OPINION: The politics of delusion and fear

The most frustrating thing about following politics is trying to understand how so many people can fervently believe things that have no basis in reality. No ... the most frustrating thing is presenting them with facts, logic and evidence only to have them double down on their fabrications. How do people become so certain of things that just aren’t so? The key is fear.

In a Politico article titled “What Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán Understand About Your Brain,” Marcel Danesi writes about how demagogues and autocrats use dehumanizing language, disinformation and hyperbole to change the structure of listeners’ brains. By exploiting and amplifying existing anxieties, these leaders can bypass critical thinking centers and get their followers to believe anything. That’s why strongmen (and cable news channels) must keep their listeners in a constant state of anxiety and dread — literally, to keep them from thinking.

As followers hear the same messages over and over, those metaphors and phrases become comfortably familiar, “and when that happens, a person is less likely to notice the lie, because it ‘feels’ right ... the more these circuits are activated the more hardwired they become, until it becomes almost impossible to turn them off.”

Over the past decade, many have watched helplessly as loved ones have become paranoid conspiracists after repeat exposure to misinformation. This is why. Their minds have literally been hacked.

Danesi continues: “Unfortunately, research into this brain wiring also shows that once people begin to believe lies, they are unlikely to change their minds even when confronted with evidence that contradicts their beliefs. ... Instead, these people will seek out information that confirms their beliefs, avoid anything that is in conflict with them, or even turn the contrasting information on its head, so as to make it fit their beliefs.”

So there’s the formula for mind control: Make people scared enough to bypass their brain’s defenses, feed them reassuring falsehoods, and repeat until that messaging feels right and everything else seems like a threat. And, if you’re an aspiring authoritarian, give those people someone to blame all their problems on, dehumanize those others to convert helpless fear into confident hatred, and then reassure them what noble victims they are. They’ll eat out of your hand.

Breaking the spell is exceedingly difficult. People operating from fear are impervious to logic, so pointing out their specious reasoning, lack of evidence, and general hypocrisy is a waste of time. They want security, not truth. Arguing will only make them feel threatened and recommitted to their reassuring, if dubious, beliefs.

What’s to be done? What’s needed is compassion. Only by helping deluded people feel safe can the fear that controls them be loosened. This is extremely difficult when the people they trust tell them to fear those who might be able to help them. After all, those in power have a vested interest in keeping people trapped and afraid.

Nonetheless, most people who fall into conspiratorial communities do so while searching for belonging and human connection. This is why, for example, white supremacists can recruit socially isolated young men online simply by making them feel wanted and special. We have to treat those who are misled as victims instead of disparaging them. We have to listen, try to understand the real anxieties underlying their false narratives, and trust that as they experience trust and connection their fears will wane and they’ll again be open to reason. We’ll only be able to help the victims of demagogues and conspiracists by providing them an alternative path to the security, validation and belonging they seek.

Danesi offers one other possibility: “History has shown that disruptive events — such as the toppling of a regime or the loss of a war — can force a new perspective and the brain is able to recalibrate. ... Once the critical mind is engaged, away from the frenzy of fear and manipulation, the lie can become clear. This is the uplifting moral tale that can be gleaned from history — all the great liars, from dictators to autocrats, were eventually defeated by truth, which eventually will win out.”

Let us hope that a decisive electoral defeat this November will do the trick.

Urie is a lifelong Idahoan and graduate of the University of Idaho. He lives in Moscow with his wife and two children. You can find his writing online at Medium (hopeanyway.medium.com) or Substack (hopeanyway.substack.com). Or, you can email him at ryanthomasurie@gmail.com.