THREAD
1 - It's hard not to feel good about Biden's State of the Union. But make no mistake - seeing the GOP clap for Ukraine is a political calculus for them. EVERYTHING is. They still want Minority Rule. It's OUR election cycle that will be the REAL test for global democracy.
2 - The #1 priority of Republicans is regaining power. PERIOD!! The #2 priority is holding that power. It will be far more difficult for us to wrench power back from them than it is to keep them from obtaining it. The midterms are everything. Democracy IS on the line.
3 - And the #1 weapon of the political right, is the same weapon Putin thought he had - DISINFORMATION. Here in America, land of fear and pride, disinformation is rampant, and a strong segment of America is already co-opted by fearmongering and false narratives.
4 - In order for Democracy to prevail, we need TRUTH to prevail. It's not easy to break through the echo chambers of Fox, Talk Radio, social platforms that don't sufficiently regulate, and worse. Almost no light gets in. Almost.
5 - In 2020, we made the film #UNFIT. People DO watch films. It made a difference. It spoke TRUTH about the psychopathology of Trump and his autocratic aspirations. Our film was widely distributed, widely seen, and crossed over a bit. Malignant Narcissism entered our lexicon.
6 - In 2022, BEFORE the midterms, we will release #UNTRUTH - the Psychology of TrumpISM.
It will speak TRUTH about the cult and its giant apparatus of enablers and amplifiers. It will also speak truth to ANYONE who watches and will make a difference. We don't need to flip many.
7 - #UNTRUTH must be fiercely independent (like #UNFIT). It's the only way films like these, that rise above the partisan noise, can be made. If enough truth prevails, democracy will prevail! The more we know about what Trumpism really is, the better chance we have.
8 - Here's a link. Please take a moment - watch the short trailer at the top, then scroll down and read the truth about Trumpism.
We hope you'll also consider supporting the effort. We're all in this together.
1 - In days leading up to Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Biden and Blinken were AWESOME and ON POINT combating Putin's FALSE pretexts for invading - WITH specificity. THIS, along with compelling heroism from Zelensky and the Ukraine people, created LOTS of global unity.
2 - Yesterday the Jan 6 committee here at home suggested for the first time, ALSO with specificity, that Trump COMMITTED CRIMES (which they will likely refer to DOJ). The committee showed Trump's crimes used a knowingly false and invented pretext. JUST LIKE PUTIN! SAME PLAYBOOK!
3 - For our part as behavioral psychologists, we are continually awestruck by similarities between Russia (as to Ukraine), and the GOP (as to America). It's not just autocratic fetishization. Or disinformation. It's the sad effectiveness of it, and how it's morphed into a cult.
1- Before invading, Putin had assessed that America is fractured - or at least severely divided. Without that assessment this war would NOT be happening! America, democracy, and the NATO alliance ARE Putin's impediments. AND his obsessions. His goal - is to diminish them.
2- For years, Putin saw, up close, Trump's fetishization for cruelty and need to win every transaction. He ALSO saw the GOP's unbridled lust for regaining power. He salivated, because what he really saw was the potential for American democracy itself to be altered or compromised.
3- Putin ALSO saw a strong element of our electorate buying into strongman propaganda - call it TrumpISM. In the world of Trumpism, authoritarians are admired as powerful, manly, strong. The strong take what they can. Winning is everything. Ends justify the means. Yes - the GOP.
THREAD:
1 - Make no mistake - there's a large segment of our electorate, IN AMERICA, buying into strongman propaganda. Let's call it TRUMPISM. In the world of Trumpism, authoritarians are admired as powerful, manly, strong. The strong take what they can. Winning is everything.
2 - TRUMPISM is a different issue for us than TRUMP himself. It's way bigger. It has already metastasized into a full-on apparatus. Trumpism operates in an echo chamber. It has many powerful, far-reaching players -- enablers, amplifiers, grifters, and other opportunists.
3 - TRUMPISM has emotionalized our electorate. People, some of which we all know, were co-opted. Trump supporters weren't born more emotional per se; but they were in some way susceptible, and they have been actively manipulated.
THREAD
1 - Before invading, Putin had assessed that America is fractured - or at minimum - divided. Without that assessment this war would NOT be happening. Because America, its democracy, and the NATO alliance are Putin's impediments and obsessions. His goal is to diminish them.
2 - For years, Putin saw, up close, Trump's fetishization for cruelty and need to win every transaction. He ALSO saw the GOP's unbridled lust for regaining power. He saw the potential for American democracy itself to be altered or compromised.
3 - Putin ALSO saw a strong element of our electorate buying into strongman propaganda - let's call it TrumpISM. In the world of Trumpism, authoritarians are admired as powerful, manly, strong. The strong take what they can. Winning is everything.
THREAD
1 - Putin has assessed - correctly - that America is fractured. Without that assessment, this war would NOT be happening.
For years, Putin saw, up close, Trump's fetishization for cruelty and need to win every transaction. He NOW sees the GOP's lust for regaining power.
2 - Putin knows there's a fissure in America that’s filtered into our electorate. Trump's narcissism and the GOP's greed has manifested in our electorate as TrumpISM. In the world of Trumpism, authoritarianism is admired as powerful, manly, strong. The strong take what they can.
3 - Because winning is everything.
But Trumpism is not just one orange-tinted sociopath. Nor is it just the mob. It's a metastasizing apparatus of GOP enablers from the shameless McCarthy to the toxic blowhard that is Tucker Carlson.