Thank you Dr. Lee for your courage to continue to warn. I believe the forensic psychiatric understanding of the threat and mechanism of contagion is an important contribution to developing a rational, scientific, and effective treatment needed to save democracy.
I fear our society has become immune to rational, science based warnings about anything. As you and your colleagues so ably prognosticated the Trump Infection continues to spread to completely capture a single political party including newly extremist state governments. The US is progressively becoming a society of Social Murder. The takeover has been promoted for 40 years by wealthy extremist individuals to promote private gain and dismantle government regulation, but it too has been captured by extremists infected by the Trump Infection. The virality of this disordered thinking is epidemic in the US and has infected tens of millions who carry and spread it. And vote.
Alas, the political party in opposition, seems to be in complete denial that what is happening is anything other than politics as usual. Their comfort zone. They seem incapable of understanding the seriousness and dynamics of social infection and building the rational approach to stop it as you have proposed. Instead, it gives license to its spread as political speech rather than dangerous infectious speech that is actively harming individuals and society. So, in that sense, they too are complicit in the tragedies of Social Murder which unfold daily.
As a physician it is painful to watch this preventable ongoing mass social murder unfold without the least attempt to thwart it. Unconscionable, but somehow, so American.
Having witnessed and attempted to participate in the battle you have been waging to inform the public, I am concerned that this effort will meet with the same limited results--that is not being able to reach the part of the infected population that we need to alert to the uptick in danger. Your message certainly has been blocked from reaching the public, as you described and we experienced, but that is not in my view the only issue. The content is. Our type of communication has not been effective with people who think in slogans that are very appealing and convincing to them, even though their processing would reveal their flaws. But that processing never happens. The slogan seem to be enough. MAGA certainly illustrates this point. What is needed is an antidote that follows the same principles--but the difficulty lies in the issue that nothing we can propose is that simplistic and crude---because reality is complicated. The Tik Tok generation has it right--we need short, simple, highly vivid messages, visual as well as verbal. Evoking fear and bringing hope is what Trump has done (think caravans, immigration and bans, etc...) and that has worked for him. But doing the same by sticking to our values seems to be an impossible task.
You are right. This is basic problem with Trump world, as there goes the saying - "a lie will fly around the whole world while the truth is getting its boots on". In Trump world, the intellect of his followers is completely extinguished. There is no way to reach them by appealing them with reason and logic. How can cultic programming be reversed? I am starting to believe that it cannot be done for majority of cult followers specially when they are in cult for 5-6-7 years. Coming out of it at this late stage is almost impossible.
But we don't need to reach Trump followers and we have to write most of them off as hopeless cases. I think goal of intellectuals like Dr Lee & others should be reaching out to rational people. In America, lot of people don't participate in political process & elections and many of them are psychologically healthy. They haven't realized that political system & Democracy which they have taken for granted is in grave danger. It is these people that should be reached out upon. You can call them independents or some of them are undecided voters or voters soon to be registered etc.
Thank you for your detailed response, Sanjeev. I agree with you--with a caveat. I think that the advent of social media has had near universal impact on our motivation and ability to process complex thoughts--we are flooded by a constant stream of short messages, and are suffering from learned ADD--if that is a concept. I find my patients unable and unwilling to focus their attention on longer pieces, and to control their "scrolling." Many complain about what they experience as addiction. Complexity takes time to process and needs distance and reflection. Society is less and less able to provide these spaces. We need to adapt as well.
Yeah, social media has new avenues for political campaigning. Back in the day, there was a term called culture jamming. It was smart ways of reaching out to people who had become too accustomed to conventional & obsolete thinking. Culture jamming was like trying to shake the semi conscious mind of people and awaken their intellect. Culture jamming was done with simple, short & clever themes - slogans, cartoons, jokes etc. I give you one recent example. Have you heard of the theme Dark Brandon? This is one of the new projects by Dems social media strategy for 2024. Are you aware the popular "let's go Brandon" meme of MAGA movement? So the Dark Brandon theme is basically like counter-trolling. A sophisticated SM technique to counter political opposition.
I have little hope that Democratic politicians will drop their business as usual misunderstanding or that MSM will, as Fritz Perls said, "come to their senses". My own feeble attempts to warn and inform have gone nowhere, even among seemingly willing and intelligent friends. I don't know what further to do but am certainly not ready to give up. I write in the hopes of asking for or provoking new strategies. Anyone?
Thank you Dr. Lee for persevering, and thank you all the other doctors and health professionals for your continued efforts for the general good.
Dr Lee, i wish you best for upcoming project and finding publisher for the book.
Something more on Trump. As he's getting cornered on investigations, he is getting more irrational and reckless. And we don't have to wait until election campaigns to see real Dangers of Trump. Trump is dangerous right now & every day. Economist Paul Krugman has recently said that Republicans want to carry out "financial version" of Jan 6. Jan 6 was a half hearted coup attempt to destroy Democracy & legality of American state. Fast forward to May 2023. Trump in CNN town hall has called Republicans to threaten White House with a national default. This threat if come good upon is as dangerous as events of Jan 6. The US economy will crash, payments will stop (pensions, salaries, paychecks etc). There will be a panic in markets & banking system. Global economy will also crash because it's based on dollar as reserve currency. And for what? Because Trump and Republicans wanna take the entire global economy as hostage to show demonstrate their power and extort concessions.
Thank you Dr. Lee for your courage to continue to warn. I believe the forensic psychiatric understanding of the threat and mechanism of contagion is an important contribution to developing a rational, scientific, and effective treatment needed to save democracy.
I fear our society has become immune to rational, science based warnings about anything. As you and your colleagues so ably prognosticated the Trump Infection continues to spread to completely capture a single political party including newly extremist state governments. The US is progressively becoming a society of Social Murder. The takeover has been promoted for 40 years by wealthy extremist individuals to promote private gain and dismantle government regulation, but it too has been captured by extremists infected by the Trump Infection. The virality of this disordered thinking is epidemic in the US and has infected tens of millions who carry and spread it. And vote.
Alas, the political party in opposition, seems to be in complete denial that what is happening is anything other than politics as usual. Their comfort zone. They seem incapable of understanding the seriousness and dynamics of social infection and building the rational approach to stop it as you have proposed. Instead, it gives license to its spread as political speech rather than dangerous infectious speech that is actively harming individuals and society. So, in that sense, they too are complicit in the tragedies of Social Murder which unfold daily.
As a physician it is painful to watch this preventable ongoing mass social murder unfold without the least attempt to thwart it. Unconscionable, but somehow, so American.
Thank you for your insights and ongoing work.
Ricord B. Winstead, MD Family Medicine (retired)
Having witnessed and attempted to participate in the battle you have been waging to inform the public, I am concerned that this effort will meet with the same limited results--that is not being able to reach the part of the infected population that we need to alert to the uptick in danger. Your message certainly has been blocked from reaching the public, as you described and we experienced, but that is not in my view the only issue. The content is. Our type of communication has not been effective with people who think in slogans that are very appealing and convincing to them, even though their processing would reveal their flaws. But that processing never happens. The slogan seem to be enough. MAGA certainly illustrates this point. What is needed is an antidote that follows the same principles--but the difficulty lies in the issue that nothing we can propose is that simplistic and crude---because reality is complicated. The Tik Tok generation has it right--we need short, simple, highly vivid messages, visual as well as verbal. Evoking fear and bringing hope is what Trump has done (think caravans, immigration and bans, etc...) and that has worked for him. But doing the same by sticking to our values seems to be an impossible task.
You are right. This is basic problem with Trump world, as there goes the saying - "a lie will fly around the whole world while the truth is getting its boots on". In Trump world, the intellect of his followers is completely extinguished. There is no way to reach them by appealing them with reason and logic. How can cultic programming be reversed? I am starting to believe that it cannot be done for majority of cult followers specially when they are in cult for 5-6-7 years. Coming out of it at this late stage is almost impossible.
But we don't need to reach Trump followers and we have to write most of them off as hopeless cases. I think goal of intellectuals like Dr Lee & others should be reaching out to rational people. In America, lot of people don't participate in political process & elections and many of them are psychologically healthy. They haven't realized that political system & Democracy which they have taken for granted is in grave danger. It is these people that should be reached out upon. You can call them independents or some of them are undecided voters or voters soon to be registered etc.
Thank you for your detailed response, Sanjeev. I agree with you--with a caveat. I think that the advent of social media has had near universal impact on our motivation and ability to process complex thoughts--we are flooded by a constant stream of short messages, and are suffering from learned ADD--if that is a concept. I find my patients unable and unwilling to focus their attention on longer pieces, and to control their "scrolling." Many complain about what they experience as addiction. Complexity takes time to process and needs distance and reflection. Society is less and less able to provide these spaces. We need to adapt as well.
Yeah, social media has new avenues for political campaigning. Back in the day, there was a term called culture jamming. It was smart ways of reaching out to people who had become too accustomed to conventional & obsolete thinking. Culture jamming was like trying to shake the semi conscious mind of people and awaken their intellect. Culture jamming was done with simple, short & clever themes - slogans, cartoons, jokes etc. I give you one recent example. Have you heard of the theme Dark Brandon? This is one of the new projects by Dems social media strategy for 2024. Are you aware the popular "let's go Brandon" meme of MAGA movement? So the Dark Brandon theme is basically like counter-trolling. A sophisticated SM technique to counter political opposition.
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/25/1171885259/dark-brandon-meme-makes-an-appearance-on-bidens-new-campaign-website
Dr. Lee, Perhaps you could self-publish and sell the book on line. Traditional publishing takes too long.
I have little hope that Democratic politicians will drop their business as usual misunderstanding or that MSM will, as Fritz Perls said, "come to their senses". My own feeble attempts to warn and inform have gone nowhere, even among seemingly willing and intelligent friends. I don't know what further to do but am certainly not ready to give up. I write in the hopes of asking for or provoking new strategies. Anyone?
Thank you Dr. Lee for persevering, and thank you all the other doctors and health professionals for your continued efforts for the general good.
Sincerely
Eliot Ivanhoe MD, M.Ac.
He does not defy the law on his own; he has hired dozens of unethical lawyers to represent him.
Dr Lee, i wish you best for upcoming project and finding publisher for the book.
Something more on Trump. As he's getting cornered on investigations, he is getting more irrational and reckless. And we don't have to wait until election campaigns to see real Dangers of Trump. Trump is dangerous right now & every day. Economist Paul Krugman has recently said that Republicans want to carry out "financial version" of Jan 6. Jan 6 was a half hearted coup attempt to destroy Democracy & legality of American state. Fast forward to May 2023. Trump in CNN town hall has called Republicans to threaten White House with a national default. This threat if come good upon is as dangerous as events of Jan 6. The US economy will crash, payments will stop (pensions, salaries, paychecks etc). There will be a panic in markets & banking system. Global economy will also crash because it's based on dollar as reserve currency. And for what? Because Trump and Republicans wanna take the entire global economy as hostage to show demonstrate their power and extort concessions.
A good read.
https://stayathomemacro.substack.com/p/like-the-debt-ceiling-cant-hold-us
Hope that you find a publisher
Hear! Hear!