Thread by @mattsheffield

🧵 Talking to Trump super fans about politics is often a surreal experience. And that's because they literally do not understand what you are talking about.

Why is that? Because Trump devotees actually believe that truth derives from authority rather than reality...

This thread is a summary of my latest @DiscoverFlux piece, which you can find here. I am not including the link because a certain authoritarian billionaire deliberately downranks links in posts.

You can continue here or click through: plus.flux.community/p/trump-suppor…

People generally use the word "authoritarian" as a synonym for jerk, but it has actual philosophical and historical meaning.

Authoritarian thinking is as old as humanity itself and was manifested in ancient societies in which politics and religion were unified.

Many polytheistic societies believed their rulers were descendants of gods, or even incarnations of gods themselves.

Monotheistic Judaism built on this practice by claiming that the rulers were God's actual servants, prophets who spoke w/him constantly.

People correctly call Trumpism a form of fascism, but it's more accurate to say that it is authoritarianism. The rightfulness of an act is not determined by moral principles but by identity of the person or group committing it.

This is why Trump can literally do no wrong.

Authoritarian morality flows downward in a hierarchy. The higher one is, the more rightful their actions are.

With some variations it is as follows:

1) The leader (Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, etc)
2) Political party
3) Wealth
4) Religion
5) Race
6) Sex
7) Tribe

In this framework, it is not wrong for Donald Trump to engage in actions that violate Christian teachings. Nor is it wrong for wealthy people to do so.

Being in a less favored identity group means your actions are more likely to be immoral.

To outsiders, Christians supporting a philandering atheist criminal like Donald Trump seems like hypocrisy.

But not to authoritarians. Trump is the maximum leader and therefore the servant of God who must be obeyed. Likewise, this is why "pro-life" people oppose social welfare.

Donald Trump was shocked when he first encountered reactionary morality. It was almost unbelievable to him, and he expressed that publicly in his infamous remark that "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters."

He was right.

Authoritarian morality is based on the principle that philosophers call "divine command theory," the notion that all morality is determined by God alone. Anything God says is moral, period. Anything that contradicts the current divine edict is either moot or morally wrong.

Divine command theory is repeatedly taught in the Bible, most prominently in the story of Abraham being willing to kill his son Isaac in obedience to God.

At the very end, God intervenes and stops Abraham, but this is pure happenstance. It would have been right to kill Isaac.

Later in the Bible, this is made explicitly clear in the story of Jephthah,an Israelite warrior chief who covenants with God that if he is given victory in an upcoming battle, he will kill the first being he sees upon his return home...

God keeps his end of the bargain and upon his return, Jephthah's daughter rushes to greet him, thus becoming destined to be killed.

God does not intervene, however, and after a brief time, Jephthah murders his daughter as he promised, and is righteous for doing so.

But claiming that morality flows from God is problematic when it is obvious that there are no gods telling people what to do.

This is why following the leader is so important. Since gods are not actually telling us what to do, we must follow God's chosen instruments.

The identity of the leader is what makes his actions moral, not whether his actions correspond to prior religious teachings.

Unquestioning obedience is the first and only real commandment in this moral viewpoint. Everything else is secondary.

Of course, most of the people who blindly follow Trump or his criminal acolytes like Steve Bannon have no knowledge of the moral theory and epistemology described above, nor do they need to.

Authoritarianism simplifies moral decision-making and strengthens group cohesion.

This is, unfortunately, why trying to use rational thinking or fact checking to help your MAGA relatives come to their senses is not likely to work.

The idea that everyone has the same moral stature or authority is to invite spiritual and psychic death.

The best way to oppose authoritarian thinking is to understand that it cannot be compromised with, and that most adherents lack the intellectual fortitude to directly question the maximum leader.

To wean someone away from Trumpism, you must attack the beliefs that bind them.

Most hardcore Trumpers have emotionally given themselves to him, seeking refuge from a world filled with people saying and doing things they cannot understand.

His vapid cruelty is a comfort for he hates the same people they do. His insults are lifesblood for their fragility.

To deal with the authoritarian cult of Trumpism, we must see it as more of a psychological and philosophical cancer than just politico-religious partisanship.

This essay is part of a series so please follow and subscribe to stay in touch! plus.flux.community/subscribe

An excellent and related thread here which I just now remembered from @BrandonLBradfor

https://twitter.com/BrandonLBradfor/status/1582091078726844417