Monday

The Exact Opposite Part V

Cognitive Dissonance: How to get people to believe the exact opposite

The right-wing loonies of today have their historical precedent, but they seem to avoid reality with a new zeal. And yet, conservatives aren't that dumb and Republicans aren't that gullible... I hope. Why are they do easily fooled into believing the exact opposite of the truth these days? Paul Krugman examines Sweet Little Lies (Nevada Thunder archive of NYTimes, April 9, 2007):

Four years into a war fought to eliminate a nonexistent threat, we all have renewed appreciation for the power of the Big Lie: people tend to believe false official claims about big issues, because they can'Äôt picture their leaders being dishonest about such things.

 

But there'Äôs another political lesson I don'Äôt think has sunk in: the power of the Little Lie 'Äî the small accusation invented out of thin air, followed by another, and another, and another. Little Lies aren'Äôt meant to have staying power. Instead, they create a sort of background hum, a sense that the person facing all these accusations must have done something wrong.

 

For a long time, basically from 9/11 until the last remnants of President Bush'Äôs credibility drowned in New Orleans, the Bush administration was able to go big on its deceptions. Most people found it inconceivable that an American president would, for example, assert without evidence that Saddam and Al Qaeda were allies. Mr. Bush won the 2004 election because a quorum of voters still couldn'Äôt believe he would grossly mislead them on matters of national security.

 

Before 9/11, however, the right-wing noise machine mainly relied on little lies. And now it has returned to its roots.

 

The Clinton years were a parade of fake scandals: Whitewater, Troopergate, Travelgate, Filegate, Christmas-card-gate. At the end, there were false claims that Clinton staff members trashed the White House on their way out. Each pseudoscandal got headlines, air time and finger-wagging from the talking heads. The eventual discovery in each case that there was no there there, if reported at all, received far less attention. The effect was to make an administration that was, in fact, pretty honest and well run 'Äî especially compared with its successor 'Äî seem mired in scandal.

 

Even in the post-9/11 environment, little lies never went away. In particular, promoting little lies seems to have been one of the main things U.S. attorneys, as loyal Bushies, were expected to do. For example, David Iglesias, the U.S. Attorney in New Mexico, appears to have been fired because he wouldn'Äôt bring unwarranted charges of voter fraud. There'Äôs a lot of talk now about a case in Wisconsin, where the Bush-appointed U.S. attorney prosecuted the state'Äôs purchasing supervisor over charges that a court recently dismissed after just 26 minutes of oral testimony, with one judge calling the evidence 'Äúbeyond thin.'Äù But by then the accusations had done their job: the unjustly accused official had served almost four months in prison, and the case figured prominently in attack ads alleging corruption in the Democratic governor'Äôs administration.

 

This is the context in which you need to see the wild swings Republicans have been taking at Nancy Pelosi.

 

First, there were claims that the speaker of the House had demanded a lavish plane for her trips back to California. One Republican leader denounced her 'Äúarrogance of extravagance'Äù 'Äî then, when it became clear that the whole story was bogus, admitted that he had never had any evidence.

 

Now there'Äôs Ms. Pelosi'Äôs fact-finding trip to Syria, which Dick Cheney denounced as 'Äúbad behavior'Äù 'Äî unlike the visit to Syria by three Republican congressmen a few days earlier, or Newt Gingrich'Äôs trip to China when he was speaker. Ms. Pelosi has responded coolly, dismissing the administration'Äôs reaction as a 'Äútantrum.'Äù But it'Äôs more than that: the hysterical reaction to her trip is part of a political strategy, aided and abetted by news organizations that give little lies their time in the sun.

 

Fox News, which is a partisan operation in all but name, plays a crucial role in the Little Lie strategy 'Äî which is why there is growing pressure on Democratic politicians not to do anything, like participating in Fox-hosted debates, that helps Fox impersonate a legitimate news organization.

 

But Fox has had plenty of help. Even Time'Äôs Joe Klein, a media insider if anyone is, wrote of the Pelosi trip that 'Äúthe media coverage of this on CNN and elsewhere has been abysmal.'Äù For example, CNN ran a segment about Ms. Pelosi'Äôs trip titled 'ÄúTalking to Terrorists.'Äù

 

The G.O.P.'Äôs reversion to the Little Lie technique is a symptom of political weakness, of a party reduced to trivial smears because it has nothing else to offer. But the technique will remain effective 'Äî and the U.S. political scene will remain ugly 'Äî as long as many people in the news media keep playing along. Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

 

I hope Krugman and the NYTimes will forgive me for reproducing the whole article, but I couldn't find good excerpts: The whole thing is worthy.

Let's go back to the first paragraph. The Big Lie has power because "people tend to believe false official claims about big issues, because they can'Äôt picture their leaders being dishonest about such things". This is known as Cognitive Dissonance.

For all the right-wing insisting that you can't trust government, that Washington Insiders were the problem all along, they are so easily swayed by a conservative government and Republican Washington Insiders. They don't see the dissonance. The more you are convinced of a position, the more easily you can be swayed when someone lies to you about it.

"G_d is great, and therefore we will win this High School Football Game."

"We fight them there so se don't fight them here, therefore we should cut taxes."

"9/11 was bad, so we should go get Saddam Hussein."

Cognitive Dissonance and The Big Lie know no political boundary. They are used all the time, in commercials and marriages. But Karl Rove and company excel at getting people to believe the exact opposite even as they cover their legal asses by denying the most eggregious lies in public (but not under oath). Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11, and was a dire enemy of Osama bin Laden, yet most of the country is convinced otherwise. Cutting taxes under Reagan and Bush has been a disaster, but most of the country is convinced otherwise.

This transcends stupidity. It has become a religious argument. Very deliberately, it has become a religious argument. The easiest way to change someone's behavior is by convincing them that a Higher Power is involved. When a higher power invoked for Alcoholic's Anonymous and helps people quit drinking, this is a good thing. When a higher power is invoked for political purposes and gets people to shoot doctors or fly airplanes into buildings, it is evil.

As I've written about previously, I think Republicans lost it when Ronald Reagan was elected specifically to balance the federal budget, but the 1981 budget contained obscene deficits from which the US has never recovered. At the time, Reagan lied and said the budget would be balanced by 1983... then 1984... then gave up and said that deficits were a good thing. A large swath of the American electorate has always been more than a little crazy, but this brazen lie by a man they had put their trust in just put them over the edge.

Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman: "Absolute, deliberate lies"

Republicans have gained political traction by beating up Democrats for not supporting out troops, but the exact opposite is the case, as Republicans don't give a damn about our tired and underarmored troops who come back to urine-soaked VA hospital beds. If you support our troops, you will vote Democratic.

Glenn Greewald The Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch frauds salon.com April 25, 2007:

It is difficult to watch these clips from yesterday's House hearings investigating the absolute, deliberate lies regarding Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch fed to the American public by the U.S. military -- with an eager and accommodating assist from our excellent and intrepid media -- and feel anything other than disgust (and this is just beyond comment). But as anger-inducing as it all is, there is really nothing remarkable about any of it.

 

What these episodes actually do is illustrate how virtually every rotted and broken branch of our political and media culture operate: First, it has been well-known for several years that the U.S. military outright invented lies regarding literally every aspect of the Jessica Lynch story. And the Tillman family for years has been vocally complaining about the lies they were told by the Pentagon regarding the circumstances surrounding Pat Tillman's death, the pressure on other soldiers to conceal the truth, and the crass and disgusting exploitation of those lies to serve the administration's political interests. None of this is new. So why is Congress holding hearings to investigate these matters only now?

 

The answer, of course, is because the Republicans who controlled Congress for the last four years absolutely suppressed any attempt whatsoever to exert oversight on the administration. They not only investigated nothing, they aggressively blocked every real investigation into allegations of wrongdoing and corruption on the part of the administration. Our government literally ceased to function the way it is designed to, because Congressional Republicans deliberately abdicated their duty of checks on the executive and actively helped to conceal every improper and deceitful act.

 

The only reason any of this is being aired now is because the American people removed the President's party from control of Congress and they are no longer able to keep concealed the Bush administration's misconduct.

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