The ability of the extreme right to promulgate talking points seemingly directly into people's beliefs, bypassing the moral, spiritual, and reasoning parts of their brains, is surreal. People just parrot stuff that is paper thin, that can't withstand even a little scrutiny. I know there is much research and obviously much practice on how to do that, but the effectiveness is extreme. Even people who have expertise and have known better for decades start parroting nonsense.
> “Before we get self-righteous,” [former Chair of the Joint Chief's of Staff, retired General Mark] Milley said, in the second world war, “we, the US, killed 12,000 innocent French civilians. We destroyed 69 Japanese cities. We slaughtered people in massive numbers – men, women, and children.”
I think to a great degree, with nobody standing up to this force and few barely acknowledging it, people have capitulated to it - what else can they do? - just accept what it says and does. And they have jumped on the bandwagon.
From an article on domestic politics in Israel [0]:
> It was the pictures of Palestinians swimming and sunning at a Gaza beach that rubbed Yehuda Shlezinger, an Israeli journalist, the wrong way. Stylish in round red glasses and a faint scruff of beard, Mr. Shlezinger unloaded his revulsion at the “disturbing” pictures while appearing on Israel’s Channel 12.
> “These people there deserve death, a hard death, an agonizing death, and instead we see them enjoying on the beach and having fun,” complained Mr. Shlezinger, the religious affairs correspondent for the widely circulated right-wing Israel Hayom newspaper. “We should have seen a lot more revenge there,” Mr. Shlezinger unrepentantly added. “A lot more rivers of Gazans’ blood.”
It's not the content of the words - to engage in and debate the content is to play their fool - it's the power, the effect. They want to push the envelope as far as possible, open things up for extremism. It's a well-known strategy, well-used for propaganda, but people seem to have forgotten every lesson of the 20th century. From the OP:
> But Karp [Alex Karp, Palantir CEO], who’s known as a provocateur, aggressively condoned violence, often peering into the audience with hungry eyes, palpably desperate for claps, boos or shock.
It's a demonstration of power, a show of force; it's an attempt at intimidation, and many have abandoned even the extremely successful, powerful fundamentals of freedom, democracy, and the Enlightenment. In the US, even moderate Democrats jump on the bandwagon; look at many of them parroting the ridicule of even the idea of protest. I have little compassion for leaders; it's their job to stand up and IMHO they are effectively cowards responding to bullying; they are aligning themselves with the bullies instead of standing up to them.
Sadly, even ordinary people are infected and parrot those things, without even examining the dynamics or content, much less the power. The world desperately needs a leader - a Churchill, a Lincoln, just about anyone - to stand up to it, to show people there are other, much better ways. Despite the BS propaganda, I think people are yearning for it, and that leader would find a world ready to embrace a good way to live.
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/opinion/israeli-palestine...