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.

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