Rationalising is way people try to cope with the dissonance between what they believe about themselves or their country, and what’s actually happening. It’s a coping mechanism, a sort of moral distancing, creating space for the old them and us in order to avoid facing the human cost of the actions.
That’s really a profound post
@sapphire blue. I think it may tie in well with some posts I’ve read on Substack by Mike Brock called “Notes from the Circus’, he’s a former IT engineer turned philosopher. It’s good stuff. His last couple of posts have been on the subject of holding firmly to reality…what you know is right and true and moral. The government is moving so fast that it’s hard to tell which end is up.
He always includes the words 2+2=4 and there are 24 hours in a day.
Why Democratic Survival Depends on the Refusal to Forget
www.notesfromthecircus.com
Two plus two equals four. There are twenty-four hours in a day. And in a time when reality itself has become contested territory, remembering what's real is not just a personal discipline but a political necessity.
This is not about partisan positioning. It's about the fundamental ground of shared perception that makes democracy possible at all. When a government can
deport a man with legal protection against deportation, when it can defy a unanimous Supreme Court order for his return, when it can publish a family's home address to millions while knowing they face threats—and then tell you this is all normal, all justified, all within bounds—we have crossed from policy disagreement into reality distortion.
Remember what's real.
<snip>
The most insidious aspect of authoritarian governance isn't that it forces you to believe what isn't true. It's that it pressures you to question what you know is true. It works by creating enough doubt, enough confusion, enough fear that you begin to distrust your own perception.
It succeeds when you say to yourself, “Well, maybe it's more complicated than it seems. Maybe I don't understand the full picture. Maybe what looks like cruelty is necessary firmness.”
BBM is
This is how reality dissolves—not through the big lie, but through the accumulation of small doubts that erode the firmament of shared perception.
Remember what's real.
<snip>
The most insidious aspect of authoritarian governance isn't that it forces you to believe what isn't true. It's that it pressures you to question what you know is true. It works by creating enough doubt, enough confusion, enough fear that you begin to distrust your own perception. It succeeds when you say to yourself, “Well, maybe it's more complicated than it seems. Maybe I don't understand the full picture. Maybe what looks like cruelty is necessary firmness.”
This is how reality dissolves—not through the big lie, but through the accumulation of small doubts that erode the firmament of shared perception.
Remember what's real.
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