By Dom Nozzi
Mattias Desmet is a professor of clinical psychology in the Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Ghent University (Belgium) and a practicing psychoanalytic psychotherapist. He has authored The Psychology of Totalitarianism, a book that describes how societies and movements throughout history (Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Communist China, the religious crusades, and the Salem witch hunts are notorious examples) come to form via a process he calls “mass formation.” He speaks about how totalitarianism is not led by monstrous, evil dictators, but by a regime of seemingly heroic, ethical leaders and citizens who seem to be the way to bring us a society of utopian salvation.
The breeding ground, according to Desmet, is a society that is suffering many societal woes and has an atomized, isolated population that feels high anxiety. But it is not clear what is causing the anxiety or woes. Scapegoats then emerge, and citizens hypnotically rally around a zealous fight against such a “contagion.”
Atomized citizens lose their isolation not by gaining friends but by joining the collective (or tribe).
The totalitarianism arises in a dystopian manner in which extreme societal paranoia sets friends against friends and family members against family members (Desmet cites an episode in Iran where a mother felt heroic for placing a noose over her son’s head so that he could be executed for being an Enemy of the People).
Today’s scapegoats that the American witch-hunters seek to destroy?
Racists
Patriarchal white heterosexual males
Fascists
Homophobes
Transphobes
Anti-Vaxxers
Sexists
Misogynists
Capitalism
Masculinity
Fathers
Western Civilization
Wealthy people
Hierarchy
Intellectualism
Science
Merit
Beauty
In the summer of 2022, a friend of mine told me that she feared what Desmet was warning us about. She feared Republicans would obtain majorities in the House and Senate, and people like Republicans Ron DeSantis or Ted Cruz might become president.
I told her I felt the opposite.
I STRONGLY hope that the Repubs obtain huge majorities in the House and Senate in the upcoming elections. DeSantis and Cruz would be light years better than any Dem as prez these days.
Why?
Because the “mass formation, witch-hunting” totalitarianism Desmet warns us about is coming from only one party these days: The Democrats. And I only see Repubs fighting against it. Dems (and many others on the insane left) seem to have lost their minds.
Others who have become corrupt, witch-hunting, science-rejecting, totalitarian zombies:
*most academic feminists (who spout an anti-science, anti-merit, anti-heterosexual, anti-white, anti-male, anti-hierarchy, anti-intellectual, anti-capitalist agenda)
*most black activists
*most climate change activists
*most LBGT activists
*most homeless activists
*most diversity and multicultural activists
*most socialism and anti-wealth activists
*most public education activists
Each of the above activist groups has become certifiably insane and corrupt.
Who is pushing the following anti-democratic, insane, disgusting, cruel witch hunts? The Dems, who are leading the fight for:
*Black Lives Matter
*Social Justice Warriors
*Woke-ism
*Affirmative action
*Transgender/LBGT insanity: Men in women’s sports, women’s locker rooms, women’s prisons, and women’s bathrooms. Promoting puberty blockers, and castrating or otherwise pushing for the genital mutilation of children.
*End of meritocracy in favor of identity.
*Identity politics.
*Totalitarian Feminism.
*Critical race theory in public schools.
*Reparations.
*Sexual harassment.
*Cancel culture.
*Stopping cities from reversing/eliminating drug, crime, low-density, and abandonment problems in cities (also known as opposition to gentrification).
*Censorship (mostly by preventing speeches and speakers at universities)
*Monoculture ideology in universities.
*Increasing the minimum wage (which, among other things, is destroying the black community).
*Promoting homelessness (mostly by making it easier and less painful to be homeless, as well as naively providing homes for the homeless (via such efforts as “housing first”).
*Promoting looting, lawlessness, and riots nationwide.
*Pushing a rejection of western civilization (including a push against science)
*Attacking evolutionary theory (when it is at odds with Cultural Marxism).
*Pushing hyper-warmongering and McCarthyism in Ukraine to bring us to the brink of WW3.
*Lax voter registration requirements that elevate the likelihood of voter fraud.
*Promoting drag queen shows and the LBGT agenda in elementary schools (including childhood schoolbooks).
*Setting friends and family members against each other (the most chilling statement from Desmet is his mentioning the episode in Iran where a mother felt heroic for placing a noose over her son’s head so that he could be executed for being an Enemy of the People).
Perhaps exemplifying the insane threat of the Democrats is their push for what amounts to open borders and eagerness to allow immigration by what Hillary Clinton once called “deplorables.” Unchecked, massive immigration in left-leaning Europe has created a crisis. Many of the immigrants are Muslim, which is an aggressive, violent, holy war promoting, fundamentalist religion that rejects basic women’s rights, not to mention democracy, free speech, tolerance, freedom of religion, and non-violence. There is solid evidence that Muslims in Europe are committing a disproportionate number of rapes and other forms of crime. Tellingly, leftist feminists in Europe – following the oppressor/oppressed cookbook of Cultural Marxism – are excusing or denying Muslim rape, genital mutilation, sexual abuse, covering up females with clothing, and other forms of extreme patriarchy. Apparently, for many European feminists, the “oppression” of Muslims trumps their oppression of women.
I greatly admire seeing Ron DeSantis heroically leading the fight in Florida to stop this march toward witch-hunting, mass formation insanity. If DeSantis is nominated for president by the Republican Party, it will be the first time in my life that I will be voting for a Republican for president.
Standing Against Mob Rule 