What frightens me the most is how close to the brink we are to another mass atrocity. People immediately shut down when comparisons are made to Nazi Germany. Mass deportation is not equivalent to mass extinction, people say. Except, German officials didn’t start a fascist campaign of extermination. Jews were first dehumanized, othered, blamed for Germany’s financial problems and moral “rot.” Today, read any MAGA comment on social media, and they echo Trump’s hateful rhetoric. Immigrants are criminals, and they are “poisoning the blood” of America.
Next, came laws that stripped Jews of property rights, employment opportunities, and forbid inter-marriage. The reasoning? Germany didn’t belong to them. Trump regime is firing immigration judges, and deporting people without regard to their constitutional rights. He signs executive orders that are in violation of the constitution, smears federal judges as “rogue” (his own, as RINOs), lies to courts routinely, and ignores court orders flagrantly.
Then came mass deportation of Jews. That didn’t work out so well for the Nazis. Too many Jews, too few countries willing to accept them (including the US). Then they were rounded up and forced into Ghettos. Today, we are building detention centers in swamplands, converting warehouses to hold humans, tossing people into tent cities that do not keep elements out and ensure widespread illness and disease.
The “final solution” of forced labor camps, turned into extermination of prisoners, did not come about until nearly 5 years into Hitler’s expansionist war - 1942. One year after Hitler declared war on the United States, and Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
We are not mass exterminating immigrants - yet. We are sending many to near certain death. 3rd country deportations, whereby we understand that the 3rd countries will simply deport immigrants right back to their countries of origin - places our federal judges forbid detainees to be deported to. Trump is stripping people of their lawful statuses - getting rid of TPR, ordering “deportation judges” (this is what DHS is now calling them) to drop asylum claims without hearing cases. We are deporting people back to places they fled from, with well-founded UN documented fear of persecution, torture, death.
Yet. We are not exterminating people with forceful intention. Yet.
Your article confirms that we can all be monsters.
I had come to consider identity fusion to be foundational to this, but I'm wondering what the research suggests about such intense fusion around political affiliation as America has experienced recently. Anecdotally, I remember having Republican and Democratic uncles who would get in drunken discussions at family gatherings, but nobody saw it as a fundamental identity (certainly nobody was wearing political identity hats all the time). Democrats and Republicans routinely intermarried, whereas people from different brands of the same religion not so much. And voter turnout suggests that most Americans (especially younger over) are relatively apolitical; the loudest voices are amplified by transformations in our media environment- which is likely a significant factor in this politicization of identity. I mean, back then there were four sources of national news on TV, and it was a one-way information flow: no comments section.
I wonder if increased tribalism was inevitable given the explicit engagement reward mechanisms in social media, and if it was not politics being amplified it would be something else.
The atomization of the media environment certainly plays a role.
The unity of the mass media promoted a shared narrative and social unity. Everyone lived, generally, in the same shared (media moderated) reality.
Now people can select whatever source of "information" that they want and willingly pursue those sources that they find amiable/agreeable to them--and this tends to become even more discriminatory and extreme over time.
People live in increasingly different narrative realities, and these realties become self-reinforcing as contact is lost (usually willingly) with other narratives. This selection is not imposed but is self-directed. It is not a question of indoctrination or compulsion/coercion--except that membership in the (initially) selected group/narrative becomes coercive from the consideration of maintaining membership in the group once there is sufficient investment in that group membership.
Once membership becomes a core aspect of identity, you are essentially trapped and the effect (and affect) involved in breaking free becomes VERY high, requiring the equivalent of a strong (Saul on the road to Damascus) conversion experience--usually triggered by some sort of crisis (material or psychological).
Didn’t sports team affiliation kind of fill that identity niche in previous generations?
As the article mentions, times of instability ratchet up the authoritarian leaning person’s sense that restoring order is paramount. Social media certainly made it easier though to target people with the kind of content that would help stoke racism, bigotry, & misogyny.
As late stage, unfettered capitalism has become an ouroboros determined to consume us all… there’s plenty of reason to feel unsafe & uncertain. But not all of us sought out the ego preserving myths of white supremacy & false promises of economic prosperity if only we rolled back all social progress.
The parallel between narcissism & these people’s political identity is one that I am glad is getting more attention & discussion.
You don’t need to be an expert in broad authoritarianism to understand their “playbook”… just understand the coping mechanisms that narcissists all resort to in order to be both “the best person ever” and perpetually the victim.
I’ve read many articles on narcissism and find the section on the “collective narcissism” phenomenon in this piece particularly frightening. Narcissists have often been so badly abused as children that they create a new personality for themselves that abuses others as a means of self-preservation. To let go of this horrific personality they’ve made is to risk their own sanity, so they rarely seek treatment and are rarely cured. Narcissists en masse are definitely NOT a good prospect for the rest of us. The self-preservation aspect does explain the long game they’ve played so diligently.
Thx, this analysis explains a lot. But simultaneously my thought wonder in a different direction: so much knowledge around us - with so little effect, so little importance , makes me wonder why I, why we, should bother with anything at all. The rhythm is out of balance with the world.
Well done! This is complicated, and I appreciate the effort you made to base your analysis on research. I completely agree the problem isn’t intelligence. We do have some unique circumstances today, communication technology that facilitates anonymous conversations, without face to face interactions between strangers. I think self awareness is a lifelong process that helps us develop empathy. But after a decade of trying, most of us have given up trying to have a respectful dialogue, especially when the consequences of their choices are so devastatingly harmful to so many people. And a recent survey reported that approximately 25% of Americans are now Christian Nationalists- religious zealots have a long track record of intolerance and oppression.
You are describing a real human pattern, but you are pretending it is unique to MAGA. That is the first problem.
People spot bias, coercion, and “authoritarian vibes” faster in the other team than in their own. That is not a MAGA discovery. That is basic partisan psychology. The same mechanisms you cite are everywhere right now, including in the institutions and coalitions you are implicitly defending.
The bigger problem is that you use “authoritarian” as a conclusion, not a standard. You never clearly define what counts. Is it state coercion, censorship, administrative punishment, due process erosion, intimidation, viewpoint discrimination, or something else. You just label MAGA authoritarian and then use psychology to explain why they cannot see it. That is not analysis. It is a closed loop.
If we actually care about truth, you have to do two things.
First, define the criteria for authoritarian behavior in a way that would still apply if your political opponents used it against your side.
Second, apply it symmetrically. That means you do not get to treat your side’s restrictions as “safety” or “common sense” while treating the other side’s actions as proof of moral pathology. That is literally the actor observer asymmetry you cite.
You also spend a lot of time diagnosing motives and inner states. “Loyalty,” “moral insulation,” “projection,” “collective narcissism.” That is convenient because it turns disagreement into pathology. If someone disagrees, it is no longer possible they have different priorities or a different reading of facts. It must be a psychological defect. That move is not democracy. It is delegitimization in academic clothing.
If your argument is “people excuse their own side,” I agree. But then you have to look in the mirror and ask why your essay does not treat your own coalition with the same suspicion, the same standards, and the same willingness to name abuses when they are politically inconvenient.
The test is not whether MAGA can recognize authoritarian patterns in others. The test is whether you can apply the same standard to your own side when it costs you social comfort.
Frankly, I didn't read the entire piece, but an-indepth psychological analysis like this requires more time and thought than I am willing to invest in understanding people with so little self-awareness. Admittedly it is over-simplifying, but I'm sticking with my initial reaction: this sounds a lot like what those of us in the 12-step recovery movement label "denial." I could recognize others who had gone off the rails long before I reckonized that I also had. We all have blind spots, some are larger and more pervasive than others, and self-centered fear is at the root of much destructive acting out on our delusions. I've also had some direct experience of religious cults. Rarely do those in them seem to identify with that label, also.
What frightens me the most is how close to the brink we are to another mass atrocity. People immediately shut down when comparisons are made to Nazi Germany. Mass deportation is not equivalent to mass extinction, people say. Except, German officials didn’t start a fascist campaign of extermination. Jews were first dehumanized, othered, blamed for Germany’s financial problems and moral “rot.” Today, read any MAGA comment on social media, and they echo Trump’s hateful rhetoric. Immigrants are criminals, and they are “poisoning the blood” of America.
Next, came laws that stripped Jews of property rights, employment opportunities, and forbid inter-marriage. The reasoning? Germany didn’t belong to them. Trump regime is firing immigration judges, and deporting people without regard to their constitutional rights. He signs executive orders that are in violation of the constitution, smears federal judges as “rogue” (his own, as RINOs), lies to courts routinely, and ignores court orders flagrantly.
Then came mass deportation of Jews. That didn’t work out so well for the Nazis. Too many Jews, too few countries willing to accept them (including the US). Then they were rounded up and forced into Ghettos. Today, we are building detention centers in swamplands, converting warehouses to hold humans, tossing people into tent cities that do not keep elements out and ensure widespread illness and disease.
The “final solution” of forced labor camps, turned into extermination of prisoners, did not come about until nearly 5 years into Hitler’s expansionist war - 1942. One year after Hitler declared war on the United States, and Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
We are not mass exterminating immigrants - yet. We are sending many to near certain death. 3rd country deportations, whereby we understand that the 3rd countries will simply deport immigrants right back to their countries of origin - places our federal judges forbid detainees to be deported to. Trump is stripping people of their lawful statuses - getting rid of TPR, ordering “deportation judges” (this is what DHS is now calling them) to drop asylum claims without hearing cases. We are deporting people back to places they fled from, with well-founded UN documented fear of persecution, torture, death.
Yet. We are not exterminating people with forceful intention. Yet.
Your article confirms that we can all be monsters.
Goodness! Maybe it’s safest to just stay in bed….
I had come to consider identity fusion to be foundational to this, but I'm wondering what the research suggests about such intense fusion around political affiliation as America has experienced recently. Anecdotally, I remember having Republican and Democratic uncles who would get in drunken discussions at family gatherings, but nobody saw it as a fundamental identity (certainly nobody was wearing political identity hats all the time). Democrats and Republicans routinely intermarried, whereas people from different brands of the same religion not so much. And voter turnout suggests that most Americans (especially younger over) are relatively apolitical; the loudest voices are amplified by transformations in our media environment- which is likely a significant factor in this politicization of identity. I mean, back then there were four sources of national news on TV, and it was a one-way information flow: no comments section.
I wonder if increased tribalism was inevitable given the explicit engagement reward mechanisms in social media, and if it was not politics being amplified it would be something else.
The atomization of the media environment certainly plays a role.
The unity of the mass media promoted a shared narrative and social unity. Everyone lived, generally, in the same shared (media moderated) reality.
Now people can select whatever source of "information" that they want and willingly pursue those sources that they find amiable/agreeable to them--and this tends to become even more discriminatory and extreme over time.
People live in increasingly different narrative realities, and these realties become self-reinforcing as contact is lost (usually willingly) with other narratives. This selection is not imposed but is self-directed. It is not a question of indoctrination or compulsion/coercion--except that membership in the (initially) selected group/narrative becomes coercive from the consideration of maintaining membership in the group once there is sufficient investment in that group membership.
Once membership becomes a core aspect of identity, you are essentially trapped and the effect (and affect) involved in breaking free becomes VERY high, requiring the equivalent of a strong (Saul on the road to Damascus) conversion experience--usually triggered by some sort of crisis (material or psychological).
Didn’t sports team affiliation kind of fill that identity niche in previous generations?
As the article mentions, times of instability ratchet up the authoritarian leaning person’s sense that restoring order is paramount. Social media certainly made it easier though to target people with the kind of content that would help stoke racism, bigotry, & misogyny.
As late stage, unfettered capitalism has become an ouroboros determined to consume us all… there’s plenty of reason to feel unsafe & uncertain. But not all of us sought out the ego preserving myths of white supremacy & false promises of economic prosperity if only we rolled back all social progress.
The parallel between narcissism & these people’s political identity is one that I am glad is getting more attention & discussion.
You don’t need to be an expert in broad authoritarianism to understand their “playbook”… just understand the coping mechanisms that narcissists all resort to in order to be both “the best person ever” and perpetually the victim.
I’ve read many articles on narcissism and find the section on the “collective narcissism” phenomenon in this piece particularly frightening. Narcissists have often been so badly abused as children that they create a new personality for themselves that abuses others as a means of self-preservation. To let go of this horrific personality they’ve made is to risk their own sanity, so they rarely seek treatment and are rarely cured. Narcissists en masse are definitely NOT a good prospect for the rest of us. The self-preservation aspect does explain the long game they’ve played so diligently.
Thx, this analysis explains a lot. But simultaneously my thought wonder in a different direction: so much knowledge around us - with so little effect, so little importance , makes me wonder why I, why we, should bother with anything at all. The rhythm is out of balance with the world.
I think it was more cogently stated as seeing the speck in the other guys eye but not the plank in your own.
MAGA in great danger from the public!
Narrative Warfare is destroying America!
Engineered Chaos leads to democracy failure!
Just posted a deep‑dive teaser on how foreign powers weaponize America’s internal chaos:
https://substack.com/@geopoliticsinplainsight/note/c-198193128
Just don’t be an authoritarian. Problem solved.
Well done! This is complicated, and I appreciate the effort you made to base your analysis on research. I completely agree the problem isn’t intelligence. We do have some unique circumstances today, communication technology that facilitates anonymous conversations, without face to face interactions between strangers. I think self awareness is a lifelong process that helps us develop empathy. But after a decade of trying, most of us have given up trying to have a respectful dialogue, especially when the consequences of their choices are so devastatingly harmful to so many people. And a recent survey reported that approximately 25% of Americans are now Christian Nationalists- religious zealots have a long track record of intolerance and oppression.
You are describing a real human pattern, but you are pretending it is unique to MAGA. That is the first problem.
People spot bias, coercion, and “authoritarian vibes” faster in the other team than in their own. That is not a MAGA discovery. That is basic partisan psychology. The same mechanisms you cite are everywhere right now, including in the institutions and coalitions you are implicitly defending.
The bigger problem is that you use “authoritarian” as a conclusion, not a standard. You never clearly define what counts. Is it state coercion, censorship, administrative punishment, due process erosion, intimidation, viewpoint discrimination, or something else. You just label MAGA authoritarian and then use psychology to explain why they cannot see it. That is not analysis. It is a closed loop.
If we actually care about truth, you have to do two things.
First, define the criteria for authoritarian behavior in a way that would still apply if your political opponents used it against your side.
Second, apply it symmetrically. That means you do not get to treat your side’s restrictions as “safety” or “common sense” while treating the other side’s actions as proof of moral pathology. That is literally the actor observer asymmetry you cite.
You also spend a lot of time diagnosing motives and inner states. “Loyalty,” “moral insulation,” “projection,” “collective narcissism.” That is convenient because it turns disagreement into pathology. If someone disagrees, it is no longer possible they have different priorities or a different reading of facts. It must be a psychological defect. That move is not democracy. It is delegitimization in academic clothing.
If your argument is “people excuse their own side,” I agree. But then you have to look in the mirror and ask why your essay does not treat your own coalition with the same suspicion, the same standards, and the same willingness to name abuses when they are politically inconvenient.
The test is not whether MAGA can recognize authoritarian patterns in others. The test is whether you can apply the same standard to your own side when it costs you social comfort.
Frankly, I didn't read the entire piece, but an-indepth psychological analysis like this requires more time and thought than I am willing to invest in understanding people with so little self-awareness. Admittedly it is over-simplifying, but I'm sticking with my initial reaction: this sounds a lot like what those of us in the 12-step recovery movement label "denial." I could recognize others who had gone off the rails long before I reckonized that I also had. We all have blind spots, some are larger and more pervasive than others, and self-centered fear is at the root of much destructive acting out on our delusions. I've also had some direct experience of religious cults. Rarely do those in them seem to identify with that label, also.