Stop Feeding the Beast

The Outrage Cycle

I have felt this dilemma that Teri Kanefield (and others such as Propane Jane) have talked about. I have felt it is important to expose the darkness, shining light into it and at the same time am sick and tired of it, so what to do?

I have said please ignore him, stop watching him, stop spreading his virus words, videos of him speaking nonsense and hate.

JUST STOP, he is getting what he wants and YOU are helping HIM, STOP

STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP

and yes, I confess, I have been guilty of following people who follow him, who quote his nonsense and share his videos, and I have gotten caught up in the cycle myself. I just blocked, muted and stopped following some folks who are talking to his cult fans, too. I have ZERO interest in mocking them, trying to educate them with facts and so on.

I AM DONE…

ask yourself this: do I want to be part of the problem or part of the solution?

and

What’s the sound of one hand clapping (a zen koan)? imagine if a few million people stopped listening to him, stopped reacting to him, stopped sharing his videos, stopped talking about the outrageous nonsense he said, and ignored him on twitter, Facebook, and in life?

Now that’s a real transformation evolution / revolution !!!

https://twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield/status/1252986404113510401

Here is what Teri Kanefield says in a thread, so I put it all together :

The Outrage Cycle

Trump says something outrageous and provocative designed to excite his base and rile his critics. Each time he does this, he accomplishes four things:

He keeps his base excited

He enrages his critics

He batters democratic institutions, and

He fulfills his campaign promise to “protect” his followers from their “enemies”

To make this even more effective, he includes in the outrageous statement lies and nonsense or what others call Russian propaganda technique of Firestorm of Falsehoods (so many lies) to exhaust people, muddy the waters, and cause people to give up.

and including lies, nonsense, and errors makes the technique more effective because his critics spend time unraveling the nonsense, pointing out the mistakes, and disproving the lies. This keeps his critics busy. It also keeps them spinning, which wears them out. Win-win.

Wearing out the opposition causes them to give up. Keeping them spinning keeps also them in the moment. It's what Timothy Snyder calls the Politics of Eternity. You forget that the future can be different. You feel powerless to break out of the cycle.

Because Trump is dangerous and doesn't care if people die, this creates a genuine dilemma.

If you get outraged you feed the beast: The more outraged you are, the more euphoric his base feels because they're socking it to the libs. It's a self-fulfilling cycle.

If you don't get outraged, you are "normalizing" what he does. He wins if you react. He wins if you don't react. See how effective it is?

I think the solution is to do just what I'm doing: Talk about his tactics. Make people aware that the playbook is effective.

Confession: Teri says: I have never listened to a Covid-19 Trump press briefing. I have thereby greatly enhanced the quality of my life. I've probably also added a few years to its length. (I have not listened to him for awhile now, no short videos, no briefings filled with lies and none).

The best solution I know is to volunteer in a way that helps save democracy. This allows you to (1) help save democracy which will take millions of people doing their party and (2) save your sanity by lifting you out of the crazy news cycle.

She says: The only times in the past 4 years when I have literally ignored the news for more than a full week at a time was when I volunteered in a detention center in Texas offering legal assistance to asylum seekers (through

@RAICESTEXAS

Teri says: I felt no guilt in tuning out the crazy because I knew I was pushing back in a tangible way. Also I was literally too busy working with my clients to follow the news.

Me: I wrote a few other posts, one about a 12 Step Program I created.

I noticed with dismay that I barely got any views from the positive, easy and affordable ways to boost your immune system and/or other tips ON HOW to Conquer the Virus.

I do hope that you dear reader will join me.

LET’S STOP FEEDING THE BEAST ASAP.

Thanks.