Wells attempts in this essay to help mankind "pull it's mind together" for the betterment of people and the planet. How is this supposed to happen in a modern media environment which is designed to pull our minds apart as rapidly as possible?

How might the strength of capitalism be leveraged to push people back toward a common middle rather than split them apart?

• for: Christian nationalism, Christian national, far right politics, Christian right, political extremism, MAGA fuel
• comment
  • the extreme right, MAGA Republican party is fueled by a movement composed of threatened Christian nationalists entering politics to assert power.
  • The extremism in the far right politics is in direct proportion to the high degree to which they perceive threat
  • Religious faith can inspire extremely powerful emotional responses and devotion. When combined with politics this can lead to extreme events, such as the Jan. 6 insurrection.
  • The mobilization of Christian nationals into local school boards has turned education into a political battleground.

Protestant Paranoia: The American Protective Association Oath

In 1887, Henry F. Bowers founded the nativist American Protective Association (APA) in Clinton, Iowa. Bowers was a Mason, and he drew from its fraternal ritual—elaborate regalia, initiation ceremonies, and a secret oath—in organizing the APA. He also drew many Masons, an organization that barred Catholics. The organization quickly acquired an anti-union cast. Among other things, the APA claimed that the Catholic leader of the Knights, Terence V. Powderly, was part of a larger conspiracy against American institutions. Even so, the APA successfully recruited significant numbers of disaffected trade unionists in an era of economic hard times and the collapse of the Knights of Labor. This secret oath taken by members of the American Protective Association in the 1890s revealed the depth of Protestant distrust and fear of Catholics holding public office.

I do most solemnly promise and swear that I will always, to the utmost of my ability, labor, plead and wage a continuous warfare against ignorance and fanaticism; that I will use my utmost power to strike the shackles and chains of blind obedience to the Roman Catholic church from the hampered and bound consciences of a priest-ridden and church-oppressed people; that I will never allow any one, a member of the Roman Catholic church, to become a member of this order, I knowing him to be such; that I will use my influence to promote the interest of all Protestants everywhere in the world that I may be; that I will not employ a Roman Catholic in any capacity if I can procure the services of a Protestant.

I furthermore promise and swear that I will not aid in building or maintaining, by my resources, any Roman Catholic church or institution of their sect or creed whatsoever, but will do all in my power to retard and break down the power of the Pope, in this country or any other; that I will not enter into any controversy with a Roman Catholic upon the subject of this order, nor will I enter into any agreement with a Roman Catholic to strike or create a disturbance whereby the Catholic employes may undermine and substitute their Protestant co-workers; that in all grievances I will seek only Protestants and counsel with them to the exclusion of all Roman Catholics, and will not make known to them anything of any nature matured at such conferences.

I furthermore promise and swear that I will not countenance the nomination, in any caucus or convention, of a Roman Catholic for any office in the gift of the American people, and that I will not vote for, or counsel others to vote for, any Roman Catholic, but will vote only for a Protestant, so far as may lie in my power. Should there be two Roman Catholics on opposite tickets, I will erase the name on the ticket I vote; that I will at all times endeavor to place the political positions of this government in the hands of Protestants, to the entire exclusion of the Roman Catholic church, of the members thereof, and the mandate of the Pope.

To all of which I do most solemnly promise and swear, so help me God. Amen.

Source: "The Secret Oath of the American Protective Association, October 31, 1893," in Michael Williams, The Shadow of the Pope (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1932), 103–104. Reprinted in John Tracy Ellis, ed., Documents of American Catholic History (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1956), 500–501.

Misinformation exposure and extreme right-wing ideology appear associated in this report. Others find that it is partisanship that predicts susceptibility.

Elite mis and disinformation sharers have a negative effect on followers.

Estimated ideological extremity is associated with higher elite misinformation-exposure scores for estimated conservatives more so than estimated liberals.

Political ideology is estimated using accounts followed10. b Political ideology is estimated using domains shared30 (Red: conservative, blue: liberal). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

Estimated ideological extremity is associated with higher language toxicity and moral outrage scores for estimated conservatives more so than estimated liberals.

The relationship between estimated political ideology and (a) language toxicity and (b) expressions of moral outrage. Extreme values are winsorized by 95% quantile for visualization purposes. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

The psychology of hate: Moral concerns differentiate hate from dislike

The effect of hate versus dislike on morality judgments (a) and moral emotions (b) in Study 2. Hated objects were rated as significantly more tied to core moral beliefs and moral emotions than disliked attitude objects.

The effect of hate versus dislike on ratings of (a) negativity, (b) morality and (c) attitude strength in Study 3. Hated objects were rated as significantly more negative and were more associated with attitude strength than disliked objects but received similar ratings in negativity and attitude strength as extremely disliked objects. Hated objects were rated as more related to morality than extremely disliked attitude objects and disliked attitude objects.

Results

Consistent with our three laboratory studies, this analysis of real-world hate groups lent further support to the morality hypothesis. The language of hate groups was different, in the moral domain, from that of complain forums. These results reflect real, uncensored language used by groups and individuals known to espouse hate or dislike, and often known to take significant actions in support of these attitudes. Importantly, the expressions of these groups and individuals are less likely to involve their own lay theories about hate or dislike—but rather their public positions on these issues. There are, admittedly, several differences between hate websites and complaint forums and these data should be treated as preliminary. But taken together with the carefully controlled lab experiments, this overall pattern of findings suggests that morality helps differentiate expressions of hate from expressions of dislike.

Or like The Handmaid's Tale.... SF accurately predicts the future yet again.

Far-right lures recruits using COVID-19 conspiracy theories, alongside misogyny, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia, says study. (n.d.). Retrieved December 21, 2021, from https://ca.movies.yahoo.com/far-lures-recruits-using-covid-134548878.html

American vaccine disinformation used as ‘Trojan horse’ for far right in New Zealand. (n.d.). NBC News. Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/american-vaccine-disinformation-used-trojan-horse-far-right-new-zealan-rcna6423

How the Far-Right Is Radicalizing Anti-Vaxxers. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2, 2021, from https://www.vice.com/en/article/88ggqa/how-the-far-right-is-radicalizing-anti-vaxxers

Yesilada, M., & Lewandowsky, S. (2021). A systematic review: The YouTube recommender system and pathways to problematic content. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/6pv5c

Gallacher, J., & Bright, J. (2021). Hate Contagion: Measuring the spread and trajectory of hate on social media. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/b9qhd

Allebach, N. (2020, September 22). How America Became The Land Of Conspiracy Theories. Medium. https://medium.com/@nathanallebach/how-america-became-the-land-of-conspiracy-theories-7c8b0353c667

Ryan Scrivens on Twitter: “Coming out soon in @terpolv! I’m very excited about the release of this study. Years in the making. https://t.co/jxudkwb7WS” / Twitter. (n.d.). Twitter. Retrieved June 27, 2020, from https://twitter.com/r_scrivens/status/1276146827386028033

Velásquez, N., Leahy, R., Restrepo, N. J., Lupu, Y., Sear, R., Gabriel, N., Jha, O., Goldberg, B., & Johnson, N. F. (2020). Hate multiverse spreads malicious COVID-19 content online beyond individual platform control. ArXiv:2004.00673 [Nlin, Physics:Physics]. http://arxiv.org/abs/2004.00673

Martins, A. C. R. (2020). Extremism definitions in opinion dynamics models. ArXiv:2004.14548 [Nlin, Physics:Physics]. http://arxiv.org/abs/2004.14548

Multnomah County Republican Party Approves far-right militia groups Oath Keepers and Three Percenters as Private Security -- "where such volunteers are certified to provide private security service by the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training."

New Hampshire state legislator discovered to be the founder of the misogynistic online group The Red Pill.(Which has nearly 200,000 subscribers. Yikes.)

Ammon Bundy's anti-federalism is rooted in religious extremism. He is a fundamentalist Mormon.

This other article is about separate men, but gives some insight into that kind of mindset. It includes a statement from the Church of Latter Day Saints that "strongly condemns" the Bundys' actions.

If anything is clear-cut about Indians in the Constitution, it is that relations with Indian nations are a federal responsibility. Carrying out that responsibility in Oregon, President U.S. Grant established the Malheur Indian Reservation for the Northern Paiute in 1872. It is no coincidence that the historical reservation shares a name with the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, site of the current armed standoff.

White settlement nibbled at the Maiheur Indian Reservation until the Bannock War in 1878, which ended with surrendered Paiutes and Bannocks on the reservation being removed, officially to the Yakama Reservation in Washington Territory. Unofficially, Paiutes had scattered all over the Western States that comprised their aboriginal lands. The Burns Paiute Reservation is the remains of the Malheur Reservation and the Maiheur Wildlife Refuge is an alternative use for the federal land, for those who believe the federal government exists.

I haven't looked into this. Is Malheur Wildlife Refuge or any of the other disputed federal land part of an Indian reservation?

In 2014, there was a confrontation between the federal government and supporters of Cliven Bundy over the use of federal land near his Nevada ranch. They briefly seized his cattle, then gave them back to avoid violence.

Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steve were convicted of federal arson charges for fires they set on federal land in 2001 and 2006. The judge sentenced them to a few months in jail, which they served. The US attorney appealed the sentences, and they were extended to five years, which was supposed to be the mandatory minimum. (This sounds like double jeopardy to me.)

The ranchers marched in protest. Then Saturday night, "dozens" of them, led by Cliven's son Ammon Bundy, seized a building at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge near the Hammond ranch in southeast Oregon. They are demanding the release of the Hammonds, and that the government cede the land to local control.

A lot of people on Twitter are asking why this isn't being called terrorism. (Funny hashtags: #YallQaeda #Yeehawdi #VanillaISIS) No one has been hurt yet, but they are certainly creating great risk of violence, and they have said that they are willing to die.

The Hammonds' hometown of Burns, OR has been tense for a while. The sheriff has received death threats. The residents are not happy about armed men showing up in their town to protest.

The two paragraphs that follow are spot on. Nerds think government doesn't do anything right and they see government as this monolith thing apart from themselves rather than something they can and should work to affect, rather than circumvent.

One thing I got out of reading Graeber's "Democracy Project" was the idea that it is not rational people that inhabit the middle of the political spectrum. Most people are more radical than the media makes it seem. The media reinforces the narrative that if you hold strong political opinions you are a radical. Your neighbors think you're crazy. You should probably just follow the herd, more.

While there are definitely fundamentalists at the political extremes, there are also great thinkers.