THE RABBIT HOLE

Conspiracies may sometimes be true. Why we should ignore them anyway.

The #AuthoritarianismProject Brings my two decades of reporting from repressive societies overseas back to the United States. I’ll be working here, live, in public, as I report and write my new book applying the lessons of strongmen and anti-democratic tendencies to America.

Newsletter 5

One of the most important things we can do this year is not believe what we want to believe. Unless there is visible evidence, step back from claims, posts, beliefs, arguments, and rumors that circulate all around us at unprecedented speed and volume. 

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Yesterday it happened in Pennsylvania. These men were victims of a hoax—and not a harmless one. Hundreds of “patriots” grabbed rifles and ammo and rushed to Gettysburg to defend the country against an illusion. (There was no flag-burning march by ANTIFA). The real danger in 2020 is from paranoid and delusional men with guns aiming at specters. This is happening nationwide—a paramilitary movement is organizing, training, and deploying to fight ghosts. In the last month, militias and self-styled patriot gunmen and freelance thugs have marshaled to fight non-existent enemies in New Jersey, Illinois, Idaho, Oregon, California, and many other places. 

During my recent reporting trip across country, in North Dakota, Montana and Idaho, people in this movement proudly described how they had scared off ANTIFA and BLM protestors by parading with their guns. That is cult thinking: there were no such protests planned, there were no leftist invasions, no buses of looters paid by George Soros, but the gunmen take confirmation from each other. Lack of looting is presented as proof of their success, rather than their delusions. (See the attached clip for the Washington Post’s careful fact check on looting and violence.) Gettysburg clip

If there is one thing I have learned overseas, covering countries almost destroyed by civil wars and military coups, it is that you cannot put the genie of violence back in the bottle. If you put hundreds of poseurs with guns into the streets, night after night, than someone is going to start shooting. Once a cycle of violence starts, it is almost impossible to end. 

We are, obviously, becoming deeply unbalanced as a nation. Black Lives Matter and other aspects of the protest movement have (statistically) very strong support across the country. These cosplay cowboys with semi-autos are declaring war on that—because they are gullible and believe not in the reality of America but in their fears and fantasies. 

Don’t laugh at them. We are all doing it every day. On social media there are legions of unfounded rumors, which we drag into real life. (I was recently told by actual people I know that police and militias set the fires in Minneapolis, to frame the left; that Trump hires actors for his rallies;  that fluoride is a government scheme to poison us .) Of course, there are provocateurs, and fakers, and elaborate disinformation schemes and false-flag postings, like the one that started this nonsense at Gettysburg. (The originator may have been a furious Bernie Bro, or a shit poster posing as a Bernie Bro, or a Russian troll, or whatever. It doesn’t matter.) 

Stay focussed. There will always be (true) accounts of agent provocateurs and (accurate) claims about sabotage, buried amid the garbage spewed across the internet. They don’t matter. 

The main truths are the plain truths, and the plain truths are the main truths. We have a vital democratic opportunity in November, and a majority. Stick with America  

NEXT WEEK: I’ll unpack the great news about democracy and liberal values from the massively researched Human Values Project. Spoiler Alert: in the long run, we win!