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Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych Profile picture
@Nick_Carmody
Feb 14, 2022 • 53 tweets • 13 min read • Read on X
A recent Trump rally was a sobering reminder of what’s at stake in 2022/2024.

In his speech, Trump openly attempted to obstruct justice, tampered w/witnesses, and, similar to the 1/6 insurrection, encouraged widespread “protests” if he was indicted. 1/
Seemingly every week, there is new evidence further exposing the orchestrated attempt by Trump/GOP to undermine democracy.

And yet, it’s Republican voters who overwhelmingly believe democracy is facing a major threat. 2/ grinnell.edu/news/52-americ…
The absurdity of this is that Republican voters’ belief that democracy is threatened is what actually creates the threat:

Trump’s/GOP’s lies about the 2020 election have manipulated Republicans into thinking it’s patriotic to “steal it back”, & therefore undermine democracy. 3/
This mass delusional belief in an alternate reality was the predictable insanity that would result from electing a president as pathologically disordered as Trump. 4/

A few weeks back, the NYT ran an article about the “defunct”, “anti-Trump” group, the Lincoln Project.

Lost in the misstatement about the viability of the organization is the characterization of the movement as a whole: 5/
This isn’t just about being anti-Trump, this is about being pro-democracy.

And to the extent the Republican party has authoritarian aspirations, it’s about being anti-Trumpism/anti-Republican.

Trump is simply a symbolic representation of those authoritarian aspirations…6/
We are at a point where the preservation of democracy must be the primary objective over all other issues and interests, because……7/
…..as analyzed in this thread, the Right is highly effective at demagoguing issues, manipulating narratives, and nationalizing local issues in a way that exploits neuropsychological fear responses and creates emotional reactivity. 8/
This has repeatedly occurred with various issues associated with the border and in major cities…..9/
As a result, it was insanely counterproductive for New York to allow non-U.S. citizens to vote……and hand the Right Wing Media Echo Chamber countless hours programming narratives about the Democrats using immigrants to “replace” white people. 10/ nytimes.com/2022/01/09/nyr…
People are legitimately frustrated with society seeming to have to constantly accommodate, appease, or take into account the emotionally reactionary, the unstable, and/or the malicious factions of the country because it’s “unfair”, or because "we shouldn’t have to do that". 11/
One of the life philosophies that I teach people I work with is, “Don’t dismiss the truth for what you want to be true”.

Basically, the essence of the message is that you have deal with life as you encounter it, not as you wish it were.....or as you feel it “should” be. 12/
Is it "fair" or “just” to have to constantly contemplate the manipulative/exploitative weaponized countermove of the Right Wing propagandists?

No. It isn't.

13/
Is it "fair" or “just” to not only have to carefully craft policy messaging to try to prevent the Right from gaslighting the country with propagandized narratives…

…but to also have to consider delaying/abandoning the issue altogether?

No. It absolutely is not.

14/
But we are not living in “fair” or “just” times.

We are living in existential times.

And as such, we must not dismiss the truth for what we want to be true.

15/
And the “truth”....is that one of the two major political parties in this country has turned into a cult of personality with authoritarian aspirations...

...where the pathology of the leader (Trump) has not only “trickled down”… 16/
….and been weaponized by anarchists and opportunists…. 17/
…but the “fight”, through the use of purpose/meaning-creating perpetual victimhood & identity politics, now at recruits many who were previously politically unaware/inactive, as analyzed in this thread about the anti-vax identity politics coalition: 18/
Even worse, the politicization of masks in schools are fueling the tribalization of children.

This could have a catastrophic effect on society going forward. 19/
The most recent example of the Right inciting/exploiting/weaponizing the anti-vax coalition is the Canadian truck convoy.

FOXNews was not only obsessing about the convoy “protests”, but…… 20/ mediamatters.org/coronavirus-co…
…the “patriot”, @TuckerCarlson, gushed about the “Canadian trucker convoy [being] the single most successful human rights protest in a generation…a very useful reminder to our entitled ruling class that working class men can only be pushed so far”… 21/
….and attempted to incite a similar road-obstructing, supply chain-choking, inflation-exacerbating event in the U.S. 22/
Remember, this is the same guy/party that rail against inflation and “economy-crippling” covid lockdowns, and who supported anti-protest laws. 23/
A couple of months ago I had a conversation with an unvaccinated Republican.

I’ve repeatedly explained to this person how neuropsychology may explain how and why the political climate causes people to feel and believe the way they do. 24/
I explained that, due to political realities, my position on covid was evolving to the point where I am against mask/vaccine mandates, against lockdowns, against school closings, etc. Here’s why: 25/
The lockdowns were necessary when we didn’t have vaccines. But now, we do. For the most part, anyone who wanted the vaccine has already gotten it. Everyone else from this point forward who gets it, will have to be “forced” to do so. 26/
Democrats are essentially trying to protect people who not only resent the efforts taken to protect them, but who will “punish” them at the ballot box for trying to do so.

A couple of months ago, I described the false “choice” of this trade off. 27/
Circling back to the conversation mentioned above, I often find myself having to refute “whataboutisms” when I point out the neuropsychological underpinnings of the Right’s tribalism. 28/
Basically, I have to respond to the “what about you?!” accusations about both the Left’s tribalism….as well as my own. Here was my response, and my position:

“We have reached a point where, due to the respective echo chambers… 29/
….the Left is terrified of the virus…and the Right is terrified of the vaccine. I’m not scared of the virus, and I’m not scared of the vaccine. And the reason I’m not scared of the virus is because I respected the virus enough to take the vaccine….” 30/
The sooner that Covid is depoliticized, and therefore, de-weaponized…the better.

Yes, there will be additional breakthrough infections/hospitalization/deaths without mask/vaccine mandates…….31/
…but, does anyone believe that there will be less breakthrough infections under the authoritarian aspirations of a Republican party that has shown a propensity to mandate AGAINST masks?

No, there won’t.

32/
Basically, we are at a point where nearly every issue must be prioritized along the lines of whether spending time, energy, and political capital on the issue furthers the preservation of democracy…or furthers the erosion of it when that issue is weaponized by the Right. 33/
For example…

Transgender Rights are an important issue.

But does anyone believe that the rights/pronouns of transgender people are going to be better protected/respected under the authoritarian aspirations of the Republican party?

No, they won’t.

34/
The history/current state of race/race relations are important issues.

But does anyone believe history will be more accurately preserved/taught, or that race relations will improve under the authoritarian aspirations of the Republican party?

No, they won’t.

35/
Immigration is an important issue.

But does anyone believe that immigrants will be treated better under the authoritarian aspirations of the Republican party?

No, they won’t.

36/
The Build Back Better bill attempted to fund/address many important societal issues/problems.

But does anyone believe those issues/problems will improve under the authoritarian aspirations of the Republican party?

No, they won’t.

37/
Similarly, does chasing down @joerogan further the preservation of Democracy?

No, it doesn’t.

If anything, it probably furthers its erosion.

Rogan has an audience of 11 million.

It is 71% male.

The average age is 24.

38/ mediamonitors.com/audience-demog…
Many/most of Rogan’s listeners probably don’t vote.

They will now.

But not necessarily for Republicans.

They’ll just be voting against the Left/Democrats.

It’ll be 2016 all over again: 39/ Image
Rogan has said and done a lot of dumb things.

He’s a comedian/former host of a game show that required contestants to eat camel spiders…..turned podcaster….who wanted to talk to cool/interesting people about cool/interesting topics. 40/
The fact that Rogan is so influential on society says less about him, and more about society….(Remember, we had a reality TV show star as president)

….and society's politicization of EVERYTHING. 41/
Yes, Rogan bears responsibility for the people he has on…. (Alex Jones should not have been invited once, let alone three times)….42/
…but at a time when contrition is considered weakness, & apologies are for suckers…Rogan repeatedly does so w/apparent sincerity, when the easiest thing to do would be to throw up double middle fingers, & settle into the warm embrace of MAGA.

He hasn’t done that.

Yet.

43/
Like most things/people in life, the Rogan situation is a complex, nuanced, “square”…..

….. that society is trying to force through a binary, “black & white” round hole.

44/
Circling back to the prioritization of democracy, one of my frustrations over the first post-Trump year was the lack of focus on protecting elections, in favor of a fractured, distracted focus on spending bills, culture war issues, etc.
This plays into the Republicans hands…
45/
….because the Culture War is all the Republicans have. This is a screen shot of an email I wrote last June analyzing how the Right and Republicans were salivating over the opportunity to exploit Critical Race Theory….which eventually occurred: 46/ Image
There have also been times over the past year where it frustratingly seemed as if the Left/Democrats had given up, and were conceding the inevitability of Republican “rule” (thread on both parties’ “smash-n-grab” mindsets): 47/
Although demographics are not absolute when it comes to ideology, society is becoming more liberal.

The challenge is to preserve democracy until the demographics, and more importantly, the younger generation “ages in” as a constituency. 48/
....49/....
Relevant thread: 50/
Relevant threads:

Starting on February 29th, 2020 (the day after Trump called Covid "their new hoax") until January 6th, 2021 (I wrote and linked 70+ threads on Covid, Trump's response, Republicans, etc.: 51/
Expanding upon the thread above: 52/
Relevant thread on Trump's CPAC speech:

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More from @Nick_Carmody

Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych Profile picture
Nov 6
After watching the first three days of the Republican National Convention I wrote this thread.

Later that night, I was on @donlemon and discussed the effect the surrogates (Rogan, etc) would have on young men.

Soon after, I was on the Muckrake podcast reiterating my observation of the evolution/"maturation" of the MAGA movement.

And over the last several months, I've been analyzing and criticizing @jordanbpeterson's psychological analysis and endorsement of Trump.

1/x.com/Nick_Carmody/s…Image
.....2/.... Image
In April, a multidisciplinary report was released addressing young men. The report opened with by quoting me.....which is relevant to Trump's election victory:

3/ Image
Read 13 tweets
Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych Profile picture
Nov 2
It's really difficult to pause, and reflect when we are consumed with fear and anxiety. Contemplating our "shadow" in the Carl Jungian sense is a higher level of consciousness....it requires us to engage our prefrontal cortex.

Fear and anxiety keep the amygdala engaged in overdrive.....which hijacks the prefrontal cortex.

The more scared and anxious we are, the more self-preservational we become.

1/
Exposure to chronic stress and fear literally rewires our brains to become rewired, and to become disproportionately reactive to stress/anxiety/fear…

....so that we respond to subsequent stress/fear-inducing experiences more intensely and for a longer duration:

2/Image
At the most extreme levels, self-preservation presents in ways that are similar to Cluster B Personality Disorders:

We become consumed with the self (narcissism) to the point of recklessly disregarding others (sociopathy)....it becomes a Darwinian, dog-eat-dog, law of the jungle mentality.

I've written about this previously:
3/
 x.com/Nick_Carmody/s…Image
Read 10 tweets
Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych Profile picture
Oct 28
It's becoming increasingly clear that the greatest danger of a Trump election victory on January 5th may not be Trump…….

.....it’s that JD Vance will be Vice President to a guy who is almost 80 years old, who is obese, and who doesn’t believe in exercise

This interview with Tapper displays Vance’s dishonesty, bad faith, and his considerable gaslighting skill.

This interview displays how difficult it is to have a rational, logical, internally consistent conversation with someone who as intelligent, and as skilled in gaslighting as Vance.

In this interview, Vance obscures and distracts from the focus on Trump’s personality disorders and lack of character by dismissively framing the people warning about Trump as being war-lusting "disgruntled" employees who are only speaking out because they have "an axe to grind".

Tapper:
4 star Marine Corp General/DHS secretary/Chief of Staff John Kelly’s,
4 star Marine Corp General/Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis;
3 star General/National Security Adviser H.R McMaster
Trump appointed Chairman of Joint Chief of Staffs Mark Milley;
Vice President Mike Pence;
John Bolton
Secretary of Defense John Esper

Vance: “Are you going to listen to every Trump administration official?”

One of the manipulative tactics of gaslighting manipulators is to frame the other party to the argument as being at fault, or ridiculous, for bringing up serious issues and/or egregious behaviors.

Here, for example, Vance implies that the problem isn’t that an unprecedented number of highly accomplished people are warning about Trump’s psychological unfitness…..it’s that:

1) Tapper is *ridiculous* because he is listing/listening to “every Trump administration official”

…and….

2) ….all of these unprecedented warnings from highly accomplished officials about Trump being psychologically unfit from actually exposes a flaw in Kamala Harris: that she won’t fire anyone…..and that all of these people are disgruntled because Trump fired them. Basically, Vance is saying that all of these people warning about Trump's unfitness is a sign of Trump's leadership, as evidenced by his propensity to fire people.

Not only is Vance gaslighting with his pivot away from their warnings, but he’s lying. When Tapper goes down the list pointing out that Trump actually did not fire them....which undermines Vance’s entire argument…..Vance doubles down on his false narrative/lies:
“He fired a lot of those people, Jake, and he did so because they weren’t doing their job.”

Vance then

Vance tries to gaslight and distract from John Kelly’s warnings about Trump's unfitness when he claims that John Kelly’s “fundamental disagreement” with Trump is because Trump would not accede to his warmongering:
“Why does John Kelly not support Trump? It’s about policy not personality”.

Tapper rebuts Vance's gaslighting by pointing out that Kelly said he agrees with Trump on almost all policies. Tapper also points out that Kelly lost a son in Afghanistan and never stated whether he supported the wars he and his son fought in.

Vance gaslights again: “Is your argument that a person who lost a son means they can’t be wrong about public policy?.....then why bring that up”

Tapper points out that Kelly never took a public position on whether Kelly agreed with the wars.

Vance supports his gaslighting narrative/claim, not with evidence, but with "feels" and *second hand conversations* (see below) when he says: “….because I KNOW John Kelly’s worldview…and I know the people who have attacked Donald Trump the most vociferously on foreign policy they’ll say well he’s a dictator, and what they really mean is that Donald Trump won’t listen to the leadership of the military when they want Trump to start ridiculous conflicts”.

Vance is attempting to dismiss numerous extremely accomplished people’s concerns about Trump’s psychological unfitness, and frame it as “policy disagreements”.....from disgruntled fired former employees (even though most resigned).....as being from people who are driven by the inhumanity/profit of war.....and from people who oppose Trump because he is a “dove” who only wants peace and prosperity.

Remember, Trump has rooted for American suffering so he can politically/personally benefit from it (stock market, border security bill, etc.)

After sensing observing that Vance is relying on what “I know” rather than facts, empirical evidence....Tapper says:
“….you’re ascribing worldviews based on gut…there’s no evidence…”

3:30 Vance: “Based on people I’ve talked to in the Trump administration….” (second hand conversations)

Tapper: “Kelly was at DHS and chief of staff, he was not weighing in…[on the wars]”

Question:

When Vance called Trump Hitler, and "cultural heroin"…..was it because Vance opposed Trump’s peace and prosperity-driven public/foreign policy?

1/Image
x.com/atrupar/status…

Tapper quoting Vance: “I guarantee John Kelly talked with Harris's campaign….People close to Kelly and the Harris campaign”.

When Tapper reports that both sides denied speaking to each other.
Vance says, “Oh, I’m highly skeptical of that, Jake…..you know the way these attacks work. You know the way these people are often vetted….”

Tapper: “…so you made it up?

Vance: “No (but Vance’s tone when denying he made it up suggests otherwise)… I said the American media and Dem party apparatus works a certain way, if it comes out that John Kelly never ever spoke with [the Harris campaign]….then I’m happy too…”

Tapper: “I’m telling you that.”

Vance: "You’re telling me that based on second hand conversation with John Kelly…..and it’s interesting, we’ve now spent three minutes talking about John Kelly…..if it is true that he never spoke with anyone in Kamala Harris’ orbit I’m happy to apologize to John Kelly for mis-stating how he delivered this news to the Atlantic Magazine…”

….and then Vance uses the choice of who Kelly spoke to as a means of delegitimizing Kelly's warnings:

“Jeffrey Goldberg who lied the U.S. into the Iraq war, which led to the deaths of millions of innocent Arabs and thousands of innocent Americans…..you don’t go to that guy if you don’t have a particular ideological motive. I think that’s what’s going on, if I’m wrong, I’m happy to say I’m wrong.”

Vance speculates and accuses people of motives that he, “thinks”, what he “knows”, etc.

2/
x.com/atrupar/status…

Vance, once again tries to shift the focus from Trump’s unfitness, to Tapper for asking the questions about it:
“But, this is the thing, Jake, we’ve now spent 5 minutes talking about people in Donald Trump’s staff……”

Tapper: “….who think he’s unfit for office…”

Vance: “….who he fired……oh, they didn’t think he was unfit for office until they had a falling out with him because he fired him….”

Vance continues to lie about

1) Mattis/Kelly/etc., being fired,…

...and...
2) about their level of concern when they agreed to work for Trump: Many of them went to work for Trump precisely BECAUSE they thought he was unfit, needed guardrails, and/or viewed it as a responsibility to the country to help Trump (and the country) have a successful/stable presidency.

Tapper attempts to talk about Trump’s literal statements/quotes about threatening to use the military against Americans.

Vance pathetically claims that Tapper is stating what Trump “allegedly said”, and tries to cling to the defense that Trump never actually said the words, “American citizens”.
This is another gaslighting technique by Vance who wants to get hung up on semantics, and defends Trump saying he would use the military against American citizens.

Vance: “He did not say he would send the military after the American people! Show me the quote where he said that…..He said far Left wing lunatics. He’s talking about people rioting after the election……people who burned down American cities in the summer of 2020…..yes, we should have a federal law enforcement response.”

Tapper points out the Trump said he wants to use the military against the “enemy within”, and that Trump has described the Left, Pelosi, Schiff, etc. as “the enemy within”.
Vance then tries to obfuscate, but then says he agrees with Trump that the military should be used to go after people who riot and burn down cities.

Some thoughts….

1) Virtually all of the people Vance mentioned are “American people/citizens”, so Vance intentionally argued and denied the obvious meanings of Trump’s statements to create conversational/interview chaos….....before finally agreeing with what Trump said.

2) “Left wing lunatics” is subjective. And in Trump’s pathological mind, anyone who opposes or attempts to hold him accountable is a “lunatic”.
How would a Democratic president define “Right Wing lunatics”? How would MAGA react to Harris using the military against MAGA rioters? We already know the answer to that question because MAGA has lionized the January 6th convicts as “political prisoners”.

3) Vance seemingly misspeaks about using the military against “people rioting after the election”, because he does not repeat that when he reiterates people who riot and burn down cities should have the military used against them. Imagine victimhood/martyrdom narratives that the Right would lose their mind over if Biden/Harris used the military on MAGA protestors. The Right is still incensed over the manner with which the Capitol Police defended the Capitol.

@JDVance…..the same pathetic, dishonest, gaslighting coward who relies on what he “thinks”/“knows” when making unsubstantiated “gut” accusations against the Generals/cabinet members speaking out against Trump “based on people [Vance] talked to in the Trump administration” ….

.....suddenly has a problem with an “anonymously sourced story”….meaning unsubstantiated….and “second hand conversations with John Kelly”.

3/
Read 4 tweets
Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych Profile picture
Oct 26
I've written extensively about Peterson's misdiagnosis of Trump....and the (his) emotional/psychological factors that may explain it.

If Peterson came out against Trump, he might single handedly keep him out of office b/c of his immense influence with men…

...and because:

1/ Image
Thread analyzing Peterson's ridiculous confusion by and assessment of "Trump Derangement Syndrome"....by psychoanalyzing Peterson:

2/
Thread analyzing Peterson's ridiculous "psychoanalysis" of Trump:
3/ Image
Read 7 tweets
Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych Profile picture
Oct 22
This is a really interesting conversation. There are multiple things going on:

1) @GreggHurwitz is giving very informative presentation about how our foreign enemies are tearing apart the country….and how to mitigate the polarization/tribalism that foreign (and domestic) enemies are stoking.

2) The subtext of the discussion is one that plays out repeatedly across the country:

An acknowledgment that the country is being torn apart by divisive, “pathological”, “psychopaths” and “narcissists”…..yet people’s personal investment (identity), ego/pride, emotion-driven subjectivity cause them to either...

.....be incapable of seeing their personal, or the collective tribe’s (political leaders/partisan media/constituents), contribution to the problem……

.....or they just simply refuse to do so.

This is happening throughout this discussion.

Let’s unpack…..

1/
youtube.com/watch?v=ZVw2sd…Image
@Gregghurwitz is trying to comprehensively analyze a multidimensional problem that both sides contribute to…..

....and with one or two exceptions, Peterson is insistent on only pointing out the Left’s problems, while completely ignoring that Trump is not only the antithesis of conservative values/culture that Peterson views as the core of human civilization…..

....but that, due to his severe Cluster B Personality Disorders, Trump is also incapable of conducting himself in a way that does not destroy that “core”....that “center”….that is referred to repeatedly in the discussion.

2/
This discussion....and tribalism more generally....feels like the verbal equivalent of color blindness where....

....instead of one party to the conversation not being able to see reds and greens....

.....Peterson does not hear verbal “reds and greens”:

Constructive criticisms of the Right....

....and, more importantly....

....the fundamental cancerous cause of Right Wing toxicity: Trump

3/
Read 56 tweets
Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych Profile picture
Oct 14
The diagnostic criteria for personality disorders are “a pervasive pattern” of behavior that falls outside of a normal range….to the point of drastically deviating from generally acceptable behavior.

@mcuban
1/ Image
The diagnostic criteria for personality disorders are “a pervasive pattern” of behavior that falls outside of a normal range….to the point of drastically deviating from generally acceptable behavior.

2/ @mcuban

....3/...
Read 4 tweets

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