(Thread) The Outrage Dilemma

Staying sane—and saving democracy— under a Firehose of Outrageousness.

The Rand Corp. describes the extremely effective Firehose of Falsehoods propaganda method: a rapid, continuous barrage of outrageous falsehoods.
rand.org/pubs/perspecti…
1/ Trump, who adopted the method from Putin, is a natural at this.

From the researchers: “Don’t expect to counter the firehose of falsehood with a squirt gun of truth.”(p.9)

Playing whack-a-lie will wear you out. Trump can reel off several lies in a minute.
2/ On the other hand, researching and refuting each lie can take hours.

Simple lies are easy to tell. Complex truths are harder and don't fit well into sound bites.

This is partly why the Rand Corp. researchers conclude that countering lies with the truth isn’t effective.
3/ Instead of trying to refute each lie, the researchers suggest preparing the population to expect lies, which we’ve now done.

Trump's supporters know he lies and don't care.
Trump’s critics also know he lies. After Trump exonerated himself, someone in my town put this out:
4/ Instead of meticulously refuting each lie (which will wear you out & Trump supporters know it's a lie) the researchers suggest countering the effect of the lies.

Example: if the goal of the lies is to undermine public desire to vote, find ways to boost support for voting.
5/ Thus the solution is to “find ways to help put raincoats on those at whom the firehose of falsehood is being directed.”(P.10)

I think we apply the same principle—counter the effect—to what we might call Trump’s Firehose of Outrageousness.
rand.org/pubs/perspecti…
6/ Trump calls the press the Enemy of the People.
thehill.com/homenews/admin…
He's systematically dismantling the fed. government.

He directed the AG to investigate whether there was corruption in the FBI/ Mueller investigation, and the AG did his bidding.
7/ He tells his border agents to ignore judges.
esquire.com/news-politics/…
He says elections are rigged.

This all takes a toll on people.

So we have to counter the effect.

Trump is trying to create a crisis at the border. People are countering this by volunteering to help. . .
8/ (I went last summer) @RAICESTEXAS has received an outpouring of volunteers and donations.

Trump’s larger goal is to undermine democratic institutions.

Trump and his supporters don’t like democracy. (There've always been Americans who don’t.) Someone told me👇
9/ (highlight in tweet was mine from a search)

Trump knows how to undermine democracy. He learned it from Putin: Get enough citizens to lose confidence in democratic institutions.

When that happens, the democratic institutions crumble. Ziblatt and Levitsky explain here👇
10/ Clint Watts (former U.S. intelligence analyst) explains that the goal of Russian propaganda (which Trump uses) is to undermine democracy by getting people “to lose confidence in democratic institutions. . ."
pbs.org/newshour/show/…
11/ Each time Trump does something outrageous, he accomplishes 4 things:

(1) He keeps his base excited.
(2) He enrages his critics.
(3) He batters democratic institutions, and
(4) He fulfills his campaign promise, which was to protect his followers from their “enemies.”
12/ Their enemies are the Democrats👇 loosely defined to mean anyone who doesn’t support Trump.

Notice that when Trump does something outrageous, he creates a self-fulfilling loop: The more outraged his critics get, and the more euphoric his followers feel. Win-win for Trump.
13/ The more outraged his critics feel, the more they wear out and lose confidence in democracy. Win for Trump.

This brings us to the Outrage Dilemma: How do we respond?

We can’t normalize outrageousness.
But too much outrage👇constant 5-star alarms—feeds the beast.
14/ Angry outrage with people lashing out at Trump supporters helps confirms this👇for Trump supporters. Another win for Trump.

Overdoing angry outrage also persuades liberals that there is no more hope, it’s all over. Another win for Trump.

It seems to me we need a balance.
15/ Dear People Who Underestimate Trump: It's clear to me the Firehose of Outrageousness is brilliant: the nature of it creates a win-win cycle for him by undermining democracy and increasing polarization.

Maybe it isn't hard, maybe he's a natural, but he's good at it.
16/ Back to the dilemma: We must educate people about what Trump is doing.

But some educators go too far. Instead of educating people about the dangers, they persuade people that it's done, Trump succeeded, it's all over.

This is doing Putin's (and Trump's) work for them.
17/ So there must be a balance. Educate people without discouraging them.

This is a sincere resister👇 He could also be a Putin bot.
That's a problem.

Our democracy is in trouble. That means right now it is fragile. What we do (or don't do) can make a big difference.
18/ This is my long-time follower👇(who had a good reason, aside from politics, to feel down yesterday).

Why did he fall into this particular funk?

Because of a whisper campaign that Trump won’t leave willingly, which causes people to lose hope & feel despair. Win for Putin.
19/ For a solution, I think we take our cue from the Rand Corp research on how to counter the Firehose of Falsehoods.

We find a way to counter the effects.

Trump’s goal is to destroy democracy, so we counter his Firehose of Outrageousness by strengthening democracy.
20/ How? Volunteer, register voters, put a sign on your lawn, support publications that do good investigative journalism, get organized for 2020.

I’ve assembled some ideas and put them here:
terikanefield-blog.com/things-to-do/
If you have other ideas, let me know and I’ll add them.

end/
I accidentally let the image off Tweet 14. I meant to include the "democrats as enemies" email again. This one 👇
All of my threads are blog posts. You can view this one here:
terikanefield-blog.com/the-outrage-di…

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More from @Teri_Kanefield

Feb 21
Putin knows how to wield disinformation and he knows that the United States is divided: A large portion of the population, including the most influential voices from a major political party, want the United States to emulate his Russia.

1/
Some background:

After Russia enacted anti-homosexual legislation, Pat Buchanan said Putin was “entering a claim that Moscow is the Godly city of today" because he was stamping out western evils like easy divorce and homosexuality.
buchanan.org/blog/whose-sid…

2/
British right-winger Katie Hopkins, in an article in which she was interviewed with her friend Ann Coulter, said “Putin rocks.”

Katie Hopkins then went on to praise Russia as being “untouched by the myth of multiculturalism and deranged diversity."

rt.com/uk/429777-kati…

3/
Read 4 tweets
Feb 18
Trump lost in court THREE MORE TIMES today.

Trump tried to get all three of these cases⤵️ dismissed and lost. I analyzed one of the cases last April, Blassingame, here: (Transcript on my blog.)

He tends not to do well in court, where facts matter.

1/
The defendants made the following arguments (screenshot #1)

Trump also claims, among other things, that he has absolute immunity. (#2)

It turns out that the absolute immunity question isn't as easy as you might think (but Trump still lost).

2/
If you want to get caught up on one of the cases, my analysis from last April is here:terikanefield.com/blassingame-v-…

And here:

You can read the court's decision here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

3/
Read 8 tweets
Feb 16
Um . . . this isn't the defense Trump thinks it is.

Trump published a letter he received from Mazars dated (it looks like) 2014. He then summarized the letter.

#1: What Mazars said
#2: What Trump says Mazars said

Me = 🤦‍♀️

Does he think nobody can or will actually read it?
Mazars said, "Trump is responsible for preparing the financial statement."

Also Mazars does not "undertake to obtain or provide any assurance that there are no material modifications that should be made . . . "
Trump posts the letter and says Mazars "strongly states that all work was performed in accordance with professional standards and that there were "no material discrepancies in the financial statements."

There is no "I don't know how to read" defense.
Read 7 tweets
Feb 13
For this week’s blog post, I edited and combined a few of my recent threads.

I started with a reading of the newly unredacted sections of the Mueller report, then talked about some of the responses on Twitter . . .

terikanefield.com/is-social-medi…
. . . and concluded with thoughts about how social media brings out authoritarian instincts in large swaths of people who ordinarily would not be given to authoritarian impulses.



It's too easy for truth to lose, and when truth loses, democracy loses.
Right. And not all "manipulators" are bad actors, but all people need to learn to evaluate sources.

Reflectively saying, "Professor X should know" is not how to do it. It takes more work. Falling in line is always easier than doing the work.

Read 4 tweets
Feb 12
I'm tired of the word "accountable." It's a weasel word. Don't say "accountable." Say what you mean.

Does "accountable" mean
🔹Lose elections?
🔹Go to prison?
🔹Lose a lawsuit?
🔹Be hated?

It would be nice if all the good people were rewarded and the bad people punished.
So you want to start indicting people and gather the evidence after they're indicted?

Or not worry about evidence?

There are rules of evidence, which means that the stuff you've read in newspapers and Tweets probably isn't admissible in court . . .
Indicting people and having juries return "not guilty" verdicts because there isn't evidence to prove each element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt may not accomplish what people think it will accomplish.
Read 10 tweets
Feb 12
One reason I think social media is turning everyone into authoritarians: people don't read or think.

They see a headline and have a strong emotional reaction, which they Tweet and which then gets repeated by others, who are also not thinking . . .

1/
Political psychologists like @karen_stenner describe the authoritarian personality.

Those with an authoritarian disposition are averse to complexity. They reject nuance.

They prefer sameness and uniformity and have “cognitive limitations.”

(link in the next Tweet)

2/
See for example, "Authoritarianism is not a momentary madness,” which originally appeared in this book, an dwhich Stenner has now made available free on her website, here: ……e-4700-aaa9-743a55a9437a.filesusr.com/ugd/02ff25_370…

Timothy Snyder also talks about the danger of what he calls Internet Memes.

3/
Read 7 tweets

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