Selective Singlethink

This is a montage (by my understanding not comprehensive) of the media badgering Trump during the election campaign to disavow David Duke*, and Trump routinely doing so. Supposedly these are news organizations, which means they should strive to provide their audiences with new information. Yet they convey zero new information when they ask him if he disavows Duke 25 years after he first did so, and a day after he most recently did so. Trump disavows Duke and doesn't care for his support. That's the story. By bringing the subject up constantly the outlets are seeking to psychologically condition their audience. By forcing Trump to constantly talk about Duke, they're are training people to subconsciously associate him with Duke. Not only that, but the insinuation is always what about Duke, why have you failed to disavow? The audience is left with the impression that Trump has hesitated to disavow America's favorite bogeyman, even though he hasn't. This is how they were able to build the belief that Trump is a white supremacist, even though Trump has never said anything remotely to that effect, and his immigration policy was largely indistinguishable from that of Democrats during the Clinton administration.

Now we see they are similarly pushing the notion that Trump is "embracing neo-nazis." Despite the fact that he specifically denounced white supremacists and neo-nazis by name, the narrative is that Trump needs to be impeached for publicly supporting them. They've justified this narrative because Trump also denounced left-wing violence. The message from the left would seem to be: if you question our violence you are a nazi. At any rate, I've had success quoting Trump's statement on facebook, often baiting with something like, "this is what Trump should have said."

No matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws. We all salute the same great flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God. We must love each other, show affection for each other and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence. We must rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans.

Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans. We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our creator, we are equal under the law and we are equal under our constitution. Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry, strike at the very core of America.

This tends to garner positive feedback. People heap on praise on it and they agree that's what should have been said, and even ask why Trump didn't say that. I then inform them that it is actually Trump's statement, from the same news conference in which they say he embraced neo-nazis. What do you think their reaction would be? Something like, "Wow, maybe I was wrong about Trump on this issue. Thanks for sharing the source so I could directly analyze the comments for myself rather than relying on the media spin." Lol. Sorry for the camp humor, just trying to lighten the mood. While we would never expect to hear that, we would expect responses of the type, "well sure his speechwriters wrote that but we know what he really thinks" (the Trump-is-a-racist-no-matter-what-he-says-and-does fallacy), or "by calling out Antifa he's supporting fascism" (a childish black-white stance on morality, as well as high gullibility to marketing). Which of those responses do you suppose I see the most?

Actually I get no responses at all. None. By my little trick I've forced the person to realize that their own impartial judgment of Trump's statement flies in direct contrast with their strong opinions on it. And because they didn't recognize the quote, I can assume that they didn't know what Trump actually said at all. Why don't they comment? Because they don't know what to say? Because they're embarassed and bail out of the convo asap? Maybe, but my experience with debating liberals online is that they usually have something to say and they don't get too embarrassed by logical contradictions.

The reason they don't comment is they would have to admit they had read it. By saying anything at all, or even so much as giving a reaction, they admit that they are now aware of the contradiction. By not commenting, they can pretend they didn't read it at all. They never saw it; it never happened. They can continue to believe that Trump issued a pro-nazi statement, just as they believe he didn't disavow David Duke. This is what brainwashing looks like. I think Orwell got it a little wrong. He said the characters in 1984 displayed doublethink, the ability to hold two contradictory ideas in their mind at the same time. Or, as I think of it, an immunity to cognitive dissonance. But did they really? When they switch from we're at war with EastAsia to we've never been at war with EastAsia, they aren't really holding two contradictory ideas in their minds at all. No, they just flush the first out entirely, and convince themselves it never happened. It's not doublethink, it's selective singlethink. It's not an immunity to cognitive dissonance, otherwise they'd have no problem responding to my posts. It's just extreme confirmation bias, where contradictions to bias are rendered invisible no matter how prominently they are presented. Are you scared about the future yet? I am.

It's probably all gloom & doom from here on out, but that doesn't mean we can't have a little fun with it. What ridiculous things can you get them to pretend doesn't exist so they don't disturb their established biases? Make it a game. Be creative. Then we'll get together and share selective singlethink war stories over beers sometime before The Purge begins.



*Aside: who the fuck is David Duke anyway? I venture onto some pretty far-right forums and I've never seen a reference to Duke. I don't know anything he's ever said or his stance on any issue. Does anyone? The most I know is that he was once a high-ranking clan member, but is no longer a member. Which can't be so terrible in itself, given the praise Democrats threw onto Robert Byrd. Previous Klan membership is not enough, so why is Duke given an evildoer level on par with Satan himself? Something else that has been noticed: Twitter has been purging alt right accounts feverishly, especially since Charlottesville, and virtually no one is verified. Yet Duke, the paragon of evil, maintains a verified account. (Twitter says 49K followers. I wonder how many are just reporters waiting for Duke to say something racist so they can beat the crowd in demanding that Trump disavow the latest outrage). If Duke is a hate peddler, and Twitter is banning hate speech, then why is his account up still? The answer must be that either Duke doesn't actually say anything bad enough to be considered hate speech, or he does but they don't want to banish their bogeyman and lose a convenient weapon of psychological association with evil.