Thousands of hardcore supporters turned out for another Western PA Trump campaign stop in Moon today, just two days before the election.
Erin and myself decided to go and talk to folks about Alex Jones and see how much buy in there would be to his ravings about Hillary Clinton being possessed by demons, smelling of sulfur, etc.
What happened? Well, we managed to not get ourselves burned at the stake. Barely.
But the tragic reality is that the minds of Trump supporters have been fried by decades of right-wing media brainwashing, hate, and ideological indoctrination.
Rather than fight the inexhaustible supply of conspiracy and misinformation point-by-point, we used the example of the Salem witchcraft hysteria of 1692 to try and create breakthrough moments that help people step out of the cacophony of madness and think about how they’ve been swept up in a Hillary-hating frenzy.
The HearYourselfThink Project is a 501c3 non-profit that defends American values of truth, reason, and the common good by exposing how demagogues tap into the reptilian mind to divide and conquer. We are 100% funded by small donations.
Yesterday, we caught up with Stephen Moore, a frequent Fox contributor, outside the hotel in Pittsburgh where he was attending a conference with a stealth lobbying organization (ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council) that promotes pro-corporate legislation on the state level.
We wanted to hear what he had to say about the Trump phenomenon and the role of right-wing media in the rise of “Demagogue Donald” Trump:
The HearYourselfThink Project is a 501c3 non-profit that defends American values of truth, reason, and the common good by exposing how demagogues tap into the reptilian mind to divide and conquer. We are 100% funded by small donations.
Fox “News” was in Pittsburgh a few weeks back with a Donald Trump event hosted by Sean Hannity. We were on the inside to witness Hannity orchestrate what was billed as a “town hall” but what was really a pro-Trump rally. Raucous attendees were encouraged to scream and cheer and chants of “Build the Wall” rung out loudly and often. On the outside we talked with supporters (they were really very nice!) to see if we could have a genuine conversation that could begin to puncture the bubble of right-wing media manipulation which made the rise of demagogue Trump not only possible but inevitable.
Watch what happened and let us know what you think:
On April 13th, Fox “news” staged an event (*staged* being the operative word) in our home turf of Pittsburgh that they billed as a “town hall” with Sean Hannity and Donald Trump.
A long line of people, stretching for blocks, waited for hours to get into the hall for the live taping which was to be run that night on Hannity’s show. We waited along with them to get an inside view on the workings of the Fox propaganda machine.The day did not disappoint.
The audio clips you’re about to hear are of the insufferably smug Hannity rousing the mobbish crowd before the show with a stand up routine that is equal parts bad comedy and two minutes hate:
Did you catch the moment near the end where he asks a 14 year old girl, Julia, why the country needs to be saved? Her response begs the question: should instilling a child’s mind, by design, with fear and hate not be considered a form of abuse?
That’s what was so unsettling about the whole thing — all the over-the-top flag waving and gaudy appeals to patriotism mixed with open displays of rage, extremism, and raw hatred.
Like Norman Rockwell risen from the dead as a flesh-eating zombie, or a Hallmark card from Hitler.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the Idiocracy
It’s tempting to say that Donald Trump’s grotesque political ascent in the GOP presidential primaries represents the hostile take over of reality by Reality TV.
But Roger Ailes had already accomplished that with his own Reality TV news network which ex-Reagan advisor, Bruce Bartlett, concludes has been so successful at blurring the line between fact and fiction it’s led millions of its ardent viewers down the road of ideological self-brainwashing:
What this is then is the story of Trump: the Asshole Avenger.
The Right’s propaganda machine has spent 30 plus years indoctrinating Americans that Rich = Right. That thinking is for elitist fauntleroys and REAL AMERICANS go with “the gut” uber alles.
Of course, introspection, empathy and higher moral reasoning were given the bum’s rush along with civility, the social contract and basic human decency.
And so enter the Avenging Asshole; the Trumpenstein Monster; Trumpzilla; the Conqueror Id. How great is it that his name is Trump?
He got the memo alright that all of this is supposed to be about a right-wing agenda to decimate Democrats and amass political power for Republicans.
He just doesn’t give a fuck.
The only agenda that matters to Trump is the one that gazes back adoringly when he shaves every morning.
Trump is the crack version of “the Fox formula.” He’s distilled it down to its most volatile concentration of arrogance, petulance and unabashed asshole-ism, and the Fox heads cannot get enough.
They don’t give a damn — in fact they celebrate — that Trump sticks it to Fox and other Republicans.
They’ve been trained well by Ailes and Limbaugh.They know that the biggest asshole in the room is always right.
Remember back in 2008 when John McCain found himself face-to-face with a victim of Right-wing media brainwashing at a televised Presidential campaign event in Minnesota?
“I can’t trust Obama. I have read about him and he’s not, he’s not uh — he’s an Arab.”
McCain seemed stricken by the human tragedy of what the fear and smear messaging blitz targeting his opponent had done to a gullible mind. It was commendable that he debunked the woman’s befuddled xenophobia and tried to gently guide her back to the general vicinity of reality:
“No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign’s all about. He’s not [an Arab].”
McCain seemed to have a hard time forgetting not to tell the truth on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, too. Here he is accidentally agreeing with John Murtha that racism was a factor in the 2008 election:
How did Rick Santorum respond when he recently found himself in a situation similar to McCain’s? Did he demonstrate the same basic decency?
Check out the video of Santorum and his interlocutor at an event, hosted by Washington Times and Townhall columnist Frank Gaffney and come to a fair and balanced conclusion for yourself. Be warned, this video contains truly mind-ripping levels of shrill, paranoid crazitude:
“Obama tried to blow up a nuke in Charleston a few months ago and the three Admirals and Generals. He has totally destroyed our military. He has fired all the Generals and all the Admirals who said they wouldn’t fire on the American people if they ask ’em to do so if he wanted to take the guns away from ’em. This man is a Communist dictator. We need him out of the White House now.”
After listening, somewhat antsily, to the whole thing, Santorum responds that she should not blame him for not addressing her crazy train of issues because he’s not in Congress now. The assumption being, if only he were still in Congress, he’d be all over her batshit laundry list like tinfoil on Alex Jones’ pointy little head.
Rather than making any attempt whatsoever to defuse the time bomb of sick, twisted madness ticking away inside her addled cranium, Santorum instead lends credibility to her ravings.
“I’m not a sitting member of the Senate, so I’m not taking blame for any of that stuff,” … “But you hit on one point to which I absolutely agree: this is a complete lack of leadership.”
In the course of her word avalanche, the woman also talks about bringing the same concerns to Senator Ted Cruz who, unsurprisingly, did not disabuse her of any of it either, but counseled her to focus on the next election when a President Cruz could presumably tackle the issue of Obummer’s real birth certificate along with his gun-grabbing, Confederate state-nuking, tyrannical immigrant-aiding crusade.
What has the right-wing propaganda machine wrought? Any shame (or at least, politically induced worry) about how large segments of the Republican Party base has dangerously succumbed to media brainwashing techniques has gone out the window.
The sad and scary fact is, the line between the brainwashees and the brainwashers is getting blurrier all the time.
