Among the most corrosive changes to the fabric of our society in the last decade, the systemic erosion of trust must surely be the most damaging. It is at the heart of every conspiracy theory, the seed of media mistrust, behind the denial of established history and repudiation of scientific fact, and underlies the inimical characterization of most institutions.
We might advance several theories regarding this profound change to our societal norms, and there is a temptation to suggest that we are experiencing a rebirth of the authoritarianism and cult of personality that led the world to its last great conflict some 80+ years ago. As true as those assertions may be, we also should recognize that while cult behavior and racial division are nothing new, there are forces at work in our present environment we have not seen at play in our past.
The rise of religious nationalism, especially among Christian evangelical sects has been brewing for some time but more recently has sharpened its right wing ideological stance. It has long harbored an assertion of racial supremacy and misogyny but has now begun to disavow the most fundamental of Christian precepts. Love thy neighbor, tend to the poor and the meek, welcome the stranger to your door, turn the other cheek are being held up as failed doctrine and evidence of misguided faith. A new breed of preachers are leading the way in this departure from what they characterize as weak, leftist, woke teachings. In its place, what is emerging is a new religion, based on cult behavior, new age theatrics and social media, that identifies racial minorities, Jews, and mainstream Christians as both ideological and religious opponents. This bears no slight resemblance to the extremist views of certain Moslem and Hindu sects -and is emerging as a more global ideology among the extreme right.
At the same time, we are seeing the fruit of a systemic, politically motivated campaign to undermine the credibility of the press, to deliberately confuse fact and fiction, and disparage the disciplines of critical thinking in our schools, universities, in libraries, and apolitical forums including medical and scientific journals. The presumed reliability of these institutions has been thrown into question to the point where they can no longer function without deference to politically engineered litmus tests. We might expect this of the QAnon, Flat Earth and MAGA faithful, but the spread of such views is much wider.
Joining hands, anti-vaxxers, holocaust deniers, and deep state conspiracy cults have gained new-found strength and pre-eminence through their alliance with the religious and political right. Yet, study after study, poll after poll, tell us these beliefs do not represent a majority viewpoint. For example, a recent analysis of anti-vax disinformation in the medical profession found that just 52 physicians were responsible for disseminating these narratives—amplified and echoed throughout social media by foreign and domestic political actors, as well as a handful of gullible individuals (a previous study suggested that just 11 people were responsible for 85% of anti-vax posts appearing on FaceBook at the height of the Covid pandemic). Yet, despite what the polls and studies reflect, fringe groups whose missions are far afield of political extremism are finding common cause based on a mutual and growing sense of mistrust.
Healthy skepticism is a useful tool that everyone should employ in the interests of discerning truth from falsehood, the nonsensical from the factual, and fabrications from reality. But disavowal of all institutions, all established sources of information, documented history, science, and learning, signals a retreat into a literal dark age. For how long can this condition persist, we might well ask? I have no prognosis but I do take one lesson from the past. The abandonment of all established conventions and lessons is not sustainable and as we approach that disturbing possibility it may signal a turning point. Ultimately, the impetus to reject fact, to find flaws in our conventions must consume itself. For if one thing is not what it seems, eventually we must become convinced that all things suffer the same defect.
Humans, must find faith in something or suffer an ontological crisis. It is a fundamental artifact of our humanity. Any religion or ideology that rests solely on supplanting what is established, must over time be supplanted by the same process of rejection it has fomented. But how long will it take before that process commences?
Let me suggest we need not wait. Rather than attempting to inject reason when we are next confronted by mis or dis-information, I propose we lean into it. Introduce further doubt. If for example a friend suggests that Fox news is the only purveyor of truth and CNN is false news, we might ask how we can be sure that Fox itself is not being manipulated, perhaps a false flag player? We need no proof or example to buttress our question, merely the seed of doubt to take hold, to work its way into the sub-conscious of all too willing believers. The doubters will supply their own examples, their own suspicions and proofs.
This is precisely how those who monger ideological and religious falsehoods work. They plant the seeds of doubt, sow the poisoned grains of half-truths and outright lies while declaiming that they are just asking, just motivated to get to the bottom of what just might be a coverup, a conspiracy, a practiced untruth. The Joe Rogans, Tucker Carlsons and their like have built their brands on nothing more than the weakness of human nature. Our perversity is that we want to believe, in fact we need to believe in something, but we have lost our sense of trust and faith and no longer know how to use our intellect, and the tools of critical thought to find our way through the fog.
At the heart of our lack of trust is our inability to trust in ourselves. That is what grifters, con men and liars exploit. Writ large, our country’s present existential crisis is the product of the clear majority of our citizens failure to believe in themselves, in the goodness of our nature and the rightness of our purpose. Democracy, fairness, defense of our liberties have been hijacked by jingoistic charlatans peddling might over right, exclusion over inclusion, and perversion of the very principles which brought our nation into being. Rights have been replaced by entitlements, love of our neighbor supplanted by hatred of the other party, and under it all is fear. We must not lose sight, however, that for trust to be broken there must have been trust to begin with. That knowledge is the powerful weapon we can and must wield in service to our humanity, our country and ourselves.
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