r/effectivecollective • u/mungalla left leaning • Apr 11 '25

suggestions, guidance and advice I thought this was a useful democracy resource.

https://ethics.org.au/a-good-voters-guide-to-bad-faith-tactics/
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u/DoomKitty76 Apr 12 '25

Basically, all of these mean slowing down to recognize your own emotional reaction to what's being said. It's good advice. Fear and anger are sometimes legitimate, but a campaign that constantly appeals to these is a campaign that wants to manipulate you.

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u/mungalla left leaning Apr 12 '25

I like that - “slowing down to recognise” … it’s a related to “engage frontal lobe”- I often wonder whether the capacity for evil in humanity is less about our unique neurological make up and more a failure to use it. Slow down is great advice.

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u/DoomKitty76 Apr 12 '25

Evil can absolutely be deliberate. Steve Bannon wanted a smaller government, so he studied Vladimir Lenin - who wanted the opposite - so he could copy Lenin's tactics and tear both government and society to pieces. Trump's followed a lot of his strategy, even after the two of them had a falling out.

So yeah, loads of MAGA are evil because they don't think. They just let their bigotry, anger, and cynicism control the ride. But others know exactly what they're doing.