The QAnonization of America and the Rise & Demise of Donald Trump
Is there any hope for a people three-quarters of whom believe in angels and over half of whom read below the sixth grade level? Misinformation and populism go hand-in-hand.
The United States has the largest economy on the globe, is the leader in medical technology and research universities, not to mention space exploration and military prowess. Yet you wouldn’t believe it by the following statistics:
77 percent of Americans believe in angels
two-thirds believe in ghosts
a quarter believe in witches
60 percent believe in evolution
30 percent think that the government inserts secret mind-controlling technology into television broadcast signals
more Americans could identify Michael Jackson as the composer of ‘Beat It’ and ‘Billie Jean’ than could identify the Bill of Rights as a body of amendments to the U.S. Constitution
half think that the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation or the War of 1812 occurred before the American Revolution
54 percent of U.S. adults — some 130 million — read below the sixth-grade level.
up to 20 percent believe the QAnon fabrication that government, media and finance are controlled by Satan-worshipping pedophiles
Why the discordance?
It’s complicated.
Let’s start with the return of “Q” — as in QAnon — whose deranged conspiracy theory that there is a “deep state” that runs a vast cannibalistic child sex trafficking ring involving the American elites, against whom Donald Trump is battling, has one in five Americans as believers, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. Yes, up to 20 percent of the population is convinced Nosferatu-like bureaucrats are in cahoots with your favorite movie stars and Democrats to traffic children and drink their blood. And it gets even crazier. “Q,” coincidentally, has returned after a lengthy absence just in time to lambaste Trump nemesis Cassidy Hutchinson, a key witness before the House January 6 Committee.
I recently saw the hilarious star-studded film, Don’t Look Up, about two astronomers who discover a comet heading straight for earth. Their efforts to alert government leaders and the populace to the impending doom are frustrated by a society wallowing in self-absorption, vacuous entertainment, hedonism and superstition. The movie keys off of the 2006 film, Idiocracy, depicting a future dystopian America so dumbed-down by flighty mass commercialism and mindless entertainment that citizens are universally fat, dumb and dull, led by idiot politicians. Both films are warnings not to take freedoms and prosperity for granted.
Another movie that warns us, but from another angle, is the 1922 Fritz Lang production, Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (Dr. Mabuse, Der Spieler). The protagonist, Dr. Mabuse, is a supervillain who exploits social decay, paranoia and populism of the Weimar era for criminal self-aggrandizement and power. He cunningly plays on the period’s social disorder to get people to believe in nonexistent behind-the-scenes villains fomenting the turmoil. He scapegoats his own failings. His actions mirror proto-fascist movements of the time, including a putsch against the government. Individual and social pathology permeate the film. Mabuse exerts a hypnotic, zombielike grip (kadavergehorsam) over his minions.
As happens with all villains, Mabuse meets his comeuppance and his empire of sociopathy comes crashing down, in part due to the doggedness of a public prosecutor, von Wenk. The specters of his once servile henchmen turn on him. The great manipulator gets trapped and is done in, victim of his own overweening ambition and overreach.
Substitute Donald Trump for Dr. Mabuse and the January 6 Committee for prosecutor von Wenk and Fritz Lang seems strikingly prescient.
In a Washington Monthly article a year after Trump entered the White House, “Weimar America: Could Germany’s Past Be America’s Future?” I explored the striking parallels between 1920s Germany and today’s America:
German society was polarized between insiders and outsiders, or what German historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler describes as a “cartel of traditional power elites” vs “the onslaught of new forces,” comprising those frozen out of political and economic power. Proportional representation enabled extremist factions, notably the Nazi Party, to surge. Corporate and labor leaders, the landed aristocracy and other interest groups shortsightedly focused on their individual self-interests at the expense of the nation’s. Wealth and income inequality grew. Hyperinflation and the Great Depression devastated Germans’ lives, driving many to support political extremists. Church leaders were passive in the face of growing threats to German democracy and remained largely silent on the ugly racism that took hold in political discourse.
The Weimar Republic’s disordered period also witnessed a proliferation of belief in mysticism, the paranormal, fringe politics, nativism and crackpot theories like Theosophy and Ariosophy. The Völkisch (Folkish) movement was a popular atavistic harkening to Germany’s distant pagan past, with racist overtones. The Nazis incorporated many of these apocryphal beliefs into their ideology. “In part this ideology was a revolt against modernity,” according to British historian A.J. Nicholls.
Today’s QAnon has germinated in a similarly disordered period of American history. That one in five of one’s fellow citizens believe in QAnon’s superstitions, not least Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election being stolen — and 32 percent of these agreeing with the statement that “the idea of America where most people are not white bothers me” — bodes ill for America’s future.
We are witnessing today in the U.S., as well as in other countries, a similar “revolt against modernity.” Critics quip that today’s ultra-conservative U.S. Supreme Court is seeking to repeal the 20th century. Scholars point to societal changes centering on globalization, immigration, “creative destruction” in the economy, a yawning wealth and income gap and atomized information media as catalysts behind current political troubles. Add to that a toxic political agent like Donald Trump and you have a witch’s brew for popular discontent and social strife.
In a disordered era, more people fall prey to misinformation, which tends to flourish in communities that feel destabilized by unwanted change. According to Dartmouth political scientist Brendon Nyhan, three catalysts drive people to fall for misinformation: first, “ingrouping,” or a kind of tribalism in which social identity is seen as providing strength and superiority in the face of perceived enemies (e.g., liberals). In this setting, “belonging is stronger than facts,” according to sociologist Zeynep Tufekci. Second, high-profile political figures fan the flames of misinformation for their own self-interest. Third, social media act as a force multiplier for propaganda.
Moreover, “perceptions of insignificance may lead individuals to endorse relatively extreme beliefs, such as authoritarianism, and to follow authoritarian leaders as a way to gain a sense that their lives and their contributions matter,” writes psychologist Jake Womick.
Populism grows from a sense that the government and the elites cannot be trusted and that the “little guy” is powerless and at their mercy — leading to a feeling of helplessness to improve one’s lot. And, as I wrote in 2019, “history has shown that unconstrained capitalism and a growing wealth gap leads to an unhealthy concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. When the gap between the haves and the have-nots goes unchecked, populism takes hold, leading to the election of dangerous demagogues like Trump, and the disastrous politics they bring with them” — creating fertile ground for the spread of misinformation.
So, we then get into a chicken-or-egg question: does eroding misinformation lead to the fall of demagogues like Trump and his shameless copycats (Cruz, Hawley, Oz, DeSantis, Vance, et al.)? Or does it take defeating the demagogues to erode the potency of misinformation?
We may be seeing the beginning of Trump’s well-deserved slide into the ash heap of history with the unexpected impact of the House January 6 Committee. Some 20 million Americans were glued to the first hearing and viewership has remained high for the subsequent five. Revelations of an alleged sprawling conspiracy to overthrow the results of the 2020 election of Joe Biden have been shocking and are reaching even heretofore close-minded conservative audiences. Trump camp followers such as Pennsylvania senatorial candidate Mehmet Oz and others are distancing themselves from the former president. There are calls in some conservative publications for Trump not to seek to run for president in 2024. And, though it is premature to say, Trump may be in real danger of criminal indictment at both the Federal and state levels. Moreover, a new ABC News/Ipsos survey shows that 58 percent of those polled believe that Donald Trump should be charged with a crime for his role in the Jan. 6 attack, up from 52 percent in an ABC News/Washington Post poll from earlier this year.
Should Trump fade away, or wind up in prison, however, it is unlikely that his silenced megaphone would cause mass misinformation, as manifested in the QAnon phenomenon, to simply evaporate. As I said earlier, it’s complicated. Trumpism, modern populism, likely will succeed the man. Unlike the case of Germany, we don’t need the existential shock of a major war to bring us to our senses as a society.
It, again, boils down to the toxic populism now extant in American society. Greatly reducing wealth and income inequality, mitigating the more negative impacts of globalization, enacting comprehensive immigration reform and eliminating, or at least lessening, egregious distortions in our electoral system would go far in removing the root causes of populism and the proliferation of misinformation that accompanies it — not to mention Duce-wannabes like Trump and the aspirational tinpot despots who feed off of him.
If changes aren’t made, pay heed to Dr. Mabuse:
“I will become a giant, a titan who scatters the gods and the laws into a swirl like withered leaves!”
This piece of utter fantasy clearly has fans. The insane idea that the Stalinist show trial farce called "January 6th: The Musical!" now playing to decidedly mixed reviews in The Swamp is anything but an absurd partisan exercise is sufficiently risible to make this entire piece worth tossing into the circular file. It is the Left's wet dream and the vast majority of the nation either does not know it's happening or thinks it's a ridiculous waste of taxpayer dollars and an appalling breach of due process and the rule of law.
As for the statistics about the impacts of education in American life, I thank the "diplomat" for pointing them out, because DEMOCRATS have been in charge of "education" for the past five decades at least. So I appreciate Mr. Bruno pointing out what a terrible job they have done, although I have long believed it is deliberate. The dumber the population is, the more they will fall for every stupid Leftist plan pushed on them.
Another excellent piece... the only thing that would have made it better would be references citing the statistics.