A follow-up to the 2020 documentary “#Unfit: The Psychology Of Donald Trump,” “#Untruth: The Psychology Of Trumpism” continues to examine the authoritarian strategy and tactics used by Trump and his fellow agents of chaos. It is available on demand beginning Tuesday, September 3.
“#Untruth” combines scary graphics and interviews with politicians and psychologists to explore the strange phenomenon of Donald J. Trump’s rise from mediocre TV celebrity to the 45th (and possibly 47th!) President of the United States. Most of the politicians in the doc are the usual suspects. George Conway (a Trump debunker though married to Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s former counselor) asks “Why don’t more people see through it?” One time Republican Congressman turned Independent and Trump-basher Joe Walsh recounts GOP voters telling him, “I don’t care if Trump is a dictator as long as he is giving me the shit I want.”
More interesting are the explanations advanced by scientists and academics. Being a fan of the Frankfurt School, the sequence on Theodor Adorno’s research on authoritarian personalities was the highlight of the film for me. Adorno even created a test for measuring the susceptibility to authoritarianism of an individual, called the “F-scale.” (The “F” stands for “fascist.”)
An expert on cults points out that “If you want to mind control someone, confuse them and the easiest way to confuse them is to overload them.” Rapid social changes in the past two decades were not addressed by GOP leaders such as John Boehner and Paul Ryan, Walsh claims, resulting in Republican voters believing that “neither party is listening to my problems.”
I remember the shocked response of many conservative voters when North Carolina legalized gay marriage in 2014 and though I was glad the bill had passed I then suspected the Democrats would lose the next presidential election. The DNC had, since the Clinton presidency, abandoned their traditional working class audience for the professional class. Now many working class voters felt that Democrats cared more about woke topics then their own never ending economic problems. And a feckless Hillary Clinton enraged them when she referred to them as “deplorables” and didn’t even bother to campaign in some important swing states. “Trump,” Walsh says, “gave them someone to blame for all of this change.”
FOX News, the documentary details, had, long before Trump was a candidate, developed a unique news reporting tactic. They would “thread” a story, reprising it in each hour of their evening shows. CNN and MSNBC would later employ the same method, providing four hours of like-minded, repetitive editorial content each night with little news or factual material. Trump was able to get hundreds of hours of unearned media coverage from all three of the major cable news outlets by spouting lies and controversial assertions.
“Fake News exists,” security analyst Malcolm Nance reports. “There is information, misinformation and disinformation.” Misinformation is incorrect information that may not be intentional or malicious. Disinformation is a deliberate attempt to mislead others. Trump was a master at combining all three forms into a hate-filled and confusing metanarrative to explain to his listeners what was going wrong with the country: your government cares more about protecting murderous immigrants, woke issues like gay and trans rights and fighting unnecessary wars then they do getting you better pay and lowering the price of essentials like gas, food and rent.
“#Untruth” cites that in 2013 Facebook changed their newsfeed timeline from a chronological model to one controlled by an algorithm. (Actually, the algorithm was gradually rolled out from 2009 to 2013.) Users were fed content which accommodated their suspicions and accepted opinions; it was easier for them to avoid anything that challenged their assumptions. The 1996 Telecommunications Act (passed during Clinton’s first administration) continues to cripple government attempts to hold Facebook and other social media companies accountable.
“Every January 6 participant was motivated by fantasy,” Former U.S. Representative Denver Riggleman claims. A Qanon theory about Democrats kidnapping babies actually mirrored a plot point in the film “Monsters, Inc!” Desperation and disillusionment led to an increased susceptibility to wild conspiracy theories.
Comparisons of Trump to the rise of Hitler pop up at times in “#Untruth” but I believe this is not helpful. The situation in America during the past two decades does not resemble what was going on in Germany in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Hitler was sincere about his evil ideology; Trump is not sincere at all and flip-flops on issues all the time.
The blame for Trumpism ought to be shared equally by the Democratic Party. Why, whenever they do get in power, have they still failed to pass laws that would have prevented the rise of an authoritarian? Some examples of what they could and should do: (1) Do not allow wealthy people to run for public office; do not allow politicians to own stock. (2) No campaign donations; elections should be budgeted by the government, with each candidate given the same amount of money to spend. (3) Pass rank-choiced voting in every state so third party candidates can have a fair chance and people can vote knowing their third-party vote won’t help an unwanted candidate win. (4) No gifts or money from lobbyists. (5) Put an end to the revolving door of politicians working for big donors after leaving politics.
Director, producer and writer Dan Partland has created a thoughtful and compelling new film about the variety of factors which helped a pathetic con man attract such a huge loyal base. Much of it we have heard before but there are some new points made by academics and researchers. I think Michael Steele, the former chair of the Republican National Committee and now an MSNBC TV host, has the best explanation: In the 21st century our leaders didn’t ask us to sacrifice the way others had in the previous century. “In each of those instances [9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, the pandemic] our leaders did not ask us to do the one thing we needed to do. And that is to care less about ourselves and more about each other.”