Lincoln Project “Wake Up” Video – BRUTAL

I could be wrong, but the video called “Wake Up” by the Lincoln Project is a harsh comment on the obliviousness and the cult-like following of the Trump supporters. Usually they attack Trump or the Republican Congressmen but this time, it’s the supporters.

At the end, the family seemed oblivious to the young man’s attempt to unplug himself from life support after hearing all of the news about the Trump era. While the monitor flatlined, the family just kept right on talking.

To me, the video meshes with my impression of the supporters’ obliviousness to the destruction of our institutions and norms by the administration. It’s amazing how the 35 – 45% (I don’t know the exact numbers) see things versus how the rest of us see things. The visions of our world do not overlap. We don’t see eye to eye. But they appear especially oblivious to the pain everyone is suffering…until the coronavirus hits them.

There has been a spate of articles and news about former skeptics getting the virus and changing their minds as the result of their brush with death, or at least extreme illness. Once they catch the virus and end up in the hospital on ventilators, they get it at that point: they realize the coronavirus is real. But why does it have to get to that point? Why can’t they see it beforehand?

There was one particular news article that spoke about three former virus skeptics and one postulation given by them is that their information source was restricted to just people around them – like friends, families, colleagues, and maybe somebody at the grocery store or gym. They left off Fox News and Facebook which I’m sure were a huge part of their information sources, but they are not admitting to that. They say their sources were mainly the people around them.

In this particular news, a science and communication expert advised that people should broaden their news sources to include reputable news sources, different types of news sources, that may feel out of their comfort zone – get out of that bubble! But how do you convince the folks watching Fox News to watch the more conservative commentators on MSNBC? Or ignore the social media?

There is a strong socialization process going on where people look to see how their neighbors, family and friends are thinking or doing, and since those people are generally decent people, they accept what those others say, do, believe. They accept those mores in order to be accepted. It is kind of a learning process.

When we grow up as children, we learn by watching what others do and unfortunately, we have no defenses against embracing bad morals, bad behaviors, bad belief if that is what we are surrounded by, especially in the early years of our life. It’s the same thing as adult. When we are in a new situations, we observe what others are doing in order to fit in. So, if everybody around you is a Trump supporter and they say things that sound just on the edge of acceptable, you start to believe in it. Not always – it is going to depend on where one is on the spectrum of independent thinking, rebelliousness, or comfort on being different – but if you are very similar to those around you, you will believe what they believe. This is what I mean by the socialization process.

How do we get this 35 – 45% to start realizing that what they are believing is “wrong” (I can’t think of a more pleasant way to put it at the moment)? I don’t know. So far, nothing is working. They just get nuttier and nuttier. We got the Q Anon folks being voted in as officials, we got those conspiracy lovers, we got those anti-maskers, we got those “freedom” lovers. And we have those evangelicals right behind Jerry Falwell Jr, the pied piper who led them to Trump. (The latest scandals regarding those photos from a yacht part is just “ewwwww – yuck”).

I’m not sure the video will work as I think they only learn the hard way, so they have to endure pain – whether illness from the coronavirus or financial distress – before they wake up from the cult. I’m not even sure if financial distress will do the trick because they are good at deceiving themselves with excuses. At this point, it might be nothing short of facing death before they wake up because they would have to admit to themselves how wrong – how deeply wrong – they were for four years. That admission might be too much to bear.