The saddest part is this trick has been working on humans for thousands of years. Is the issue the types who spin things this way, or the rest of us who fall for it? Seems like a human tragic flaw.
I’m starting to believe that human nature just always tends toward fascist tendencies. It’s a constant battle against this shit, and it’s exhausting. Then every ~100 years or so, the people who fought against it last die out, and everyone forgets what fascism does to a nation and the cycle repeats.
Studies of authoritarian personalities (specifically, authoritarian followers: the kind who show up to Trump’s rallies to cheer, not Trump himself) show that there is probably a genetic component to this and dealing with these people is probably always going to be a struggle for humanity.
However: it’s probably more that the tendency is genetic. Exposure to novelty and life experience (or generally: lack of those things) are big factors in terms of someone actually adopting these ideas
Unfortunately it’s not a field that gets a huge amount of study.
Human lifespans are short and most humans need to learn lessons firsthand. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a cyclical pattern for humanity. Hell, the Roman Republic was founded by a hard working group of people that wanted to escape the tyranny of the Etruscan kings that dominated the region. And Rome was hijacked by a tyranical emperor in the end, leading to a slow decline over the years.
Reasoned argument is a learned behavior. Tribalism is humanity’s default. Fascism is just what happens when you crank that emotional leverage as hard as it will go. Since the emergence of language, we have yet to invent an accusation worse than “they eat babies,” and it turns out asking “is that true?” does not work.
The saddest part is this trick has been working on humans for thousands of years. Is the issue the types who spin things this way, or the rest of us who fall for it? Seems like a human tragic flaw.
I’m starting to believe that human nature just always tends toward fascist tendencies. It’s a constant battle against this shit, and it’s exhausting. Then every ~100 years or so, the people who fought against it last die out, and everyone forgets what fascism does to a nation and the cycle repeats.
I’m tired.
Studies of authoritarian personalities (specifically, authoritarian followers: the kind who show up to Trump’s rallies to cheer, not Trump himself) show that there is probably a genetic component to this and dealing with these people is probably always going to be a struggle for humanity.
However: it’s probably more that the tendency is genetic. Exposure to novelty and life experience (or generally: lack of those things) are big factors in terms of someone actually adopting these ideas
Unfortunately it’s not a field that gets a huge amount of study.
Human lifespans are short and most humans need to learn lessons firsthand. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a cyclical pattern for humanity. Hell, the Roman Republic was founded by a hard working group of people that wanted to escape the tyranny of the Etruscan kings that dominated the region. And Rome was hijacked by a tyranical emperor in the end, leading to a slow decline over the years.
Reasoned argument is a learned behavior. Tribalism is humanity’s default. Fascism is just what happens when you crank that emotional leverage as hard as it will go. Since the emergence of language, we have yet to invent an accusation worse than “they eat babies,” and it turns out asking “is that true?” does not work.