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The Wall of Amerian Separation [1]

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Date: 2022-11-03

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’re bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken.”

Carl Sagan

The rightwing talk machine has gotten so competent at bamboozling that millions of American voters, though surrounded by news of corruption, cruelty, hubris and stupidity during Donald Trump’s presidency, will not recognize their wizard as merely a confused, frightened little man behind a curtain. To acknowledge the ongoing evidence of disaster in Trump’s brief but seemingly endless political career would require those true believers to admit they have been contemptuously used, at which time they might need to make peace and find common ground with people they have learned to distrust, if not hate. Rather than watch their world turn upside-down, the MAGA folks absorb a monumental pile of “alternative facts” from hucksters on radio, TV, internet and social media. These well-paid mouths stoke MAGA credulity in service to America’s plutocrats, who constantly bamboozle themselves into believing they control Trump. Unsurprisingly, the rightwing true believers accuse us liberals of doing as they do: believing lies.

Why bother arguing? Right-wingers have their sources of information, and we have ours. Legitimate news sources report the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, which are believed to be caused by humans’ burning of fossil fuels by virtually every scientist not employed by fossil fuel cartels. Journalists who do their homework, and judges throughout the legal system, have determined that the 2020 election was fair and legal. Most people in the medical sciences have learned, from scientific evidence, that COVID-19 is a threat to our lives, general health, and society. America has far more mass shootings than countries that make it hard for psychopaths to obtain machine guns. This is a partial list, but the point is, I get news from those whose job it is to follow the scientific methods and check their sources, so that they know what they are talking about. People on the right get their news from blowhards who are paid to tell them what they want to hear.

Those in the MAGA crowd, like everybody else, hate to admit they have been duped. But that emotion conflicts with the equally strong human tendency to learn from our mistakes, and another heartfelt desire to get even with those who have swindled us. Perhaps what tips the scale for those who still solidly back the former barker-in-chief is that they are (though they might be unaware) desperately seeking a far deeper end: to dispense with critical thinking in matters that are not immediately of personal concern to them. Thinking about abstract matters like social policy requires considerable cranial energy, and while some folks apparently can’t help it (in desperation, becoming writers) others resist thinking with all their strength, probably expending more energy than they would by simply using their always active cerebrums. And most resisters to deep social thinking do use grey matter, quite thoroughly and efficiently, in affairs about daily life. People I know who faithfully follow the far right party line have admirable skills and talents in practical, mechanical, or financial matters. Apparently, problems arise with thinking on a societal level, which is somewhat abstract in our hyper-individualistic culture. Necessary social planning requires government action, based on social interaction, and the trading of ideas, all of which make some people uncomfortable. I also know people who can think critically in both practical and social matters, who do not inhabit MAGA world. We’re all different.

Still, the rightwing did use social planning to build a wall, which millions of Americans continue to support, even contributing their personal funds to build it—though their donations usually just line the pockets of the con-artists promoting it. But that Mexican wall (a notorious joke since its inception) is only another ruse to maintain the wall of “alternative facts” which keeps millions of smart, hardworking, decent Americans separated, alienated and hostile—despite our similarities. Americans now inhabit two different dimensions of reality, with each side firmly convinced that those on the other side have been fatally duped. How hard must we progressives search, to determine the logic and facts behind the other side’s arguments? Where are the logic and facts? The ruling elites need that invisible wall of alienation to maintain the strength of ignorance and to keep us separated.

The elites possess the ready cooperation of the MAGA faithful, who choose to ignore facts that keep coming in from every direction. The onslaught of reality requires rightwing media to build the wall ever higher—of course the plutocrats make sure that the pundits are handsomely rewarded for building and maintaining walls around their subject people’s minds. Few right wingers—among the plutocrats who rule it, the pundits who sell it, or the proletarians who support it—are interested in logical discussion of issues. What they insist on is convincing the rest of us that they are always totally right about everything. True believers’ fear of disagreement turns into anger when their rigid, collective views are challenged. Do the challenges force them against their will to think critically? Since there will always be disagreements over any premise, they stay fearful, therefore angry. I was educated to be tolerant of everyone’s opinions, no matter how strongly I might disagree, to use reason to defend my positions. But reasonable arguments and critical thinking make some people uncomfortable, and dwellers in the world of alternative facts have no interest in meeting the challenge, nor do they need to; the wall is always there.

Each side of the wall is roughly even, with each side believing not different versions of the same truth, but different truths. One side’s truth supports corporate rule, while practicing doublethink by claiming admiration of the individual—depending for security on the banning of abortions and restriction of minorities’ rights, balanced by freedom to get all the guns they can afford. The other side’s truth holds that corporate dominance has led to massive economic and social inequality, environmental disaster, and corporate rule over every individual. When rightwing politicians win elections, they secure their power by making it harder for their opponents to vote, and making sure that fewer of their opponents’ votes are counted. When the left wins, its politicians attempt to compromise with its own partisans, while the other side adamantly, arrogantly, does nothing, while rightwing pundits yelp about the left’s inability to get anything done. The desired result is that common people who support corporate rule avoid the need to think, letting corporate politicians rule and corporate media tell them what they think.

So highly do fans of our ex-bamboozler-in-chief value this freedom from thought, that they continue to support him, with growing anger, as evidence of his guilt continues to mount. I fear that our fellow Americans on the right (I count some of them among my friends) will never be persuaded to honor our point-of-view, even in part. If we are to avoid a society where ignorance is strength and thought is a crime, we will have to overwhelm the rightwing at the ballot box. We must convince many of those who agree with us that voting is not only worthwhile, it is vital. Donald Trump once said “Elections have consequences.” That was the only time I remember actually agreeing with him.

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