Qanon is indeed a blatant case of reality denial. It is puzzling why people fall for it. But equally puzzling are the many educated and people who denied and even mocked the possibility that Trump would try to steal election, as well as the risk of mass right wing violence.
To me, as a theorist of propaganda and ideology, it's the latter group that poses the more interesting philosophical question about delusion in the face of obvious reality.
You did not need a PhD to see what Trump was doing. But curiously you did need to have a PhD to unsee it.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
How to call for political violence, in 5 easy steps (thread).
If you want to mobilize a large group of people together for purposes of mass violence against your political opponents, you must give them a unifying cause, one that justifies the violence. Here’s how to do it, in 5 easy steps.
1. Give them a terrible external enemy, one who seeks entry into the country, threatening their loved ones, particularly women and children. Say your political opponents are opening the country’s gates to this enemy, and supporting their terrible mission with your money.
My father was almost 7 when he left Berlin. My great-grandfather was the chief Cantor of Germany's largest Jewish congregation. He and my great uncle were in the original Wagner ensemble. My great-uncle was one of the original Bayreuth singers.
And I went to high school and college in Germany, where I was always asked, "where are you from?", and when I said "the US", the response was, "no, where are you REALLY from", and when I said "Germany", the response was utter disbelief.
Leaving Hungary aside for obv reasons, my book on fascism has now appeared or is appearing in translation in every European country...except Germany.
For Germany, hearing about such matters from people of my background is problematic. zeit.de/2018/24/68er-g…
Sorry, not every European country, this was an exaggeration. Sweden, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain (with Catalan), Poland, I think that's it. A lot of them.
One of the things that has astonished me about academics in the last few years is how many of them regarded their utter silence in the public sphere as courage. So many of my colleagues regarded their *lack* of participation in public debate as a kind of virtuous heroism.
I literally have had colleagues tell me they were too brave and principled to say anything in public about politics.
I’m not here criticizing it. It’s just a mindset I don’t get.
This tweet has been greeted with a shock of recognition by many people in India who have retweeted it, noting that the Delhi police have facilitated and acted in concert with fascist mobs. We are seeing these patterns repeat across countries with far right nationalist govenrments