The Truth According to Me

Your truth may vary

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

It’s wild how “truth” means so many things to different people. For some, it’s a posting on a social media site. For others, it’s whatever they’re told by the talking heads on the TV. For far too many, it’s whatever some perceived “holy” book says. And yet beyond all this interpretation, truth remains what it’s always been: corroborated facts that align with reality.

For example, reality suggests that had Don the con not been awarded the Big Chair, he would have been prosecuted and potentially locked up for his role in the January 6 insurrection. But is this true? It’s impossible to say. But we can say with some confidence that with his freedom on the line, he stopped at nothing to win.

Truth is unemotional. Factual. Aligned with reality. Propaganda, on the other hand, works by plying emotions to suspend belief. Provoke an emotional response, and you can make anyone believe anything. Do you really need that Lexus for Christmas? Probably not. But the commercials make you feel that you’ll be left behind if you don’t rush right out and drop a metric ton of money on a shiny thing that won’t actually save your marriage.

For far too long, “news” programs have moved away from factual to sensational reporting. The reason is obvious: emotional viewers respond more to advertising. So the “news” gets folks riled up, then shows a commercial about a pillow or get-rich-quick scheme and the rubes all rush to spend money they don’t have for fulfillment they’ll never feel. It’s a simple profit-over-people, income-over-information game, and it’s wrong.

But maybe, by understanding this difference, we can work to break the MAGA spell.

The MAGA cult lives for hating and blaming people that are deserving of neither hate nor blame. Get people emotionally fired up about immigrants and the people won’t see that it’s the elect that’s taking their jobs and ruining their lives. Fire people up about trans athletes and the people won’t notice that they’re being fed lies. DEI? Woke? Hunter Biden? Hillary Clinton? These are all just meaningless, performative, dog-whistle arguments to keep the base upset so they don’t notice they’re being weaponized to keep evil, selfish, people in power to continue to oppress them.

Another fact I find amazing is that Democrats actually care about Republicans in their fight for equal rights for everyone. On the other hand, Republicans are fighting to limit rights, limit voting, limit options for everyone other than the billionaire class that supports their campaign war chests.

The White House Press Nazi Karoline Leavitt has claimed that Democrats want to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the U.S. because Democrats want terrorists in America. Can you see the blatantly obvious emotional propaganda? This assertion is entirely false, of course, as nobody wants terrorists in America. Democrats, however, believe in the American tenet of innocence until proven guilty, due process for everyone, regardless of who you are, the color of your skin, what you believe, who you vote for, or who you love. Republicans, knowing they’ve screwed up, will do anything to prevent Mr. Garcia from facing a trial where he may be found innocent of all charges, thereby proving the criminal culpability of several key members of the present administration.

In other words, they’re covering their ass at the cost of his. And they’ll do the same against any of us.

So how do we use this information to break the MAGA spell?

Step 1 - De-escalate. Bringing facts to a feelings party is about as useless as a screen door on a submarine. So rather than focusing on facts, let’s focus on their feelings. Why are you so angry? How has this issue hurt you personally?

Step 2 - Identify. Listen for clues as to why your MAGA is so triggered. It’s never really about the immigrants, or the trans people, or whatever their news tells them. It’s always something closer to home, like the cost of living, low wages, or that all-encompassing trigger of emotional response: fear.

Step 3 - Reassure. Reassure your MAGA that these are problems that can be solved.

By this point in the conversation, one of two things will have occurred. Your MAGA, so steeped in their hatred they don’t want a solution, will have cut you off and moved on. Or they may have calmed down enough to begin to accept your message.

Step 4 - Inform. Tell your MAGA how their root problems could be solved. Be ready with references and evidence so they can see for themselves. This is an interesting inflection point because if you simply give resources to a cult member, the chances of them actually following up are slim to none. Pull out your trusty pocket internet-enabled smartphone and show them right then and there what they need to see, or they may not ever see it at all.

Step 5 - Challenge. Ask your MAGA to turn off Fox News or limit access to political or religious news for a short period and evaluate their mental state. This will likely replace anger with anxiety in the short term, but challenge them to stay active in the community to better understand the broader perspective.

Step 6 - Follow up. Deprogramming a cult isn’t a one-and-done endeavor. It can take a long time to really break through. But if they see that we genuinely care about their well-being, they’ll recognize that this is something that they’ve been missing from the cult. Given enough time, they’ll come to recognize that everything they hated about themselves and others was a product of their cult programming.

The fight is now, and the battle is everywhere. Let’s win this.