Let’s Talk About Mental Contagion, Mass Hysteria, and Social Collapse

[Note: This is an updated version of an article published in July 2023.]

It’s already gone on far too long. It’s still spreading and shows no sign of abating.

By ‘it’ I mean the contagious mental and emotional madness that has spread through the U.S. — but I’m also referring to the public denial and minimization of these horrors.

For years I’ve hoped and prayed that right-leaning Americans would ‘wake up’ and start rejecting the awful emotional, psychological, and social effects of Trump and his MAGA cult. I’ve waited and waited … but it’s simply not happening.

Rather, in many ways the opposite is happening (unbelievably): the GOP keeps groveling and reaffirming its pathetic fealty to Trump — and most Republican voters, far from being repelled by his multiple indictments and criminal convictions, instead seem thrilled by them. (It seems they buy his ‘poor persecuted me’ storyline and think he’s bravely ‘sticking it to the man.’)

Despite Trump’s massive and growing pile of ‘negatives’ — creepy, damning traits and attitudes that would have doomed any other candidate — these voters still enthusiastically support him. Utter insanity.

That’s why it’s way past time for some ‘tough love’ communication about brainwashing, mental contagion, mass hysteria/delusion, and social collapse.

I know that most of the people who deeply need this ‘tough love’ and need to hear the full truth about their brainwashed condition would much rather shoot me, hang me, or rip me apart than listen to me — but I’m going to say what needs to be said anyway.

What the hell happened to us over the past nine years?

How can we really, deeply understand what’s been going on in the United States for the past nine years?

Clearly, many Americans are in a lot of pain (inner and financial) and feel angry, frustrated, and ‘stuck.’ People who are balanced and fairly happy do not seek out or accept the hate, racism, and rage that Trump and MAGA encourage.

The real ongoing problem, of course, is US — “we the people” — and the crazy and dangerous beliefs that many of us now embrace as ‘true’ or ‘patriotic.’

I’m talking about bizarre (yet ‘normalized’) attitudes like:

It’s a good idea to let insecure, emotionally hair-trigger 18-year-olds purchase assault weapons designed for rapid mass killing… and to let our Christian churches devolve into partisan hate fests devoted to divisiveness, racism, and misogyny.

And it’s just fine to let far-right TV, radio, and Internet outlets abuse public free speech rights, disseminate barely-veiled (or overt) hate speech, and broadcast a constant stream of disinformation and seditious, antisocial lies.

And it’s a great plan to let an insurrection-inciting, election-denying, revenge-bent former president run for president yet again.

And it’s just fine to spread vicious lies and negativity after severe hurricanes, undermine or deny FEMA rescue efforts, and insist that the feds weaponized the weather, created these monster hurricanes, and deliberately ‘aimed’ them at red states and voting blocs.

All of these right-wing ‘good ideas’ are in truth idiotic, immoral, and highly dangerous.

Our society is ‘out of touch with reality’

The terrifying reality we’re facing is that our society is badly out of touch with reality. One accepted indicator of sanity is being ‘in touch with reality’ — and we aren’t.

Sure, most Americans aren’t clinically insane — but that doesn’t change the fact that our society is stuck on an antisocial, wildly unfair, and demented treadmill… and is going nowhere fast, at least nowhere good.

Most of us aren’t technically insane, thankfully — but that’s a small comfort. Most people are lost, scared, and miserable, and desperately covering this up and ‘trying to be happy’ by accruing more money, power, sexual partners, followers or Facebook ‘friends,’ belongings, new cars, fancy clothes, etc.

The underlying problem is that none of our desperate ‘trying to be happy’ is working out — or not for long, anyway. Our society is just way, way too dysfunctional. And our social and psychological misery (and loneliness) are going through the roof — but hardly anyone is willing to even look at this truth.

That’s the challenging ‘background picture’ of what’s happening all around and within us in the U.S. And as any student of 20th-century history can tell you, such widespread misery, fear, and pain provide easy pickings for demagogues and easily lead to fanaticism, growing rage, and fast-spreading fascism.

And that’s exactly what we see happening, all across the U.S.

Big Lies and other effective brainwashing techniques

What concerns me most, though, are the toxic inner and interpersonal processes that inspire and underlie the spread of fascism. Democracy depends on an informed and caring citizenry — but today, most Americans are not well-informed and are only minimally involved in our society and politics.

Even a backsliding democracy like ours depends on an informed, active citizenry… but that’s not where we are, as a nation or society. Only 50–55% of Americans usually bother to vote, for instance — and even less in off-year elections. And most Americans know almost nothing about how our government(s)— state or federal — actually function… while many are drowning in misinformation.

Fascism, on the other hand, thrives on ignorance, fear, disinformation, and lies. Fascism takes root in peoples’ inner pain and suffering, and seduces them with false promises of redemption and happiness — IF they will just hate and blame a group of despised ‘others’ for all their problems.

Fascism is always based on mass deception, projection, racism, and scapegoating, and inevitably ends in horrible social or humanitarian disasters.

But fascism doesn’t arise overnight. It’s a gradual, insidious process that requires certain preconditions — especially the long-term conditioning of the people to accept and spread a variety of Big Lies.

This process is the bedrock of fascism, since it ensures that people are poorly informed, easily misled, and intently focused on all the wrong (illusory) issues and beliefs.

So how do you dupe a large swathe of ‘the people’ into believing fascist BS and bald-faced partisan lies? It’s mainly a matter of constant loud repetition and selective culling of the news, so people only hear or see what you want them to hear or see.

Scarily, this is exactly what right-wing radio and TV have been doing to the American public for 30+ years — and these massive propaganda outlets are now augmented by the vast reach of the Internet, social media like Facebook and Instagram, and popular apps like ‘X’ (Twitter) and TikTok.

Photo by Lidia Stawinska on Unsplash

A downward spiral of hysteria, rage, and paranoia

But far-right radio, TV, and Internet sites have been doing something else that also leads directly to fascism: they have relentlessly stoked people’s rage and resentment.

They’ve been endlessly telling (White) people that ‘their country’ is being stolen from them — by immigrants, Jews, Blacks, Democrats, liberals, socialists, etc. — so they’re totally right to feel enraged, and should fight back hard against all these un-American ‘others.’

‘Hate ’em, beat ’em down, destroy ‘em!’ (Sound familiar? The Nazis excelled at this kind of hate-mongering.)

Fascism feeds on a downward spiral combining emotional hysteria, anger, paranoia, and ‘moral panic’ over all the horrible things those nasty ‘others’ are (supposedly) doing or saying.

I don’t really like the word ‘hysteria’ because of its connection with so-called ‘female emotionality’ — but there is no good term to replace it, so I’m still using that word but with a very specific meaning.

To me, the kind of hysteria whipped up by fascism and far-right media is not your garden-variety hysteria. This version of hysteria is heavily partisan and politicized and deliberately drives people into a frenzy of partisan rage, paranoia, and resentment. This type of hysteria is purposely generated to promote and energize a particular worldview — a worldview based on White privilege and the desire for (renewed) White supremacy.

In a previous article about the downward spirals and mass hysteria engulfing America, I wrote the following:

“The most troubling aspect of downward spirals is the intense momentum they often build up, which makes them incredibly difficult to stop or slow.

In this they resemble the emotional reaction of hysteria, which is an intense “over-the-top” reaction to challenging or frightening events. Hysteria also rapidly escalates out of control, takes over a person’s mental state, and easily infects and incites other people.

Scarily, such escalation can lead to horrendous group atrocities like racist lynch mobs, the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, the Jonestown massacre, or anti-government mob violence.

In fact, it’s likely that some aspects of downward spirals are actually forms of mass hysteria. The elements of irrationality, rapid spread, and increased potential for violence are all there in both, as is the rabid defense of one’s ‘position’ and beliefs — no matter how irrational (think of the absurd, paranoid nonsense of QAnon, for instance)….

Once rampant hysteria or an intense downward spiral accelerates past a certain ‘point of no return’… it gets totally out of control, and is impossible to curtail or manage without resorting to drastic measures (such as martial law) and forcible external control.”

The point of no return: endless paranoia and emboldened fascism

I fear our nation is rapidly approaching that ‘point of no return.’

The far-right forces of oppression and fascism are still accelerating all across the country (especially in red states), and far-right media are still whipping their millions of followers into a self-righteous, enraged frenzy. (“Those horrible, evil Democrats are even weaponizing the weather against us!”)

Meanwhile, the distinctions between lies and truth, and between real information, ‘fake news,’ and propaganda are quickly vanishing. Americans’ lack of intelligent discernment keeps feeding the fascism pipeline, funneling more and more hateful MAGA cultists directly into the waiting jaws of fascism.

So, next time you hear a radicalized Republican or Fox ‘News’ junkie screaming about conservatives being ‘canceled,’ or lashing out about liberals’ and socialists’ ‘plan to destroy America,’ please recall: These folks have been heavily, constantly brainwashed for decades and are no longer… rational or reachable (with rare exceptions).

It’s really true. They are fully in the grip of intense partisan, moral, and emotional hysteria, and no longer live in the same ‘real world’ that most moderates, centrists, and Democrats inhabit.

Many of these folks live and breathe partisan rage and paranoia and are totally committed to this far-right point of view. Some even long for a second bloody ‘civil war’ so they can reinstate White supremacy and ‘make America great again.’

That’s the problem with brainwashed, quasi-hysterical people: they’re emotionally out of control, and their thinking is way out of control … yet they think (wrongly) that they’re rational and make perfect sense.

The Trump/MAGA cult needs — but totally rejects — a full-scale intervention

It’s a terrifying phenomenon. These folks are members of an extremely dangerous cult, and (like any cult followers) desperately need outside intervention to help them free themselves from the iron grip and constant partisan hysteria fomented by the cult and its leaders. (Thanks for nothing, Trump, Fox ‘News,’ and today’s seditious GOP).

Even more terrifying — these brainwashed, enraged hysterics have no desire at all to investigate any of their beliefs or engage in open, two-way communication. They are rabid ‘true believers’ at this point — and true believers are among the most intractable and dangerous human beings, everywhere and always.

True believers encourage moral outrage, unquestioning belief, and blind loyalty to the cause, religion, sect, party, or ‘dear leader.’ The cult rules, in every respect: it rules their perceptions, beliefs, emotions, and actions.

These types of cult followers are the true ‘sheeple’ who are being manipulated and led around by the nose by their scheming, fascism-friendly ‘leaders.’

What the far right and the MAGA cult count on

The scary bottom line, in today’s America, is this: there is a vast, dedicated, and highly irrational right-wing cult that is still growing in power and influence — and the emotional and moral hysteria it constantly generates (and depends on) is spreading fast.

This cult has cleverly ‘owned’ the issue of free speech, and has insisted on — or grabbed — free rein to inundate America with its racist, hateful ideologies. It is devious, seditious, and manipulative to the extreme, and fully intends to undermine and destroy our nation and replace it with a Christian/fascist theocracy.

And this cult depends on — and is counting on — the rapid spread of the moral, emotional, and partisan hysteria it constantly generates.

It’s counting on the laziness, denial, and learned helplessness of the American people to allow it to keep going and going, mainly unopposed, and keep undermining and wrecking our country.

It’s counting on ramping up its public lying and bullying, unopposed, and scaring Americans into abject submission and silence.

It’s counting on all of us knuckling under and not challenging the offensive, dangerous lies and racist hate it’s always spreading.

It’s counting on the continued, rapid spread of the deep divisiveness and partisan rage it foments.

And it’s counting on a weakened, meek (‘fake news’) media to not challenge its messages effectively, and to not call out what’s really happening all across America.

Let’s NOT give them the power they seek

The essence of this cult is emotional, moral, and political bullying — and it uses peoples’ intense partisan hysteria to brutally enforce its agenda. It will literally do anything to get its way — including mass deception, violence, sedition, and even murder.

We can’t let that happen. We just can’t.

If we want to keep anything resembling a lawful, caring, and inclusive society, we’ve all got to stand up, en masse, and directly challenge the hell out of this vicious cult.

And then… keep challenging it — and never stop.

** The friggin’ election is just a few weeks away. Please vote as if your life depends on it — which it does— and vote all blue. **

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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The First Myth of the Patriarchy: The Acorn on the Pillow

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