Thread by @duty2warn

THREAD
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, IN ADVANCE. This, along with compelling heroism from Zelensky and Ukrainians, created LOTS of global unity.

2 - Meantime, here at home, while most of the GOP changed their pro-Putin stance to a pro-Ukraine stance - purely and temporarily in response to polling data, there's still Trump, Carlson, Tulsi Gabbard, and a few others parroting and amplifying various Kremlin talking points.

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 autocratic fetishization. And winning being everything. And rampant disinformation. In America, it's morphed into a cult.

4 - Russia is a closed dictatorial society with state media, so one can understand how disinformation would easily propagate. Putin tries to never let the light in. He suppresses the truth, forcefully. Russian citizens don't see enough truth to even recognize it when they do!

5 - Here in America, it's different. We are still a democracy with freedom of the press. Sadly, fearmongering and false narratives have been used to emotionalize OUR electorate; it's co-opted many into cultish beliefs. As astonishing as it is to see it's human nature thru history

6 - Culture wars. Nationalism. Demonization. Xenophobia. Perversion of words. (Does any Trump voter understand the actual meaning of the word "evidence"?). TOTAL politicization of EVERY issue. In an echo chamber; with mass repetition. Lies that are shameless. This - is TRUMPISM.

7 - The future of Ukrainian democracy is unfolding now. The future of OUR democracy will unfold before and during our midterm elections. We MUST not only be more plentiful at the polls, and hopefully we'll see progress on accountability, but we MUST also be SMARTER than the GOP.

8 - The sources pelting Americans with propaganda are plentiful. They've become a full-on apparatus. It's Fox. Talk radio. Right wing podcasts. Performative elected officials. Social media. Foreign actors, like Putin. It's spread like a plague to millions of our most susceptible.

9 - For democracy to prevail, enough TRUTH must prevail. This IS the bottom line. The other bottom line: WE NEED TO PLAY THE MATH. Not all our citizens are political creatures. Not all Republicans are Trump supporters. And not all Trump voters are racist, rabid, or ridiculous.

10 - We're making a film called #UNTRUTH. It will make sense out of where we are and why we're here. It's a behavioral perspective we don't EVER get in the media. It will speak truth to ANYONE who isn't fully entranced. It will arm us and help flip moderates. That's smart math!

11 - The film WILL be released before the midterms. It's an independent film featuring psychologists and pundits, some of which you know well. We did this in 2020 with #UNFIT about Trump. Now in 2020, it's called #UNTRUTH about TrumpISM - the TRUE foe. It WILL make a difference.

12 - You can read about the film NOW. And we hope as many people will do that as possible! Here is a link. Watch the trailer, read the "Messages of the Film," and please consider supporting the effort (if you do, choose a Reward for doing it).
bit.ly/34DmQZP

13 - Democracy really IS on the line. The GOP has no platform. They only want power so as to change the system to allow Minority Rule, now and forever. We must be smart and focused. Truth must prevail.
We're all in this together. Thanks for reading.

END

bit.ly/34DmQZP