John Aravosis at AMERICABlog points to this clip of Rachel Maddow interviewing Frank Shaeffer about the batshit crazy people that comprise the modern Republican Party. Shaeffer calls them “a subculture which is literally a fifth column of insanity … bred from birth … to reject facts as a matter of faith”. The hostility of so many people to reason would have been disturbing in itself, if only their intransigence did not prevent any meaningful progress on most of the issues the world need to address urgently. We are being held hostage by idiots. Sadly this is not solely an American disease – Europe has enough climate-change deniers, islamophobes and neo-liberals to drive any progressive into dispair.
It is time to move on, we can no longer afford to have endless conversations with dining room tables. It is time to acknowledge that right-wing obstructionism to combating climate change, ending meaningless wars, prosecuting torture, eradicating poverty and reforming the economy is downright criminal.
Or is it? Max Blumenthal argues that there is more at stake: “psychological and ideological dysfunction” (see here and here for a discussion of his latest work Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party. And no, I’ve not yet read it but am anxious to get hold of it.) Blumenthal points to the sobering fact that when we call these people crazy we are literally speaking the truth. This makes me uncomfortable, as it is not nice to call crazy people … er, ‘crazy’, so maybe we should henceforth talk about the ‘politically challenged’. My personal preference would be ‘patient’. I mean: this is a know psychological condition, there must be some treatment or therapy available. If we care about the wellbeing of our fellow citizens, should we not get these people cured? Living a life consumed by fear and hatred cannot be healthy for anybody, and I remember the havoc wreaked by the sense of impending doom on the white South-African community during the 70’s and especially the 80’s: skyrocketing suicide figures, familicide, alcoholism, domestic violence, depression. The effects of authoritarian psychosis on the individual is just as tragic as its effect on society as a whole.
The South-African experience with batshit crazies a politically challenged culture does hold some reason for hope: it seems if you simply change objective reality right under them overnight, the enforced reality-check will shock most of them out of their catharsis and allow them to continue leading often meaningful lives. So let’s just go for it and fix things. It’s for their own good as well.