…it’s as if the country is simply — maybe not “as if” — the country is simply run by sociopaths.
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Trump makes some crazy statement. It’s then amplified by the Fox News echo chamber. The next day, he says the opposite. That’s echoed; the echo chamber amplifies that. Notice that the tone — the tone of the reporting is interesting. It’s all with perfect confidence, not what any sane, rational person would say — “We really don’t know. There’s a lot of uncertainty. This is the way things look today.” There’s nothing like that. Absolute confidence. No matter what the dear leader says, we amplify it.
I was impressed yesterday by a Die Zeit article which describes Americans as being under the influence of their own „autosuggestion“ in clinging to illusions regarding the US being „the greatest“. I think Chomsky’s insight here is fundamentally important in viewing the way the US is run and also how the US is peopled. Comments on articles in mainstream US media, Twitter feeds, the questions media personalities ask, the way media questioning is discussed by the American audience all portray a populace which is deeply delusional. Brinkbäumer in Die Zeit uses words like „unconscious“ and „dysfunctional“ to describe the US, and says Americans are unable to understand their present reality, are unable to learn from past crises. I think these observations need to be taken as literal descriptions of the current state of the US.
