Richard Hofstedter wrote the essay The paranoid style in American politics as an essay for Harper's magazine in 1964. Later, he expanded that essay and included it in a book with several other works. Hofstadter argued that the key to the paranoid style was the belief that conspiracy was the key motive force throughout world history, and that every great social or technological advance was the result of nefarious motives. Hofstadter's work provides interesting insights into the modern day radicalization of the Republican Party, and reading it, one can readily see how today's paranoia is directly descended from a legacy of far-right doomsday preachers, the John Birch Society and McCarthyism. In this essay I will argue that we now appear to be dealing with a variant of the paranoid style, which may be labeled "the stupid style". The key belief behind the stupid style is that the omnipresent influence of social media and electronic devices has facilitated a degree of influence over human behavior that is unprecedented in world history, and in such an environment, the promotion of increasingly ridiculous and far-flung conspiracy theories can be a means of isolating your audience of followers, and increasing the belief that their culture and way of thinking is under attack.
In an earlier essay, I described how one of the key facets of fascist thought is the suppression of the superego. The superego is defined as that part of the psyche that determines your sense of right and wrong, and basic morality. Suppression of the super-ego is an essential component of any fascist movement, as it is only by suppression the superego that you can get your followers to believe increasingly far-flung conspiracy theories and narratives of persecution against your movement, and to get your followers to commit acts of brutal violence in the name of protecting and promoting the movement. Without suppression of the super-ego, your followers may find themselves troubled by distortions of fact that are evident in your party propaganda, and begin to drift away from your organization. As suppression of the superego increases in a group of followers, it is necessary to create continuously more far-flung propaganda narratives to help isolate your followers from any outside influence. If the beliefs of your followers are outrageous enough, then the potential for them to engage in discussion of their beliefs with outsiders is diminished, and therefore your chance of losing followers at a mass scale diminishes.
There appears to be a growing sentiment among information warfare experts that the Russian government has interfered in American politics primarily by boosting content created by internet cranks and conspiracy theorists from the United States. An algorithm for promoting greater radicalization would involve a database that had identified millions of social media users and used cookies to monitor their past engagement with conspiracy theory oriented material, a curated list of conspiracy theorists who are generating content, and distribution of materials from those creators to your target audience. A panel of information warfare experts would identify themes they think are likely to be productive, and would monitor average engagement times with new material to get an idea of how it is resonating with the audience of true believers.
Statements like "where we go 1, we go all" and "trust the plan" encourage followers to accept statements at face value, to avoid over-thinking or dissecting messaging, and to demonstrate a hostile response towards anyone who points out the insanity of the movements materials. Liberal and conservative brains are structured differently, but humans are also highly neuroplastic, and responsive to external stimuli. It is helpful to think of regions of the brain as responding to stimulus much the same way our muscles do. If you encounter a lot of fear-mongering media, and your "fear muscle" is exercised, then the amydala -the region of the brain associated with fear-based responses- becomes stronger. An interesting facet of authoritarians is that many of them have an attitude of extreme "learned helplessness" in their daily lives. "Learned helplessness"is a habit of giving up on life tasks and either trying to find ways to put those responsibilities on someone else, or just living with the consequences of one's lack of initiative. This tendency explains why many far-right conservatives choose to remain in economically blighted rural areas, and insist that moving to a metro area where there are more job opportunities simply isn't an option. The key to overcoming the rise of fascism may be as simple as challenging people to think through their problems and try to consider other approaches to life, rather than just giving up on the hard parts and then trying to blame others for their position in life.
Encounters with conservatives who have immersed themselves in far-flung conspiracy theories may be difficult, but it is important that if we hope to restore a large part of the population to normal function, then you should not walk away from such encounters, but you shouldn't accept their claims at face value either. Authoritarians will tend to want to proselytize, but when you ask for explanations they'll insist you should "do your own research". At this point, tell them words to the effect of "you are my research. I don't want to know what someone on the Internet said. I want to hear you explain why you believe these things." Encourage the radicalized individual to explain their beliefs and why they adopted those beliefs. If their behavior has changed over time then ask them if they can explain what prompted that change. The process won't be quick or easy, and it definitely takes more than one encounter. The goal is to get the person to think constructively about social issues, thereby engaging their frontal cortex. Avoid using words like "ridiculous" or "crazy" that will immediately be interpreted as a threat to their beliefs and spur that response from the amygdala.
To recap: the paranoid style of American politics seems to have evolved into the "stupid style", where far-flung conspiracy theories are being used as a means of isolating individuals in the far-right from other social groups. This phenomena is likely to be reinforced through constant exposure to social media through electronic devices, and the use of algorithms designed to drive engagement from those Internet cranks and conspiracy theorists whose content will be most useful to information warfare operatives. Behavioral factors associated with these groups are intended to preclude consideration of far-right messaging, and to isolate the individual from social interaction with non-believers. It may be possible to reach these individuals by trying to create a non-threatening atmosphere where you can ask the true believer to describe their own reasons for adopting particular beliefs, but that interrogation is a very slow process, and must (in spite of the title of this essay) avoid the use of words like "ridiculous" or "crazy", that will spark a defensive reaction from the amydala, and drive the individual further into their state of social isolation.
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Image Credit: Photo of Marjorie Taylor Greene taken by Gage Skidmore
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Marjorie_Taylor_Greene#/media/File:Marjorie_Taylor_Greene_(51769864787).jpg
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