-The Biden-Trump debate was a glorious example of a bully and abuser flailing around. Trump was at his most unhinged. His typical tactics were just heightened in intensity and splatter. The goal is to make the victim tired. I think everyone is susceptible to gaslighting, weariness, being worn down, getting discouraged. My personal example of the high school debate tournament was among a mixture of different races and classes. I found that these techniques of manipulation were effective with men, women, the rich girls from the private school, the middle class and working class guys I debated. It just so happens that Trump has focused on suppressing blk votes and motivating white vote...in rural areas he knows that he isn't going to fulfill his promise of bringing coal back or manufacturing back in a major way, so the easiest thing to offer to that group of ppl is racial dog whistles to feel better than others. This isn't a new strategy. In the 1960s LBJ talked about how right-wing politicians offered poor white ppl nothing but feeling better than a black person...and most voters were okay with that trade off. In the 1980s Republican strategist Lee Atwater talked about the Southern Strategy that helped get Reagan, Bush, and eventually Trump elected. To quote Atwater's own words:
"You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say "nigger" -- that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about CUTTING TAXES, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me -- because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger."
-GOP operative Lee Atwater, talking about the "Southern Strategy in 1980
An extension of the Atwater Southern Strategy last night was to attack racial education classes, the 1619 podcast about America's history with slavery, going after #BlackLivesMatter, barking "Law and Order" at every question about the real injustice POC face. These are racial dog whistles that are an extension of Atwater's strategy. Trump's inability to just outright condemn white supremacists on the biggest national stage this year...now I can't say what is truly in Trump's heart. But I can say that this is a direct pattern with the Southern Strategy laid out by the GOP and described in detail by its founder who, later in life, had immense regret for the hatred and venom he unleashed on the world.
Atwater's brilliance is to convince white ppl in 1980 that biggest racism they faced was against white ppl. Similarly in 1970 and 1960s white ppl thought that they were the biggest victims of racism. The pathology continues but social media and 24 news has just increased the intensity of the same tactics.
-I was also thinking about something I loved as child: Dilbert. Cartoonist Scott Adams created a satirical newspaper strip about the absurdity of work and the banality of evil. I started reading it as a kid and was amazed. He was putting into clear concise set-up/punchline jokes that this was adulthood: gaslighting, Machiavellian bosses, and sheer unadulterated idiocy. And the bigger and brasher the idiot, the more glorious the victor. Adams started populating the Dilbert world with these hilarious awful figures. There was Catbert who was like the soft genteel moron in power and then there was the ultimate boss: Dogbert. Dogbert was Machiavelli incarnate. He was a manager who lived to contradict, torture, and gaslight Dilbert and the office. And Dogbert thrived. I remember reading this comic strip and Franken's book and thinking that this was pretty much Chicken Soup for the Sociopath. In very clear terms Franken was telling us where we were coming from and where political media was heading in the 21st century. Dilbert was showing us evil on a mundane level of capitalism how that is transferable to any aspect of life. More often than not the person screaming 'lies' loudest in Dilbert is the Dogbert in the middle of the most egregious lie. The thief screams 'criminal' at the person they are robbing, the racist screams 'racist' at blk ppl for not wanting to be abused.
Trump transformed into Dogbert. His spittle inflected slogan of psychobabble was so wild and illogical that it was breathtaking:
" Everything bad in the last 4 yrs is someone else's fault. All the good stuff I did. This election is a disaster. Racial sensitivity is un-American. My followers: please harass the polls. Voting is awful. I won't acknowledge democracy. So please give me 4 more years by voting in this awful system as I refuse to accept rules or limits. Oh and Law and Order. And my opinion about Nazis? Ehhh..."
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Wondering if you know these things about Scot Adams politics (cut and pasted from wikipedia, below)
Of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, he said the following: "If you're an undecided voter, and male, you're seeing something different. You're seeing a celebration that your role in society is permanently diminished. And it's happening in an impressive venue that was, in all likelihood, designed and built mostly by men."[46] Adams said that he temporarily endorsed Hillary Clinton out of fear for his own life, stating that he had received direct and indirect death threats ("Where I live, in California, it is not safe to be seen as supportive of anything Trump says or does. So I fixed that.").[47] In late September, however, Adams switched his endorsement from Clinton to Trump. Among his primary reasons for the switch were his respect for Trump's persuasion skills over Clinton's, Clinton's proposal to raise the inheritance tax, and his concerns over Clinton's health.[48] Adams states that being labelled a 'Donald Trump apologist' ended his public speaking career and reduced his income by about 40%.[47]
On July 1, 2020, Adams predicted that Republicans would be hunted if Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.[49]
Criticism of "Hoax Edits" by Media
This section may contain excessive or inappropriate references to self-published sources. Please help improve it by removing references to unreliable sources where they are used inappropriately. (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
According to Adams, "Hoax Edits" are when the media attributes a statement to a public figure but distorts its meaning by omitting to report the context in which the statement was made or clarifying statements also made by the public figure. [50][self-published source]
In his August 25 and August 29, 2020 Periscope broadcasts, Adams mischievously created his own hoax to demonstrate how "Hoax Edits" work.[51][self-published source] In his August 25th Periscope, after saying "I'm not a believer in any kind of religious anything" and before saying "as I said, I'm not a believer, so I don't believe in either religion or Satan," Adams proceeded to list what he referred to as "satanic coincidences" associated with the Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign.[52][self-published source] [53][self-published source] [54][self-published source] [55] For example, Adams playfully noted on Twitter that: "Probably just a coincidence, but divide 2020 by 666 and you get the Biden-Harris [2020 U.S. Presidential campaign] text number [30330]."[56]
In his August 29, 2020 Periscope, he explained how the reporting of the "satanic coincidences" comments is another example of biased editing and reporting that creates hoaxes to discredit people. [57][self-published source] Even though Adams had repeatedly prefaced his comments by stating he did not believe in Satan, some publications attempted to discredit Adams by using Hoax Edits. [58] For example, one publication reported: "The cartoonist [Adams] shared a video on his YouTube and Twitter accounts ... all but asserting Mr. Biden is possessed by Satan". [59]
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