This essay is a rough draft of a piece that will appear in my book
Democracy's Death by Fascism, which I hope to complete and have available
in the Kindle store by July 1st of 2022
In her book Targeted, former Cambridge Analytica employee Brittany Kaiser described an aspect of the firm's work: "Here was a brilliant concept to get people to act, you created the conditions under which they would be more likely to do what you wanted them to do." That line hints at what may be the most nefarious aspect of modern information warfare efforts: an apparent attempt to use social media messaging, psychological burnout, and basic principles of neuroplasticity to make liberals behave more like conservatives. Cambridge Analytica was the firm that aided Donald Trump's campaign in the 2016 Presidential election, and was then dissolved shortly thereafter. Kaiser's book, as well as the book Mindf*ck by former Cambridge Analytica data scientist Christopher Wylie both mention the firm having ties to a number of Russian psychologists, and given the reputation of Russian intelligence agencies for a "living off the land mentality" and adopting any approach that works in a highly improvisational manner, it is reasonable to assume that the process described here, though admittedly far-fetched, is an intentional component of Russian Information Warfare efforts.
The combination of the Covid19 pandemic and the outrageous behavior of Donald Trump and other Republicans has left many Americans feeling stressed and burnt out. It appears that the Republican Party of the United States, along with Russian Intellience Agencies, are engaged in an effort to improve the electoral prospects of the Republican Party, by using prolonged psychological stress over political issues, to induce physical changes in the brains of Americans that will make them more likely to vote conservative in the future.
Chronic stress and burnout lead to physical changes in the brain. A study of the effects of chronic stress on the brain found that "Stressed subjects exhibited significant reductions in the grey matter volumes of the anterior cingulate cortex and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex...and the volumes correlated inversely to the degree of perceived stress." That study also found reductions in grey matter volume in the amygdala, which other studies have shown corresponds to a high degree of neuroticism. I have addressed the relationship between authoritarian tendencies and neuroticism in other essays on this blog. If we correlate these findings to a study on brain structure in young adults which found that liberalism is correlated with increased brain volume in the pre-frontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex (the parts of the brain responsible for handling complex problem solving and dealing with social ambiguity), and increased volume of the right amygdala, we end up with a troubling suggestion: that using information warfare tactics and the hyperbolic antics of right-wing politicians to create an environment of chronic stress may lead to large numbers of people experiencing structural changes in their brains that make them more susceptible to conservative and authoritarian thinking. A fascist political party may be able to ensure their own preservation by seeking to create an endless stream of political stress and public outrage. As liberals in their state start to experience emotional burnout, their brains start to change and become more like the brains of conservatives, and after a period of time, emotional exhaustion and neuroplasticity have the potential to create an audience that shifts to the right politically, and becomes more accepting of authoritarian viewpoints.
For the sake of clarification, I will describe propaganda as being one of two varieties: agitative propaganda, and aggravating propaganda. Agitative propaganda is that which is fed to an existing base of supporters to "rally the troops". The goal of this kind of propaganda is to increase the malaise of a socially frustrated and neurotic audience, and to convince them that it is only by adherence to the beliefs of a mass movement, that they will have any chance of being able to enjoy their vision of a "normal" life. Aggravating propaganda is that which is designed to promote social anxiety and emotional burnout among your political opponents. This kind of propaganda may consist of threats of violence from social media commenters, right-wing politicians suggesting an endless stream of politically motivated investigations of liberal political leaders, or calls for policies that would create immediate economic harm to those who live in certain zip-codes, or who are struggling with large student loan debt burdens. While it is possible for a single piece of propaganda to be both agitative and aggravating, as the beliefs of your authoritarian audience become more nuanced and extreme (think of some of the wild details of Q-Anon and Anti-vax conspiracy theories) it becomes necessary to maintain separate propaganda efforts, so as to avoid having your agitative stream become a source of public mockery and ridicule.
In the introduction to the book The Authoritarian Personality, Max Horkheimer describes "pulling back the curtain" on the methods of the agitative propagandist. Horkheimer was associated with the American Jewish Committee, and a team of psychologists who were studying authoritarian tendencies in war veterans. That team's work may become a subject of greater scrutiny, as in spite of not having access to modern brain imaging technologies in the 1950s, they correctly surmised that changes in behavior were likely a result of the stress of combat experience from World Wars I and II. That thesis correlates directly to findings described in the neuro-imaging studies above, though we should approach the problem with an understanding that war-times stresses and the resulting severity of behaviors would naturally be far more intense than stress that comes from the workplace or social media, so long term changes in behavior would be somewhat more mild than that observed in war veterans.
Horkheimer's "pulling back the curtain" statement may be extended by thinking about learning the secret behind a magic trick. Once someone has learned the secret behind the trick, they're no longer taken in by it. Once the trick is explained, every subsequent demonstration becomes an opportunity to critique the execution of that trick, rather than be fooled by it, and propaganda should be considered in the same way. Academics, journalists and bloggers who care about Democracy should make a concerted effort to describe the methods of propaganda, and to call out those who promote agitative and aggravating political messaging. A refusal to describe the nature of propaganda efforts because of a misguided notion of "balance" that says "I won't describe this phenomenon of agitative and aggravating propaganda because doing so would hurt one party more than the other" is an act of taking sides with the right-wingers who want to push the entire country towards greater authoritarianism. In a world where information warfare tactics are being readily employed by conservative propagandists, true balance requires more than just straight reporting of what politicans and talking heads say. We must also consider why they choose to say such things.
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