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ck4829

(34,977 posts)
Fri May 18, 2018, 08:12 AM May 2018

Normalization of the Delusion

And now we must talk about the difference one word can make.

Imagine for a moment if someone came up to you and declared...

"Aliens are coming to kill you!"
"Aliens are keeping us from getting jobs!"
"Aliens want to sexually assault you!"
"Aliens! Aliens! Aliens!"

What would you do? Would you take this person seriously? Would you consider them reporting them to the police if you did not know this person and they made these warnings to you? Would you seek help for this person? How many serious news stories and political discussions do you see on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc. talking of this? The answer for that last one is, of course, zero.

Now add "Illegal" before every mention of "Aliens" and what do you get? You get a Republican, you get campaign ads, you get media coverage of this, you get "while his views are repugnant, there is nothing we can do", you get "freedom"... no longer a person who is burdened with psychosis and mental illness, but just being "politically incorrect" at worst.

Unusual, right? The difference this one seven letter long word can make?

If our reality, perceptions, memories, cognition, reactions, and judgment can be completely altered with one word, then we have to ask ourselves then, where else can we see this?

This issue of those "aliens" above pertains to the idea of a delusion - Which according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines as "a persistent false psychotic belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary as well as the abnormal state marked by such beliefs."

"Maintained", that is another interesting concept that needs to be explored as we delve deeper into the idea of normalization of the delusion. One maintains infrastructure, one maintains a house, abstract things, their health, and more... But can something that is unhealthy and hazardous to the health of the self and others be maintained at all? Can we see it be maintained by others?

There are many sub-types of the delusion. The delusion of persecution is one that has already been touched on a little bit, but we must speak of it a little bit more...

"X is coming to get you!"
"X is coming to kill you!"
"X is coming to steal from you!"
"X is coming to hurt you in some way!"

How many groups do we see that replaced "X" it comes out of pundits, politicians, the media, laypeople, etc.? "The immigrant", "The leftist", "The Muslim", "The black", "The jew", "The liberal", "The poor", "The person slightly poorer than you", "The gay", "The lesbian", "The transgender", "The refugee", and more.

Notice how interchangeable it is. And it really is, one day you may see "X" being a Muslim, another it will be a leftist. And it's often from the same people. That is not a coincidence. When it comes to the delusion of persecution, you just feel someone is out to get you, the name and face changes, but it is the idea that "someone", some "other" is out to get you.

The delusion and it's break from reality could have been seen in action recently. Take the recent example of what happened in a Starbucks where a white man berated a Muslim woman in religious garb and saying he did not want to be killed by her. Now consider how many Muslim women in hijabs and niqabs are attacking high schools, elementary schools, pool parties, movie theaters, music festivals, Waffle Houses, and more. Is it greater or lesser than the number of white men who look just like him who are attacking these places?

And of course, there is the delusion of grandeur. This is the delusion that someone is great, powerful, that the world exists for them, that they have abilities beyond others, and more. Could this be racism itself? Could this be the far right and alt right politics we see today?

Take a barely literate white man, criminal record, no real contributions to society, gets by on depending from others, and any number of things. Give him nationalism, give him white supremacy, give him sexism, and more. Now all of the sudden, he is someone. He now sees himself as "smarter and greater than any black man" who is smarter and more assimilated than him. He is just "better than any woman". He is now a "part of and an instrument of western civilization" itself.

Racism speaks to this "maintenance", it's a worship of a skin color and the derision of others you don't like. You see, we see the names and faces change, but where don't we see them change? A common pseudo-statistic we see is "Blacks consist X% of the population but are Y% of (some deviant group)" with Y being anything from single parent households, criminals, convictions, etc.

Left handed people make up 10% of the population but account for 40% of schizophrenics, there is loose data suggesting they may make up a higher proportion of people in the penal system, and they thrive in societies where violence is necessary. Yet there are no "handedness realists", there are no controversial college speakers on the subject of left handedness being something that is a problem, we don't have politicians and pundits saying things about the left handed and then saying that the "liberal media wants to cover it up", etc.

Perhaps this would be a truly unwanted delusion? One that must be maintained out?

And finally we need to speak about the intersection of delusion with class. Interesting, right? How if one has stacks of old newspapers and dead cats, they are a compulsive hoarder and they need help. But replace "old newspapers and dead cats" with money, they are suddenly a job creator and touching them is now "class warfare" and "socialism".

We must make an effort to find more things, that if they are tweaked in some way, that they switch from being political rhetoric and the realities of today's alt right and far right influenced environment to being a delusion.

It truly needs to be asked... What else is delusional in our political system?

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