Well, that escalated quickly. Or, rather, slowly. Because when democracies start to fray, the corrosion is usually incremental. Few regimes are overthrown overnight. The first few inflammatory statements are dismissed as innocuous, even idiotic, but gradually norms are shifted, tribes moulded, and scapegoats identified. Out-group hostility is the fulcrum of […]
Tag: Trump
Make Nostalgia Great Again
Here is a blast from the not-so-distant past: the Republican president speaks the day after the Democrats win a bitterly contested presidential election. Take it away, George W.: No matter how they cast their ballots, all Americans can be proud of the history that was made yesterday across the country. […]
COVID conspiracies and the psychology of vaccine hesitancy
There’s a lot of talk about a vaccine for COVID-19. However, vaccines only work if people take them, and for that we require people to think cogently and coherently about the coronavirus. But if that were actually happening, there might not actually be a pandemic in the first place. Take […]
*Yes* obstruction: ‘Active information avoidance’ and the Mueller Report
It is one of the great ironies of modern politics that Donald Trump is associated with popularising the term “fake news” to western audiences. Heck, on a number of occasions he claimed to have coined the phrase himself. (At one point he even claimed to have invented the word “fake.”) […]
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names are the go-to propaganda tool of unreconstructed fascists
So the White House is now directly referring to the underclass as “animals”: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIOLENTÂ ANIMALS OF MS-13 WHAT: The violent animals of MS-13 have committed heinous, violent attacks in communities across America. Too many innocent Americans have fallen victim to the unthinkable violence of […]
Donald Trump is a true Belieber
No words needed.