Political psychologists describe the authoritarian personality in this way: Those with an authoritarian disposition are averse to complexity. They reject nuance. They prefer sameness and uniformity and have “cognitive limitations.” Karen Stenner calls them “simple-minded avoiders of complexity.” For more, see this article.
(In contrast, non-authoritarians are comfortable with nuance and complexity. That’s why they are fine with diversity, which is a form of complexity.)
Yale historian Timothy Snyder talks about the danger of what he calls Internet Memes. He said he can tell from emailed questions whether the person was asking a question after reading a book or was asking a question after seeing a rage-inducing Internet meme, which they then repeated to him. He notes that these Internet Memes are directed at us, partly through sophisticated algorithms that send you the content that will cause you to respond.
We can see that Fox does this to its viewers. It disregards truth and nuance in order to keep its viewers enraged. This is how Fox hooks their viewers.
Well, maybe we’re doing that to ourselves: We’re taking away our own ability to see nuance and complexity.
In the “Charge him now” and “Lock them all up!” chants circulating on left-leaning social media, we can see how social media (and the constant rage machine) is causing people who would not ordinarily give in to authoritarian impulses to be adopting authoritarian behavior.
Here, Snyder Speak, Snyder compares the Internet to the invention of the printing press. These rapid changes in how we get information can lead to disaster because we don’t know how to handle the sudden bombardment of new information, and we are not equipped to separate misinformation and disinformation from facts (or facts from speculation). Snyder notes that the Protestant Reformation resulted from the invention of the printing press, and the resulting wars left one-quarter of Europeans dead. In other words, a sudden change in how we get information can cause destabilizing disruptions.
Snyder offers a simple solution: Read more books and spend less time getting enraged by those rage-inducing Internet memes.
The uses and limits of rage
Rage has its uses — if it spurs people to action. But too often, it does the opposite. I’ve seen firsthand that the constant rage is exhausting, and causes burnout and cynicism, which causes people to disengage.
Rage generated by spreading rage-inducing simplifications or exaggerations is destructive.
It seems to me that “don’t agonize, organize” is a better strategy than “keep everyone riled so nobody forgets that we are in immediate danger.”
Want to know what you can do? See this list.
