I talk with Subsack's "Public Defender, Saracen Invader" about law, psychosis, the GOP's future, online world vs. real world, the reality of violence, HBO's Deadwood, & more
As a psychologist who has a friend who went off the Deep End of Trumpism, Q Anon, Flat Earthers and other conspiracies, I have done a little research and if you Google "conspiracy theories and anxiety" on Google Scholar, you will find a number of studies concluding that anxiety seems to be involved, and that was certainly the case with my friend. Trump may not be the brightest bulb in the socket, but he knows how to manipulate people through reinforcing their fears and anxieties to his benefit. It remains to be seen if his successor will try to do the same, and if so, whether they will succeed. (Both Bushes and Reagan also employed this strategy, although perhaps not quite as blatantly). So yes, it's about emotions, not facts or rational cognitions, although most of them want to believe otherwise and will come up with motivated reasoning that make sense to them, if not to us. An interesting quote from the article in the link below is this: "...with regard to those involved in the U.S. Capitol siege...Court records of QAnon followers arrested for involvement shows that 68 percent had received mental health diagnoses (as opposed to 19 percent among all Americans), while among the QAnon actors with criminal records, 44 percent “experienced a serious psychological trauma that preceded their radicalization, such as physical or sexual abuse of them or of their children” (Moskalenko, 2021). Anxiety diagnoses were especially to the fore in this subset (Moskalenko, 2021) — a coincidence perhaps, but more likely an indicator of societal and psychological fissures that remain to be fully understood."
On a different note, Dr. Greenwald, I kept waiting for you to ask Mr. Meskhout what he thought about your idea of punishing low-level offenders with flogging instead of jail. He might have had some insights you hadn't thought of based on his experience. (Maybe the trauma of flogging will lead them to MAGA?). I thought you were going to write a follow-up to that piece.
Those are interesting study findings, they're not particularly surprising given the cohort. My concern is much broader (and correspondingly much more despondent) than just QAnon believers though.
As far as I can tell, flogging seems a much more cost-effective deterrent. Mostly on an intuition perspective, the biggest barrier to deterrence for my clients is likely the lack of certainty. My clients, even the most incompetent ones, get away with a LOT of crime.
I meant to ask about corporal punishment but got carried away! It’s on the question list for pt. 2. And yes I’ve been meaning to write a f/u piece on that, as well as about 10 other things but my writing process is painfully slow and inefficient…
As a psychologist who has a friend who went off the Deep End of Trumpism, Q Anon, Flat Earthers and other conspiracies, I have done a little research and if you Google "conspiracy theories and anxiety" on Google Scholar, you will find a number of studies concluding that anxiety seems to be involved, and that was certainly the case with my friend. Trump may not be the brightest bulb in the socket, but he knows how to manipulate people through reinforcing their fears and anxieties to his benefit. It remains to be seen if his successor will try to do the same, and if so, whether they will succeed. (Both Bushes and Reagan also employed this strategy, although perhaps not quite as blatantly). So yes, it's about emotions, not facts or rational cognitions, although most of them want to believe otherwise and will come up with motivated reasoning that make sense to them, if not to us. An interesting quote from the article in the link below is this: "...with regard to those involved in the U.S. Capitol siege...Court records of QAnon followers arrested for involvement shows that 68 percent had received mental health diagnoses (as opposed to 19 percent among all Americans), while among the QAnon actors with criminal records, 44 percent “experienced a serious psychological trauma that preceded their radicalization, such as physical or sexual abuse of them or of their children” (Moskalenko, 2021). Anxiety diagnoses were especially to the fore in this subset (Moskalenko, 2021) — a coincidence perhaps, but more likely an indicator of societal and psychological fissures that remain to be fully understood."
On a different note, Dr. Greenwald, I kept waiting for you to ask Mr. Meskhout what he thought about your idea of punishing low-level offenders with flogging instead of jail. He might have had some insights you hadn't thought of based on his experience. (Maybe the trauma of flogging will lead them to MAGA?). I thought you were going to write a follow-up to that piece.
https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/12618/10639
Those are interesting study findings, they're not particularly surprising given the cohort. My concern is much broader (and correspondingly much more despondent) than just QAnon believers though.
I had a podcast episode on corporal punishment years ago: https://thebaileypodcast.substack.com/p/e003-signaling-theory-of-education-a57
As far as I can tell, flogging seems a much more cost-effective deterrent. Mostly on an intuition perspective, the biggest barrier to deterrence for my clients is likely the lack of certainty. My clients, even the most incompetent ones, get away with a LOT of crime.
I meant to ask about corporal punishment but got carried away! It’s on the question list for pt. 2. And yes I’ve been meaning to write a f/u piece on that, as well as about 10 other things but my writing process is painfully slow and inefficient…