What you're talking about here is fear porn and the sick addiction to it people have developed. I think I know what I'm talking about here. I bought into it for a while, a long while, actually. The way it goes is this: There's a shadow government bent on not only taking away our freedoms, brainwashing us, and turning us all into mindless, servile drones to serve a tiny elite, but to kill off vast numbers of us in order to preserve limited resources for themselves. Every, single thing that's put forth from someone predetermined as 'other' gets framed as one more inch down a slippery slope into totalitarianism in the eyes of people who wouldn't know the real signs of totalitarianism if they jumped up and waved red flags in front of their faces. Because it happened nearly every day during Trump's administration, and they not only didn't bat an eye, they looked for ways to make these things seem other than what they clearly were.
The scariest part is that they don't see how that kind of blind devotion, where you either feverishly work to justify wrong or pointedly ignore the obvious is precisely what leads to a tyrant's rise. History has borne that out time and again.
The problem is that there are a lot of holes in that theory, not the least of which is that the ominous outcomes predicted have not come to pass. And no one seems to take note of that fact, acknowledge when these things don't pan out and regard that as reason to take a step back and re-evaluate the soundness of the theory, rather than reframe the resulting reality to view it from a slightly different angle. When you get into the habit of doing the later, it works disastrously well, because it means you never have to admit that you were wrong or overreactive. You protect your psyche and save face, but become no better and remain in a delusional state.
I saw a photo the other day of a woman at the Capitol rally wearing a t-shirt with George Orwell on it with a made up quote, "Did I call it, or what?" The suggestion is that the dystopian reality predicted in 1984 is come to pass and that left-wing factions have brought it to pass. This woman, and those like her, have become so deluded by their own self-talk they don't realize the how much of their own leaders have brought aspects of that dystopian reality to bear. In fact, most of them know very little about Orwell, they just repost memes they're seen because they sound good and seem to fit their outlook. Whatever doesn't fit, they ignore.
Mind you, I don't think this is only a far-right thought trap, but it's certainly the case that those on the right do less self-reflection in that regard. As an Independent, I've confronted many a self-described liberal with their bias in a nonconfrontational way, and they've not only been reasoned in their response, but asked for info and taken it into consideration. The worst I've ever gotten from them in response is the suggestion that I am enabling Trump by not speaking against him and leaving it at that. Many times I have done the same with someone who has adopted an ultra-conservative bent, confronted them with their bias, and their immediate response has been to angrily sling an epithet at me, call me some form of gullible, imbecile, and take off.
It's very disappointing, especially when you're calling these thought traps out because you're trying to be a person who builds bridges to understanding.
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