It’s Time to Talk About Mental Contagion, Mass Hysteria, and Social Collapse

The far right’s fascist-friendly ‘alternate reality’ and Trump’s MAGA cult are wrecking our nation

It’s gone on for far too long already. It’s spreading, and it shows no sign of abating anytime soon.

By ‘it’ I mean the devastating, contagious moral and emotional insanity that’s been spreading through America for many years now. But I’m also referring to the massive denial and public minimization that’s accompanying it.

For years I’ve hoped and prayed that right-leaning Americans would ‘wake up’ and start to reject the awful emotional, psychological, and social effects of Trump and his MAGA cult. I’ve waited and waited … and it’s simply not happening.

In fact, in some ways the exact opposite is happening (unbelievably): the GOP keeps groveling and reaffirming its pathetic fealty to Trump — and most Republican voters, far from being disgusted or put off by his indictments, are instead thrilled by all his indictments and enthusiastically support him for president in ’24. Pure insanity.

That’s why it’s time — way past time, really — for some ‘tough love’ communication about brainwashing, mental contagion, mass delusion, and social collapse. I know that most of the people who really need this ‘tough love’ talk, and need to hear the truth about their brainwashed condition, would much rather shoot me or rip me apart than listen to me — but I’m going to say what needs to be said anyway.

What the hell happened to us over the past eight years?

How can we really, deeply understand what’s been going on in the United States for the past eight years? Clearly, many Americans are in a lot of inner pain and feel lost, miserable, and/or ‘stuck’ — for people who are balanced and fairly happy simply don’t need or want the hate, racism, and rage that Trump and MAGA encourage.

The real and ongoing problem, of course, is US — “we the people” — and the utterly crazy and dangerous ideas and beliefs that many of us now embrace as ‘true’ or ‘patriotic.’

I’m talking about weird (yet ‘normalized’) beliefs like: It’s a really good idea to let insecure, emotionally hair-trigger 18-year-olds purchase assault weapons designed for mass murder … and to let our churches and places of worship become hyper-partisan temples devoted to hate, division, and racism …

And it’s just fine to let far-right TV, radio, and Internet abuse public free speech rights, disseminate barely-veiled (or even overt) hate speech, and broadcast a constant stream of disinformation and seditious, antisocial lies … and to have and promote a destructive, addictive ‘consumer society’ that is at odds with the natural world and is in direct conflict with the Earth that sustains us.

All of these ‘good ideas’ are in truth idiotic, immoral, and dangerous.

Our society is ‘out of touch with reality’

The truly terrifying reality we’re facing is that our entire society and way of life is badly out of touch with reality. One of the commonly-accepted indicators of sanity is ‘being in touch with reality’ — and we aren’t.

Sure, most Americans aren’t clinically insane — but that doesn’t change the fact that our society is stuck on an antisocial, anti-natural, wildly unfair, and demented treadmill … and is going nowhere fast, at least nowhere good.

Most of us aren’t technically insane, thankfully — but that’s small comfort. It doesn’t alter the fact that most people are lost, frightened, and miserable — and are desperately covering this up and ‘trying to be happy’ by accruing more money, more power, more sexual partners, more followers or Facebook ‘friends,’ more belongings and ‘stuff,’ etc.

The real underlying problem we’re facing, in my opinion, is that none of our desperate ‘trying to be happy’ is working out — or not for long, anyway. Our society is just way, way too dysfunctional. And our social and psychological misery (and loneliness) are going through the roof — but hardly anyone is willing to even look at this truth.

That’s the real, accurate ‘background picture’ of what’s happening all around us and within us in the U.S. And as any student of 20th-century history can tell you, such widespread misery, fear, and pain provide easy pickings for demagogues and easily lead to fanaticism, growing rage, and fast-spreading fascism.

And that’s exactly what we see happening, all across the U.S.

Big Lies and other effective fascist brainwashing

What concerns me the most, though — deeply, terrifyingly — are the toxic inner and interpersonal processes that inspire and underlie fascism. Democracy depends on an informed, involved, and caring citizenry — but today, most Americans are not well-informed and are only minimally involved in our society and politics.

Even a backsliding democracy like ours depends on an informed, active citizenry … but that’s not where we are, as a nation or as a society. Only 50–55% of Americans usually bother to vote, for instance — and even less in off-year elections. And most Americans know almost nothing about how our government really functions.

Fascism, on the other hand, thrives on ignorance, fear, disinformation, and lies. Fascism takes root in peoples’ inner pain and suffering, and comforts them with false promises of redemption and happiness — IF they will just happily and totally hate and blame a group of despised ‘others’ for their problems.

Fascism is always based on massive denial, projection, and scapegoating, and inevitably ends in some kind of horrible social or humanitarian disaster.

But fascism doesn’t arise overnight, or ‘out of the blue.’ It’s a gradual, insidious process that requires certain preconditions — and one of the most crucial is the long-term conditioning of the people to accept and spread a variety of Big Lies. This is perhaps the bedrock of fascism since it ensures that people are poorly informed, easily duped, and intently focused on all the wrong (illusory) things.

So how do you dupe a large swath of ‘the people’ into believing fascist nonsense and bald-faced partisan lies? Well, it’s mainly a matter of constant loud repetition and selective culling of the news, so people only hear or see what you want them to hear or see. And this is exactly what right-wing radio and TV have been doing to the American public for 30+ years — and these massive propaganda outlets have now been joined by the vast reach of the Internet and apps like Facebook and Twitter.

A downward spiral of hysteria, fear, rage, and paranoia

But far-right radio, TV, and Internet have been doing something else, also, which leads directly to fascism: they have been relentlessly stoking people’s anger and rage, and endlessly telling (white) people that ‘their country’ is being stolen from them — by immigrants, Jews, Blacks, Democrats, liberals, socialists, etc. — so they’re totally right to feel so enraged, and should fight back hard against all these un-American ‘others.’

Fascism depends on and feeds off of, a downward spiral combining emotional hysteria, anger, paranoia, and ‘moral panic’ over all the horrible things those ‘others’ are doing or saying.

I don’t really like the word ‘hysteria’ because of its connection with women and so-called ‘female emotionality’ — but there is no adequate term to replace it, so I’m still using that word but with a very specific meaning.

To me, the kind of hysteria whipped up by fascism and by far-right media is not your everyday, garden-variety hysteria. This version of hysteria is deeply partisan and politicized, and is deliberately utilized to whip the listeners or viewers into a frenzy of partisan rage, paranoia, and resentment. This type of hysteria is purposely generated to promote and energize a particular worldview — a worldview based on White privilege and the desire for (renewed) White supremacy.

In a previous article about the destructive downward spirals and hysteria engulfing America, I wrote the following:

“The most troubling aspect of downward spirals is the intense momentum they often build up, which makes them incredibly difficult to stop or slow down.

In this they resemble the emotional chain reaction of hysteria, which is an intensely “over-the-top” reaction to challenging or frightening events. Hysteria also can rapidly escalate out of control, take over a person’s mental state, and easily infect and incite other people, which can (and does) lead to horrendous group events like racist lynch mobs or the Jonestown Massacre or anti-government mob violence.

In fact, it’s quite likely that some aspects of downward spirals are actually forms of mass hysteria. The elements of irrationality, rapid spread, and increased potential for violence are all there in both, as is the rabid, flailing defense of one’s chosen “position” and beliefs — no matter how irrational (think of the absurd, paranoid nonsense of QAnon, for instance).

And just as with hysteria, it’s probable that vast societal downward spirals have to either burn themselves out through destructive emotional release and acting out, OR must be slowed by direct action and forcible restraint. Once rampant hysteria or an intense downward spiral accelerates past a certain “point of no return”… it gets totally out of control, and is impossible to curtail or manage without resorting to drastic measures and forcible external control.”

The point of no return: endless paranoia and emboldened fascism

I fear that our nation is rapidly approaching that “point of no return.” The far-right forces of oppression and fascism are still accelerating all across the country (especially in the ‘red’ states), and far-right media are still whipping their millions of followers into a self-righteous, enraged frenzy.

Meanwhile, the distinctions between lies and truth, and between real information, ‘fake news,’ and propaganda are quickly disappearing, and Americans’ lack of intelligent mental discrimination keeps feeding the fascism pipeline, funneling more and more infuriated MAGA cultists directly into the waiting jaws of fascism.

So the next time you hear some radicalized Republican or Fox ‘News’ junkie screaming about all the ways conservatives are being ‘canceled,’ or lashing out about liberals’ and socialists’ “plan to destroy America,” please recall: These folks have been heavily, constantly brainwashed for decades now, and are no longer … rational. It’s really true. They are fully in the grip of intense partisan, moral, and emotional hysteria, and in a very real sense no longer live in the same world that most moderates, centrists, and Democrats inhabit.

Many of these folks live and breathe partisan rage and paranoia, are totally committed to this far-right point of view — and are also utterly impossible to have a rational, reasoned discussion with. That’s the problem with brainwashed, quasi-hysterical people: they’re completely out of control, and their thinking is out of control … yet they think (wrongly) that they’re rational and make perfect sense.

The Trump/MAGA cult needs — but totally rejects — a healing intervention

It’s a terrifying phenomenon. The truth is, these people are members of an extremely dangerous cult, and like any cult members, they desperately need outside intervention to help them free themselves from the iron grip and constant partisan hysteria fomented by the cult and its leaders (thanks for nothing, Trump, Fox ‘News,’ Newsmax, and today’s seditious GOP).

Even more terrifying — these brainwashed, enraged hysterics have no desire at all to investigate any of their beliefs or be receptive to any type of two-way communication or caring intervention. They are rabid ‘true believers’ at this point — and true believers are among the most intractable and dangerous human beings, everywhere and always.

True believers encourage moral outrage, unquestioning belief, and blind loyalty to the cause, religion, sect, party, or ‘dear leader.’ The cult rules, in every respect: it rules their perceptions, their beliefs and emotions, and their attitudes and actions. In fact, these types of cult followers are the true ‘sheeple’ who are being manipulated and led around by the nose by their fascism-friendly ‘leaders.’

What the far right and the MAGA cult are counting on

The scary bottom line, in today’s America, is that there is a vast, dedicated, and highly irrational partisan cult that is still growing in power and influence — and the emotional and moral hysteria it constantly generates (and depends on) is still growing and metastasizing.

This cult has cleverly ‘owned’ the issue of free speech, and has basically been given free rein to inundate America with its racist, hateful ideologies. It is devious, seditious, and manipulative to the ‘nth’ degree — and fully intends to undermine and destroy our nation and replace it with a Christian/fascist theocracy.

And this cult is counting on the rapid spread of the moral, emotional, and partisan hysteria it constantly generates.

It’s counting on the laziness, denial, fear, and learned helplessness of the American people to allow it to keep going and going, basically unopposed, and keep undermining and wrecking our country.

It’s counting on further ramping up its public lying and bullying, unopposed, and scaring Americans into abject submission and silence.

It’s counting on all of us knuckling under and not challenging the idiotic, offensive, and dangerous lies it’s always spreading.

It’s counting on the continued, rapid spread of the deep divisiveness and partisan rage it foments.

And it’s counting on a weakened, meek (‘fake news’) media to not challenge its message much, and to not call out what’s really happening all over America.

Let’s NOT give them what they want

The essence of this cult is emotional, moral, and political bullying — and it uses peoples’ intense partisan hysteria to brutally enforce its agenda. It will literally do anything to get its way — including mass violence, sedition, and even murder.

We can’t let that happen. If we want to keep anything resembling a lawful, caring, and inclusive society, we’ve all got to stand up, en masse, and directly challenge the hell out of this vicious cult.

And then … never stop.