I just saw this article in the NYTimes. It starts by talking about a similar incident to the storming of the capital that happened last August at the German Reichstag here in Berlin. It was by what we call Covidiots in Germany, a strange coalition of people who unite in their opposition to German policies to fight the pandemic. It includes anti-vaxers, right extremists, left extremists, conspiracy theorists, new-agers, general fringe types and these strange people who believe in a non-existent German Empire, which is a discussion in itself. There are even some QAnon followers, which is a thing now in Germany.
It was a much smaller group who tried to storm the parliament building and they didn't get very far, so people didn't hear all that much about it. But now we can see that as a warning sign.
The reason I post it here though is how the article continues. What it ties together is how in both cases people are essentially uniting and even willing to take violent action based on their belief in imaginary political causes. In other words, they are cults.
So how exactly do you fight this? Germany is at least paying attention now. But the author's suggestion to "contain them and take away their guns" I think is misplaced and shows a lack of understanding. First of all it is not possible and it won't really stop them.
At the same time she is correct to say that you can't reason with them in a normal political debate. You are dealing with a false belief system, cult phenomena, whatever you want to call it. We here know what that means. I don't know what the answer is but it is pretty scary. We all know from years debating with premies on this forum that there are no pretzel logic hoops that such people are unwilling to twist their neurons into to maintain their belief system.
Humans are really not evolved enough to manage their own technological achievements. I guess it is time to bring on the robot masters.
In closing I have to add that some months ago I took Jim's side in saying that the Trump movement was not a cult. Yeah, I was wrong. A main part of the reason is that deep down I don't actually think the singling out of the cult phenomenon the way people like Steve Hassan define it is valid. But that is also a topic for another discussion.
