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US police union that backed Trump says January 6 pardons send ‘dangerous message’
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2025
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A big underappreciated part of fascism is that there's wiring in the human brain that is designed to delegate the thinking, planning, and reasoning to some other person. I think for a lot of these people, their instincts have specifically malfunctioned in a way that prevents them from really taking their own critical look at whether Trump has their best interests at heart.
If Trump says it, it's real. If you don't have that type of mentality, it's hard to wrap your head around how the person would even make such dumb decisions or trust placements, but if you're in it, it makes perfect sense and everything is ordered and comfortable. It may take something truly shocking to make you wake up and realize what was obvious to everyone else. And, once you reach the realization, it can be terribly destabilizing and upsetting. Now you're adrift, and you don't know what to do or what to think, and nothing makes sense.
They're obviously adults, I'm not trying to make it sound like they can't make any decisions for themselves, but it is important I think to realize how powerful the suppression of separate independent judgement in that kind of hierarchy can be. And that hierarchy can form itself into a terrifying powerful force, because everyone's acting in the same unified direction. No hesitation or loss of focus.
Well said. The satisfaction & reassurance of being in a "righteous" group is very powerful. No matter the reality, the group reinforces itself & calms dissent. Like a terrible & warm blanket. Then it's very terrifying when you realize what you are & where you could be led. Thank you for the lesson, religious youth groups.
It's also worth mentioning the consolation in the fact that fascism always fails, eats itself alive, and collapses. It's inherently unstable and unsustainable. It can collectivize a lot of power real fast, and do a lot of damage as a result, but it never lasts. Human beings need to cooperate, and hyper competitive individualism creates false loyalty and betrayals, minimal trust, minimal cooperation. Great pains and efforts, and the use of their power, is always spent trying to fight against human nature to maintain their order. Human nature always prevails.
Does it, though? There's a lot of failed countries where fascism shows no sign of falling.