I have to thank Chitown Kev for pointing me to this article this morning:
www.theatlantic.com/…
It’s an analysis of all the Jan. 6 insurrection participants who have been charged so far.
“In recent weeks, our team of more than 20 researchers has been reviewing court documents and media coverage for information on the demographics, socioeconomic traits, and militant-group affiliations (if any) of everyone arrested by the FBI, Capitol Police, and Washington, D.C., police for offenses related to the January 6 insurrection. As of late last week, 235 people fell into that category, and the number is expected to grow.”
A quick summary of the article is that the researchers found that about 10 percent of the mob were hardcore members of right wing groups like the Proud Boys. The rest had no obvious ties to right-wing organizations and did not skew toward the disadvantaged. They were reasonably affluent (and some very affluent), educated, many business owners and overall, a picture of middle-class white America.
That they weren’t poor, is easy to understand. They traveled to Washington, D.C., on a Wednesday. People who are poor and unemployed wouldn’t be able to afford that, people in menial, low-paying jobs wouldn’t be able to take the time off. (A broad generalization.)
This demographic analysis may seem surprising, but only because we, here, tend to characterize Trump supporters as un-intelligent losers — the deplorables.
I look at these people and wonder how a group of people who previous to being manipulated into participating on an insurrection based on a pack of obvious lies, were pretty successful at negotiating American life. They’re the people who can get a mortgage for a comfortable house, started a successful business, or have a steady job that brings them enough money to be comfortable.
To put it in other words, a bunch of people, many with a lot to lose, were deceived into putting themselves in jeopardy of prison and losing everything they have. That last sentence had little to do with sympathy on my part. I think they did something very, very stupid and destructive. But they weren’t (at least before they decided to do this) stupid people.
That, to me, is the most frightening aspect of this situation where we find ourselves. There is a broad swath of our friends, families and neighbors who can be very easily manipulated into doing things that could destroy society itself.
How did that happen?
One answer is that the unregulated flow of information on the Internet makes it difficult for people to determine what is real and what is not. That’s a vast oversimplification, Fox News and similar outlets had a hand in it, but I think the Internet may be at the core of our problems.
For large Internet gathering spaces like Facebook and Twitter, sensationalism is encouraged because it attracts clicks and ultimately, money. Sensationalism appeals to the emotions rather than reason.
I’m a solid free-speech advocate. I would never suggest that the government should regulate what information we can see. But, the last four years have shown me a face of free speech that I never would have imagined in my younger days.
Back to my main point: A large swath of people have been manipulated into believing things that are demonstrably not true, and that has led them to some very bad behavior.
The most gullible are clearly the QAnon freaks. But simply being a Trump supporter, even without the Q weirdness, requires strongly believing things that are demonstrably not true.
How do we protect people from bad information? Any institutionalized system of vetting information will inevitably become an exercise in protecting the institution that is doing the information vetting.
Even here on DailyKos, how can I be certain that the latest GOP outrage that I’m reading about hasn’t been distorted to appeal to my emotions and cement me to this “clan” so I’ll be ready to man the barricades against the “evil” Republicans.
I *believe* I can find more truth here than I would ever find on Brietbart or News Max. But other people believe Fox News is fair and balanced.
The terrifying thing is that the Big Lie incontrovertibly works. And after the Big Lie has been superimposed on your thought processes, it’s very difficult see that you’ve bought into a lie.
The Jan. 6 insurrectionists need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. That goes just as much for the 90 percent who weren’t part of right-wing organizations as it goes for the Proud Boys and 3%-ers. It is very important to show that violent acts have serious consequences. And support for violent actors has consequences as well.
But beyond that, I’m at a loss. How do we encourage the free flow of information without opening the flood gates to lies and deliberate manipulation?
