Political Rhetoric

Political Rhetoric should be such that it does not persuade fools to vote.

Politics isn't for everyone. It has become glaringly obvious. Politicians shouldn't be allowed to "not tell the truth" as means of obtaining votes. People who are easily persuaded by disinformation, misinformation and lies dominated the polls during the 2016 general election. The result was an attempt to destroy democracy on January 6, 2021.

The plot was an abject failure because it didn't include any presence of intellect. Now the participants are being arrested and jailed by the dozen's per week as they are found and the planners are making plea deals with prosecutors against their dear leader, Donald J. Trump, and getting probation.

This didn't start in 2016. It started March 19, 1979 with the creation of C-SPAN. Up to that point, politics was in the shadows of post-secondary academia. Once the cable television subscribing public got a look at how their representatives performed in the House and Senate, some people thought "Hey! I can do that!" Ever since, people with a facile understanding of governance are running for political office.

Now the media has turned politics into a discordant circus and the dedicated, intelligent, service oriented people are being pushed out of public service by self-serving, narcissistic megalomaniacs and the cultish fools who kowtow to their every whim. America was the proverbial frog in the pot of slowly boiling water over a period of nearly 40 years.

Then among a myriad of mistakes, gaffes and other foolishness, Roe v Wade was overturned. Suddenly democracy is worthy of attention by people who previously didn't have time to think about it. Democracy still stands on a precipice with a conservative leaning Supreme Court where democracy can still die in a breath. What happens during the 2024 general election will make or break the United States of America.

Hang on, folks.

What I think are "Schizosapiens"

 The name "Schizosapiens" came to me at around 3:00 a.m. a couple of days ago. At first I felt shame because it seems like an insult to mental illness. I personally suffer from generalized anxiety disorder and currently take Fluoxetine 20mg daily to manage my mood.

Fluoxetine is a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor, meaning that it creates a buildup of Serotonin[1] within the synaptic gap, increasing the stimulation of neurons that increase a more positive mood.

The result was metaphorically like clearing up the broadcast signal reception on an old television set or unscrambling the pay-per-view cable television channel called "Realty" Not the reality TV everyone has come to know so well, but actual reality itself.

Growing up with anxiety distanced me from feeling the euphoria associated with "spirituality" so I was never hooked by religious superstition. One day on the Internet I found atheism. I was intrigued by the logical arguments that pointed out the contradictions in religious tomes and the hypocritical behavior of religious followers.

Delving deeper into critical thinking I discovered a short list of Logical Fallacies commonly used in debates, then my research lead me to Cognitive Development, Biases, Distortions and Development. 

Then in 2016, Donald J. Trump was elected President of the United States. Soon after, the word Narcissism began circulating among the late-night television comedians and my research turned toward the Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. (DSM-V)

The communication style and behavior of Trump supporters, including those in the Republican party, conservative Christian televangelists, various Hate Groups identified by the Southern Policy Law Center, The Anti-Defamation League, Right Wing Watch, among others, showed a pattern that could be matched with cultures around the world where terrorism was active. 

From there was connect the Dark Triad Personality which then connected me to author Steven Hassan's books Freedom of Mind and The Trump Cult. 

I hypothesize that what we are dealing with is Human Speciation. A pattern of behavior so wide-spread and so ancient that it has become normalized through validation, coercion and violence. The patterns of cognitive dysfunctionality, behavior and communication methods has me convinced that we are witnessing human evolution in progress again.

Human intelligence is evolving beyond the clouded perception of the old species and is rendering progress. They have become so frightened and confused by the development of complex knowledge beyond their capacity to comprehend it, that they are becoming violent and are threatening "civil war."

___________________

1. Serotonin: Verywell Health, Wikipedia 

The Dark Triad Personality

Introduction

A few years ago I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and prescribed Fluoxetine (Prozac™) 20mg daily, a Serotonin reuptake inhibitor, which increases the quantity of serotonin in the synaptic gaps. The transformation was astounding. I saw the world completely differently than before and my interest in Psychology as part of my communication studies became an obsession.

So far I have hypothesized the following:

• Logical fallacies and cognitive biases can reveal some personality traits, states, belief systems, subcultures and personality disorders.
• Everyone perceives and reacts with the world through the filter of their hormones. ( I have seen the filters change within myself.)
• We own our feelings. Our hormone balance, determined by our genetics / epigenetics, creates our general demeanor at homeostasis (default state) which can range from a positive outlook to a negative outlook, extravert, extrovert to patient, introvert, anxious, depressed, short-tempered or angry.
• We often incorrectly attribute the cause of our feelings to external sources like relationships, and situations. This comes from our oldest instinct for survival, being always aware of potential danger.
• Certain emotions governed by our hormones, are part of what is called the “preparatory set” which remain near the surface to be more likely triggered by stimuli. This is what makes each of us a unique personality.

Narcissism

Most personality traits are on a spectrum. Not all narcissists are willfully cruel, most don't realize what they are doing and nobody around them knows enough about the issue to correct them. I have a sibling, who always has the last word, loves to Zoom video conference and does nearly all of the talking, always knows more of what you are talking about and says "yes, that's right. and...(blah, blah, blah)", often but not always changes the subject to their own experiences. For the longest time I couldn't understand why when that person came to visit, it triggered subtle feelings of hostility in me. My temper was shortened because I was in emotional defense mode for competition I did not want. This kind of narcissism is mild but no less exhausting and exasperating. Narcissism standing alone can actually be beneficial, especially because this person is a teacher.

Psychopathy

Psychopaths as defined by the field of psychiatry is technically someone with Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD). Psychopathy is a colloquialism and not a formal term used in the mental health field for official diagnoses.

Anti-social behavior can be summed up as follows:

• Lack of emotional empathy but a clever sense of cognitive empathy.
• Emotional empathy provides you with the ability to understand when doing something might hurt someone else's feelings and in-turn, hurt your own feelings. Along with cognitive empathy also provides you with a sense of what is fair and reasonable.
• Uses malicious humor. (Passive Aggression)
• Humor at the expense of someone else. Directing attention to your problems, for example, at Thanksgiving Dinner with extended family, or while at a restaurant dining in public with friends or strangers within earshot.
• They try to goad you into revealing your weaknesses by making up fake weaknesses of their own.
• They try to get you to reveal secrets you have about your friends by sharing gossip with you.
• Then they use what you revealed to drive a wedge between you and whomever you spoke about.
• They alter their persona around other people, even when you are there.

Machiavellianism

Based on the writings of Niccolo Machiavelli, called by some "The father of modern political philosophy and political science."  Machiavellianism has come to be know as having these characteristics:

• Manipulative
• Callousness
• Indifferent to social norms
• Cold selfishness
• Winning at any cost
• Willing to do things other people find terrible or immoral
• Low emotional self awareness or intelligence

The Dark Triad Personality

The combination of narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism.

This malevolent personality knows how to use your weaknesses against you, and can easily achieve cult leader status. However, cult followers often try to emulate their leader by using the cult leader's tactics and phrases, but often out of context and fall short as they do not fully comprehend that they are psychologically captive.

The Dark Triad Personality can be identified by these characteristics:

• They lie nearly all the time and continue to lie despite being called out on the lies.
• They repeat slogans loaded with logical fallacies, hyperbole and weasel words.
• Twist facts and statistics to their own benefit.
• Continuously vilify, denigrate, dehumanize, disenfranchise or alienate other people.
• Victim Blaming
• Manufacture danger to keep their followers huddled and isolated in fear.
• "They are taking your freedoms and rights away!'
• "They will take your jobs, guns, land, livelihood away!"
• "They will convert you to homosexuality!"
• "They want to kill all babies!"
• "They are Communists!"
• News media outlets that continuously cover stories of violence and disasters.
• They exploit their followers cognitive biases to maintain control over their followers and destabilize their opponents.

Some characteristics of people vulnerable to the Dark Triad Personality:

• Very limited vocabulary due to lack of cultural diversity.
• Dogmatic, intransigent belief system
• Low self awareness and situational awareness.
• Prone to psychological projection.
• Vulnerable to logical fallacies, cognitive biases and weasel words.
• Defer decisions to leaders without question.
• Intimidated by intellectuals, high fear of humiliation.
• Obsesses with affiliation, being validated and praised.
• Xenophobia, or simply fear of the unknown.
• Fear of people they don't know can create physical discomfort, which they then attribute to the people they fear, leading them to express anger, hatred and rationalizations for the way they feel in the form of conspiracy theories.

UPDATE: 

Sadism is now considered to be such a major part of this personality that it's sometimes referred to the "Dark Tetrad."

Dark Triad - Wikipedia

Common signs of psychopathy - Healthline

You Might Be a Conversational Narcissist and Not Even Know It. (Here's How to Tell) - Linkage

Intellectual Arrogance - Conservapedia

5 Things Psychopaths and Narcissists Will Do in Conversation - Psychology Today

Mass Media & Mental Health

I’m gradually drawing a hypothesis that mass media has normalized suspended cognitive development to such a degree that the media refers to sub- Concrete Operational cognitive development as a normal ideology in competition with Formal Operational cognitive development. Referring to these disparate levels of thinking as “conservative” and “progressive” and making “centrism” some kind of twisted version of common sense.

Various theories on Cognitive Development

While researching cognitive development, I began to notice that a vast number of adults seem to be operating at less than an adult cognitive capacity.
I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, but as I read, more symptoms became clear.

• Lack of empathy for anyone outside of one’s own family and circle of friends.
• Unable to contemplate long-term or wider degree of effect their decisions have on people around them.
• Susceptible to logical fallacies, cognitive biases, weasel words, distortions of the truth, lies and deception. Gullible.
• Low situational and emotional awareness. Unwilling or incapable of at least trying to imagine the perspectives of other cultures or ideologies.
• Susceptible to creeping normality. Incapable of recognizing subtle warning signs that there is a growing threat to one’s way of life.
• Defers obsequiously to perceived authority without question. Extremely loyal and subservient, regardless of the consequences.
• Lives a dogmatic lifestyle. Incapable of adapting to change or to change one’s mind when presented new information, or to admit to being wrong.
• Selfish and opportunistic at the expense of other people and the environment.
• Ego-Syntonic: Despite the negative consequences, believes that one’s behavior is normal.
• Weak Self-Esteem: Narcissism, obsesses over one’s own social status compared to other people in order to feel better about one’s self. Bigotry, racism, sexism, and conspicuous consumption are factors.
• While driving, loathes other drivers merging into one’s lane in front of them despite proper signaling and distance. Sees driving on the street as some sort of competition. Tends to tailgate other drivers.

Zones of Interpersonal Interaction are often
regulated by cult leaders but mostly
conditioned internal authority managed
by your religious beliefs or Xenophobia.

• Xenophobic: Paranoid about strangers and active seekers of threats. Sees conspiracies in most situations involving people one does not know who are wealthier or more well-off or more powerful than one’s self, like the government.
• There is probably more...

The normalization of this behavior by the media can only be exposed through learning Critical Thinking Skills. Understanding the effects of weasel words, logical fallacies and cognitive biases. Spending more time out of your comfort zone getting to know people.

Examples:

• https://www.facebook.com/thehodgetwins/posts/3083998331681274
• https://twitter.com/search?q=klu%20klux%20karen&src=typeahead_click
• 
  

Score Keeping Political Rhetoric

Candidates running for various offices in the 2020 election cycle must validate the emotions of the voter (pathos), confirm the understanding of the voter's suffering (ethos) and provide a real solution to the voter's problems (logos). Seems reasonable, right? Why doesn't it happen? Easy, the pathos, ethos and logos are substituted for other rhetoric.

• Pathos: Demonstrate empathy, affirm and validate the feelings of voters.
• The candidate tries too hard to look "local" instead of owning his or her class status.
• The candidate has more photo ops with famous celebrities in a bid for popularity, but popularity is not the same as affinity.
• Ethos: Demonstrate context, understand the technical details of the problems.
• The candidate responds by referring to a problem as "the problem" or "your pain."
• Logos: Use critical thinking skills and logic to arrive at a solution for the problems.
• The candidate speaks in "glittering generalities" or platitudes.
• The candidate focuses on one or two specific issues that can be easily solved already.
• The candidate avoids an issue on which he or she is known to equivocate or an issue he or she voted against that is supported by most voters.

Or, the candidate simply lies.

For a complete list of Rhetorical terms, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_rhetorical_terms