Political Mind Games

I started reading an excellent book that delves into the psychology of propaganda. It's called Political Mind Games: How the 1% manipulate our understanding of what's happening, what's right, and what's possible, by Roy Eidelson, Ph.D.

The impetus for the book was the campaign and election of Donald J. Trump. Yet Eidelson covers other big incidents of propaganda.

The writer, so far, does an excellent job stating in non-technical terms the inner workings of President Trump's propaganda machine. Eidelson suggests that Trump uses psychological appeals to target five fundamental questions in our individual and collective lives: Are we safe? Are we treated fairly? Who should we trust? Are we good enough? Can we control what happens to us?

As Eidelson says, "These 'mind games' are carefully designed to defuse and misdirect our outrage. When they're effective, we lose our bearings about what's gone wrong, who's to blame, and how we can turn things around."

Very interesting stuff.

***

Words, And Well...More Words

I recently came across an intriguing website. It's called Word Spy and it documents and defines words that are not yet in the dictionary, but one day might be. The creativeness of the words are amazing.

Here's a sampling:

--Behaviorceutical n. A physical activity that improves mental health, particularly by reducing stress or anxiety.

--Failson n. An adult son who is under- or unemployed and lives with his parents, particularly one who has no goal other than to spend the day playing video games and watching porn.

--Starve the Beast v. To cut taxes with the intent of using the reduced revenue as an excuse to drastically reduce the size and number of services offered by a government.

***

"Keeping Up With the Trumps"

I have been trying to keep up with the Trumps (not the Kardashians). More specifically, Donald Trump, our president. It's a tall order. There's a lot to keep up with. But a recent event seems to be one of the key happenings during his presidency--the raiding of his lawyer's office.

I believe this truly got to the president in a visceral way. This will surely be one of the major events of his eventual downfall.

The dominoes are falling, and this one knocked down a whole lot of dominoes.

***

"Zombie" Raccoons

I just read an article at Fox News titled, "'Zombie' raccoons are terrifying Ohio residents in broad daylight with odd behavior." The article said that certain raccoons in this Ohio area may have "distemper."

Distemper "causes coughing, tremors and seizures and leads raccoons to lose their fear of humans." And the Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) warns online, "You should avoid any raccoon that is active during daylight hours, has lost its fear of humans, or appears uncoordinated, confused or listless."

I enjoyed reading the piece. It took my mind off of what has been in the news lately--politics. Yet, in a strange way, it reminded me of politics.

***