How Mass Distortion of Reality Occurs
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As I was reading Raymond Tribdino’s fascinating article about major moments in US and Filipino history, democracy in those countries, and anti-democratic fascist movements there, I was thinking about something that I’ve thought about many times in the past decade. Well, beyond thinking about it, I’ve truly wondered about it. How is it that there is one quite consistent thread or community across so many parts of the world that is supporting fascist leaders, racism, xenophobia, fossil fuels, and, often, a very specific view of Christianity that is not taking a “love thy neighbor” or Jesus-like approach to “others?”
I’ve seen this happening in the US, across Europe, in the Philippines, in Australia, in South America, and surely in other places as well. As noted above, there are disconnected themes involved, but the thing is that there are consistent views on them. Somehow, they all get tied together and assimilated. These people are often anti-cleantech or pro fossil fuel as well as being anti-immigrant and pro-fascist. They often somehow think they have Christian ideology on their side despite having hateful and even violent tendencies against other groups of people, including other groups of Christians, ironically. But why are the same people so opposed to immigration also supporting fossil fuel industries?
I’ve generally thought about how global social media is, and thus the spread of misinformation and propaganda that comes with it. But, from my days studying sociology in college, some other points have come to mind.
We like to think that we believe things based on logic and good rationale. However, most of what we believe comes from communities we are part of, our close friends, and our family. In particular, many beliefs are formed in our early development years — as kids and young adults — and then we mostly adopt subsequent opinions that come from that social/cultural world we are a part of. However, close associations with family, friends, core groups we are part of, and coworkers can lead to new or evolved belief systems as time goes on as well, especially if we shift to a new community or world. It is often a connection to one of those that leads us to get on one side of an issue or another early on, and then we just rationalize that position as we go further into it.
Yes, the internet does indeed bring a new element into this. People now become part of internet communities in a way that didn’t happen before — not nearly to the same extent, at least. They can form much stronger bonds to these than to their real-world connections. Then, of course, new information comes in through that filter and the messaging around what’s good or bad. Even if they are not necessarily part of a group on reddit, Facebook, X/Twitter, or a website like ours, they could be in the grip of a specific algorithm on YouTube and be led down a certain kind of rabbit hole along with others drawn to a particular interest.
Somehow, though, across the real-world connections, popular mainstream media they consume, and online communities and social media, those on the extreme right wing keep lining up on the issues noted at the top. Raymond’s story of a college friend is one anecdote of many. Actually, many of us probably have anecdotes of our own. And we can often see how the person made the link to this alternative world, where the exposure to and the quick adoption of these ideologies stemmed — whether it be a close personal connection, a certain media diet, an industry/career, or an online world.
But why the links between energy & fossil fuels, immigration, and fascism? There’s the obvious matter of fossil fuel companies not wanting to face accountability and spreading enormous amounts of misinformation. But why do groups with these links keep getting on the same page on all of these topics?
Clearly, leaders of a community make a difference — political leaders, popular figures, media heads curating the news and setting the talking points, etc. But, again, why does the right wing keep lining up on these disconnected issues? Is it simply due to political funding and natural links that form? Is it due to like-minded political figures deciding to agree on other issues because they agree on one or two big ones, and there being only so many true thought leaders driving the narrative? Is it an inherent aversion to change and evolution?
However it happens, the unfortunate thing is that they end up living in an alternative world that is based on huge lies, that is opposed to health and safety measures, that is opposed to science and democracy, and that is focused on keeping people out rather than mixing and assimilating. We keep seeing it across the world. Unfortunately, despite being based in a very dark fantasy, actions from this fascism-aligned, pro-pollution, anti-others community do affect the world, greatly.
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