examination are rather consistent in their world-view, I just think that we have underestimated the ruthless, malice informed behavior, of our counterparts on the right. Have underestimated the bowel evacuating fear of a loss of privilege that while tweaked seriously under “that Negro”, but was raised to a 10 megaton panic, status Alpha Bravo Charlie X-ray, level five alert when the possibility that a Female person might get to sit at “that” desk. And not just any woman, “THAT WOMAN.”

And here you tweek something that tickled another possible unconsidered angle “But what if. What if the thought leaders and billionaires of the reactionary right are not only worse than I thought, but what if they are operating on supervillain level evil? What if they are openly courting war, plague, pestilence and environmental and economic collapse, because it’s the only way they can see to go forward without changing?”The angle that had escaped me, and that I am actually loathe to admit I have not yet considered in my post traumatic recovery from near death, getting out with just enough time to vote, deal with the result while trying to recover my fitness and catch up on all of the reading I’d missed while in the hospital, so that I might get a handle on shit and be prepared to hit the ground running…

While we generally look at Trump as a Foul Mannered Libertine, with lots of money and bad taste that makes some low rent Salvation Army Store offerings embarrassed to be considered in the same category as what the Don prances around in daily, it just occurred to me that in some Fundimigelical circles, teh Donald could be possibly viewed as the seventh seal and that that element is dancing in the streets because they feel certain that they will be the generation to witness “His Return.”

Now again, I’mma just spit-balling here, because I can’t help myself, and also, while I have seen and been through some seriously whacked shit, this pales all other things in comparison…I believe the
phrase in eschatology is immanentize the Eschaton…

As I have not been sleeping well, I will leave this at that. possibly returning later….

Anyhoo, Nice to see you Helmut, and others. Gonna run across the street to get some snacks and shake off this big shudder I just gave myself.
…

Well, the “not goal oriented but reasoning from first principles” idea does explain a lot…

It explains why they don’t have a replacement for the ACA— First Principles dictate that health care ain’t none of that dad-gum gubmint’s bidness!

It explains why they don’t have a plan for global climate change— cuz that ain’t First Principles, neither.

It explains why they hate liberals and liberal policies so much— cuz they don’t show no respect for them First Principles… Taxes are evil! Gubmint is evil!

Yup, that sure sounds like what’s going on.

Krauthammer wrote: “Tuesday night, there stood Obama giving a farewell address that only underscored the failure of a presidency so bathed in optimism at its start. The final speech, amazingly, could have been given, nearly unedited, in 2008.”

It occurs to me that there is a word that succinctly describes the type of failure that has occurred when you can take a speech you gave eight years ago, and the only edit you have to make to bring it up to date is to replace “hope to accomplish” with “have accomplished.” The word is “success.”

Helmut skrev:

Because if they aren’t operating on that level it would be nice of them to do something that would signal otherwise.

If that were their actual plan — if they had a plan, other than “reasoning from first principles […] and letting those principles play out in the world” — they’d at least occasionally display the rudiments of subtlety about their goal.

At least, that’s what I tell myself. But it doesn’t help anymore. I’m becoming a consequentialist in my “old” age (I’ll be 47 next month), and I’ve decided that if you do enough to imminentize the Christian eschaton, it doesn’t really matter whether you meant to do it or not; what matters is that a fiery Nine-Headed Horse is “snorting down out of a cloud of fire with a flaming subpoena made out in your name” (Robert Benchley, “Storm Warnings for New York”, c. August 1926).

Their worldview may be foreign to me, given how much it prioritizes the dogma of reactionary evangelical Christianity over the finding of empiracal [sic] science.

If I may quote myself, conservatism was once a political philosophy but has long since become a religion. The dogma is their worldview, their worldview is the dogma.

Or the way they ignore responsible economists to follow their trickle down supply side fairy tales.

“Tax cuts stimulate the economy” is one element of the Church of Conservatism’s dogma. Dissent is heresy. The Americans for Tax Reform Inquisition, et al., enforces the creed.

Or the way they prioritze their bigoted fears of women, LGBTQ people and anyone who isn’t paler than a sheet of copier paper in a snowstorm.

They aren’t “prioritizing their fears,” that’s who/what they are. More dogma. Dissent is heresy. Worship in the Church of Conservatism requires recitation of the creed. As with any religion, ritual recitation of the dogmas in the presence of coreligionists reinforces belief.

It is foreign to you because projection. You’re projecting your own way of looking at the world onto them. Political ideas aside, conservatives differ from liberals in everyday thinking processes and problem solving. There’s a ton of neuroscience and psychology research clearly showing they simply don’t think as we do, not in the same way at all. Looking at their politics through the lens of your own cognitive style is a category error. Lao Tzu wants to say something to you about knowing your enemy.

When trying to find a solution for some problem, liberals’ cognitive style is to evaluate the problem in the real world context. Liberals’ solutions come from the anterior cingulate cortex. Our solutions are bound to the effects on the real world problem, in the real world.

Conservatives abhor change. The antipathy stems from their cognitive style. The conservative cognitive style reflects a general attitude structure strongly characterized by an aversion to uncertainty and threat. For conservatives, the problem is their worldview is threatened. They evaluate solutions not in the context of the real world problem; the solution for them is to remove uncertainty, eliminate the threat. Dogma is the solution, the solution is dogma.

Here’s an analogy using the “problem of the Trinity.” The early Xian churches waged doctrinal battles against each and another over the triune god versus the unitary god, for centuries. There were further divisions beyond those two camps, and even within the two. There were the Ebionites with their adoptionism, Arianism, binitarianism, docetism, modalism, et fucking cetera. The orthodoxy wars were largely but not completely settled by the meeting of the five families ecumenical councils when they divvied up the turf agreed to a dogmatic solution to the problem of the trinity.

Tom Jefferson ridiculed the notion of the trinity as an “unintelligible idea.” As did Jefferson, I evaluate the notion of the trinity in a real world context. I sometimes ask trinitarian Christians to explain the trinity. Their explanations are invariably nonsensical in any real world context. They cite the (supposedly) definitive Athanasian creed. I tell them that I see nothing but a remarkably prolix¹ recursive permutation of nonsensical bullshit. They keep pushing dogma, usually getting defensive, angry, and hostile in the process. Their solution is to remove the threat. Dogma does just that.

Which brings me back to

But still, more or less understandably consistent to their stated values (which I consider to be a horror show).

Time to channel Voltaire: “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”

Highlights of coming episodes:

Our enemies aren’t political opponents, but rather the narrative.

—

More examples of dogma trumping reality, including not limited to:
severely restricting abortions reduces the number of abortions

abstinence only “sex ed” reduces teen sex and unwanted pregnancies

tax cuts stimulate the economy regardless of whether it is expanding or contracting.

arming everyone leads to fewer deaths by firearm

America is a Christian country

Conservatives are the REAL patriots

And the problem of the backfire effect.

—

Comparison of Young Earth Creationists to lolbertarians and teabillies.

—

The sectarian holy wars among the teabagger and the establishment sects of the Church of Conservatism.

____________________

[1] I hesitated to use “prolix” as it connotes “unduly prolonged” or “an excess of words to convey a meaning.” There are no words to convey the meaning of the trinity because the idea has no meaning. I considered “pleonasm” but thought it had the same problem.

We’re going to need a revitalized Sadly No more than ever during the Trump era.

We’re going to need a revitalized Sadly No more than ever during the Trump era.

Well, I’ll take all the silver linings I can get.

I haven’t been back to your site in months. Can’t tell you how glad I am that you’ve returned to active blogging. We’re gonna need all hands on deck to face the Orange Haired turd (still working on the right appellation).

charlie: how about The Micturian Candidate?

Nequam: Are you thinking about something Serrano-esque?

Or,

of course you aren’t, which has forced some Rude Punditine imagery into my skull concerning ‘dear leader’s’ attempts to consummate a “golden shower” Involving tiny hands rooting about in ponderous folds of flesh and skin to retrieve his ‘Micture” to direct the flow….

…

Nequam: Are you thinking about something Serrano-esque?

Or,

of course you aren’t, which has forced some Rude Punditine imagery into my skull concerning ‘dear leader’s’ attempts to consummate a “golden shower” Involving tiny hands rooting about in ponderous folds of flesh and skin to retrieve his ‘Micture” to direct the flow….

…

Thank you kindly. 🙂

PM’s post was worth the trip here. It was a nice 8 years, but we’re going to need oases like this again. Oddly, I’m slightly worried about getting shot while attending our local Women’s March. Have never experienced this particular variant of paranoia before, but knowing now that 49% of my voting neighbors are misogynist, racist, authoritarian lunatics might have something to do with it.

Appellations

Mango-hued shitgibbon
Hair Fuhrer or Hair Furor
Il Douche
Cheetoh Benito
Droit du Donald (from droit du seigneur)
Trump of Doom
Agent Orange
Super Callous Fragile Ego Extra Braggadocious
Vanilla ISIS
pResident Evil
Polezni Durak (Russian for “Useful Fool”)
Duke Nuke Em
Trumpasoreass Rex
Groper in Chief

The most apt, IMO, The Moscovian Candidate

Boss Tweet has been circulating as well.

Nice essay, PM. I’d like to quarrel with it (can these people really believe this shite?) but it’s hard to find a nit to pick…

********

Revenons a nos moutons…

Trumpster Fire
Combover Nero
Putin’s Poodle
Narcissist-in-Chief

Der Gropenfuhrer
Tangerini Mussolini

Speaking of the end times, the most disturbing thing I’ve read in the last few weeks (and, hey, there’s been some competition in that category) is this Steven Kaiser article that Bruce Wilder points to in a comment under Ronald Beiner’s recent Crooked Timber post, The Political Thought of Stephen K. Bannon, http://crookedtimber.org/2017/01/11/the-political-thought-of-stephen-k-bannon/. I know that’s a long, winding credit but credit is due. Also, I know the Kaiser article was published in Time and who reads Time? The Beiner piece/comments and the Kaiser article are worth reading in full. They are the most concentrated look at what Bannon is up to and, yo!, doesn’t it worry you that we haven’t heard one peep from Bannon since the election. Dude must be, um, concentrating. You _know_ he hasn’t been idol. (As far as I can tell the only substantial comment from him as been “Darkness is good. Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power.” in his Hollywood Reporter interview, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steve-bannon-trump-tower-interview-trumps-strategist-plots-new-political-movement-948747, since the election.)

Kaiser’s Time article is an account of his interactions with Bannon during the filming of Bannon’s (completely psychotic) film about the financial collapse Generation Zero. The disturbing bit (though, again, everything linked to above is worth reading, even rereading) is this:

” . . . Bannon had clearly thought a long time both about the domestic potential and the foreign policy implications of Strauss and Howe. [The Generations guys.] More than once during our interview, he pointed out that each of the three preceding crises had involved a great war, and those conflicts had increased in scope from the American Revolution through the Civil War to the Second World War. He expected a new and even bigger war as part of the current crisis, and he did not seem at all fazed by the prospect.”

http://time.com/4575780/stephen-bannon-fourth-turning/

So . . . the answer to “What if they are openly courting war, plague, pestilence and environmental and economic collapse, because it’s the only way they can see to go forward without changing?” seems to be, yes, yes, that’s right, that’s what they are up to. These guys know what Ariel Sharon wrought when he took that walk on the Temple Mount and they want to one-up him and move the US embassy to Jerusalem as their opening move toward peace. China wants to call in some loans, hey, invading Taiwan might slow them down. And so on . . .

But back to that Krauthammer thing . . .

“Compare this to eight years ago and the near euphoria — overblown but nonetheless palpable — at the swearing-in of Barack Obama. Not since JFK had any new president enjoyed such genuine goodwill upon accession to office.”

Yeah, right. That’s it. Such genuine goodwill toward Obama . . . Robert Draper suggests it lasted maybe a few hours.

“As President Barack Obama was celebrating his inauguration at various balls, top Republican lawmakers and strategists were conjuring up ways to submarine his presidency at a private dinner in Washington.

The event — which provides a telling revelation for how quickly the post-election climate soured . . . ”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/25/robert-draper-anti-obama-campaign_n_1452899.html