That they managed to convince so many people to completely vote against their own interests is a testament to the power of propaganda. And you don’t have to be spiteful, stupid and/or uneducated to fall for propaganda, it helps a lot obviously, but there are still many progressive and/or smart people who fall for it as well.
The combination of spreading “alternate” facts through complicit mass media AND indifferent addictive social media is something that Goebbels could have only dreamt about.
To understand how people can become so misguided, I recommend reading or watching a few testimonies of people who lost a loved one to alternate fact rabbit holes. It’s similar to losing a loved one to a cult, only now it’s much more widespread than ever before. I did a quick search and found a testimony from an Irishman that is a good read:
https://old.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/171w3kb/my_dad_is_falling_down_a_farright_rabbit_hole/
And for people who did not fall for “alternate” facts propaganda, to put all this history and background into words is not easy, so it’s easier and especially quicker to call people who have joined the far right cult, stupid and hateful. The cultists are stupid because they have fallen for the lies, and they are spiteful/hateful because hate is a large part of the far right cult. The far right cultists might not always have been stupid and hateful, but they sure are now.
That they managed to convince so many people to completely vote against their own interests is a testament to the power of propaganda. And you don’t have to be spiteful, stupid and/or uneducated to fall for propaganda, it helps a lot obviously, but there are still many progressive and/or smart people who fall for it as well.
The combination of spreading “alternate” facts through complicit mass media AND indifferent addictive social media is something that Goebbels could have only dreamt about.
To understand how people can become so misguided, I recommend reading or watching a few testimonies of people who lost a loved one to alternate fact rabbit holes. It’s similar to losing a loved one to a cult, only now it’s much more widespread than ever before. I did a quick search and found a testimony from an Irishman that is a good read: https://old.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/171w3kb/my_dad_is_falling_down_a_farright_rabbit_hole/
And for people who did not fall for “alternate” facts propaganda, to put all this history and background into words is not easy, so it’s easier and especially quicker to call people who have joined the far right cult, stupid and hateful. The cultists are stupid because they have fallen for the lies, and they are spiteful/hateful because hate is a large part of the far right cult. The far right cultists might not always have been stupid and hateful, but they sure are now.