The Dangerous Rise of the Gullible American Cynic

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/mike-lofgren/102333/the-dangerous-rise-of-the-gullible-american-cynic


The Dangerous Rise of the Gullible American Cynic
Conservatives and the Right
by Mike Lofgren | July 10, 2022 - 7:17am

“And you know, you can tell these types of right wingers anything and they'll believe it, except the truth. You tell them the truth and they become—it's like showing Frankenstein's monster fire. They become confused, and angry and highly volatile.”
— Janeane Garofalo

snip//

There has been much debate about the causes of this derangement. Income inequality? Social media? The repeal of the Fairness Doctrine? The rise of the Religious Right? The American creed of rugged individualism? It is probably all those things and more. There is rarely a single cause of mass social behavior, nor is there an arbitrary cutoff date when searching for causes: religious extremism goes back to Plymouth Rock. Rugged individualism in the service of overweening greed dates to 1607, when the ne’er-do-well sons of the English petty gentry hove to inside the Virginia Capes in search of gold, real estate, and their destiny as would-be great men.

My former colleague Jim was an unusually pure specimen of this American syndrome, as lack of education or cultural deprivation could not be held responsible for his condition. But he was merely one example of a social epidemic I call gullible cynicism: the ability to be dismissive, disbelieving, and paranoiacally suspicious, while simultaneously being astoundingly naïve and accepting of the flimsiest fabrication not only at face value, but with a reverential embrace.

Hence the tragic-comic episode of the Covid-19 pandemic, when countless people posited an airtight conspiracy of microbiologists; public health officials at the federal, state, and local levels; hospitals with all their staff; coroners; and the entire media, in order to perpetrate a hoax. Incredibly, their professional counterparts all over the world were pulling off the same deception in perfect coordination with America. Yet these same paranoid cynics would credulously believe some nameless internet blogger recommending horse de-wormer as a sovereign remedy for Covid-19 (assuming they believed the virus even existed).

In a similarly breathtaking display of gullible cynicism, people with the same mindset as the Covid-19 deniers still refuse to accept the evidence of what occurred on national television and in front of thousands of eyewitnesses on January 6, 2021. The mob that constructed a gallows and stormed the Capitol consisted of innocent tourists. Or they were antifa trying to discredit honest patriots (half of all Republicans believe that). Or they were FBI provocateurs. Never mind that 315 Capitol rioters have pleaded guilty thus far, and their bios all match the profiles of Trump supporters. That, too, is no doubt part of the conspiracy.

At present we are going through a particularly nasty flare-up of this syndrome. But it is not unknown throughout history and in other lands. George Orwell commented on this kind of mental state 76 years ago:

"To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle. . . . In private life most people are fairly realistic. When one is making out one’s weekly budget, two and two invariably make four. Politics, on the other hand, is a sort of sub-atomic or non-Euclidean world where it is quite easy for the part to be greater than the whole or for two objects to be in the same place simultaneously. Hence the contradictions and absurdities . . . all finally traceable to a secret belief that one’s political opinions, unlike the weekly budget, will not have to be tested against solid reality.”

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[lambchopp59]

2. This cynicism now has a leader

Tucker Carlson

[Towlie]

3. It's a war between those who believe it when they see it and those who see it when they believe it.

 
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[CrispyQ]

4. Wow. Perfectly stated:

...a social epidemic I call gullible cynicism: the ability to be dismissive, disbelieving, and paranoiacally suspicious, while simultaneously being astoundingly naïve and accepting of the flimsiest fabrication not only at face value, but with a reverential embrace.

I'll never forget this quote by Lou Dobbs on Fox:

Lou Dobbs Complains ‘Actual Proof’ of Election Fraud Is Too Hard to Find

https://www.thedailybeast.com/lou-dobbs-complains-actual-proof-of-election-fraud-is-too-hard-to-find

During his Fox Business broadcast Monday evening, Trump loyalist Lou Dobbs inadvertently told on himself when he asked why there is still no concrete evidence that proves the 2020 election was stolen from the outgoing president.

“Eight weeks from the election, and we still don’t have verifiable, tangible support for the crimes that everyone knows were committed,” Dobbs said. “That is, defrauding other citizens who voted with fraudulent votes. We know that’s the case in Nevada, we know it’s the case in Pennsylvania and a number of other states, but we have had a devil of a time finding actual proof. Why?”

And when you ask them, "If we stole the presidential election, why didn't we also steal ourselves a solid senate majority?" or "How do you explain all the republican senators & reps who won in the same states where Trump lost?" you get silence & a blank stare.

[calimary]

7. I knew Lou Dobbs was an idiot. I just didn't realize how big an idiot.

Lou Dobbs Complains ‘Actual Proof’ of Election Fraud Is Too Hard to Find

https://www.thedailybeast.com/lou-dobbs-complains-actual-proof-of-election-fraud-is-too-hard-to-find

During his Fox Business broadcast Monday evening, Trump loyalist Lou Dobbs inadvertently told on himself when he asked why there is still no concrete evidence that proves the 2020 election was stolen from the outgoing president.

“Eight weeks from the election, and we still don’t have verifiable, tangible support for the crimes that everyone knows were committed,” Dobbs said. “That is, defrauding other citizens who voted with fraudulent votes. We know that’s the case in Nevada, we know it’s the case in Pennsylvania and a number of other states, but we have had a devil of a time finding actual proof. Why?”

Good freakin’ grief…

[2naSalit]

9. He should be...

Rotting in hell with his cohort, Phyllis Schlaffly, by now.

[Hugin]

5. The selectively open minded...

Perpetuate pseudo quantum politics. IOW. (In Other Words)

Good article. Don’t know how to fix it.

[grumpyduck]

6. Add to the reasons stated in the article:

Stubborness.

Arrogant stubbornness

[James48]

8. "... non-Euclidean world "

See, most of them live on a 6th grade educational level and have no idea what you just said.

Except that it makes them feel stoopid.

[2naSalit]

10. +1

[CaptainTruth]

11. I believe willful ignorance contributes to gullibility.

The GOP promotes willful ignorance, & the right wing propaganda machine takes maximum advantage of it.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

12. 2 centers of the disease: Fascist Oligarch eXtremist propaganda network and AM radio.

[Novara]

13. He's describing "confirmation bias."

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values.[1] People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information, or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply entrenched beliefs. Confirmation bias cannot be eliminated, but it can be managed, for example, by education and training in critical thinking skills.

The simple explanation is that people will believe what they want to, no matter how crazy (gullibility). This includes disbelieving things they want to, no matter how rooted in reality (cynicism).

There's no such thing as "gullible cynicism" and if you believe that, you are one of the people described. The author thinks he's clever and coined a new term. He's really talking about confirmation bias. It snuck up on America when the Fairness Doctrine was thrown out and it exploded with the advent of hate radio and biased cable news. Social media entrenched it even further.

But by all means, we can't teach actual history in school, we can't teach critical thinking, we have to ban all material that doesn't confirm to a right wing theological mindset. Heaven forbid if a child is presented with any uncomfortable history and facts.

[Silent3]

14. "Gullible cynicism" is a perfectly valid way to describe many manifestations of confirmation bias

I'd say "gullible cynicism" much better captures the attitude of people who are obviously so freaking proud of themselves for "seeing through the lies" of the "lame-stream media" and all of those scheming climate scientists, who will give you a thousand reasons why they are so distrustful, but then have this enormous gaping hole of gullibility for all sorts of stupid shit that they wouldn't trust either if they weren't so selective about applying their distrust.

This extreme may well be a common way for confirmation bias to manifest, but "gullible cynicism" much more effectively captures the yawning chasm between that which is distrusted and that which is believed when seeking confirmation bias.

Everyone suffers from confirmation bias to some degree. "Gullible cynicism" is a very acute form of it. The rest of us who suffer from a bit of confirmation bias will nevertheless give into the truth, even if grudgingly, before explaining away everything that doesn't fit what we'd rather believe as deceptions of Satan, or by invoking mind-mindbogglingly complex and all-encompassing conspiracies.