Outrage Is Better Than Anxiety, Says Gessen On Coping With Threats To Democracy | All In | MSNBC

Author Masha Gessen gives Chris Hayes advice about his “whistling-tea-kettle sense of rage”: “As difficult as outrage is to maintain, it is a much more constructive emotional state than anxiety.” Aired on 09/24/2020.
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Outrage Is Better Than Anxiety, Says Gessen On Coping With Threats To Democracy | All In | MSNBC

58 comments

  1. Just remember, whenever you think everything is lost, have it in mind that the future still remains.

  2. Vote Country over Party. 🌊🇺🇲 Trump and his administration are attacking America, its Constitution and Democractic norms from within.

    1. @Bono Budju – I will be voting early in person on October 6 when the polls open early in my state. I REFUSE to let this orange criminal hold my vote hostage through the postal service.

  3. The GOP is ready to throw away our 244 year old democratic republic, for a corrupt, mentally impaired, well known con-man. A republic that for 244 years, hundreds of thousands of American men and women have served, fought and paid the ultimate sacrifice to see that it is preserved. Just let that sink in for a moment.
     
    Trump said that our men and women in uniform, and America’s fallen in Arlington, are suckers and losers. Well if we allow Trump to steal this election, which he has already admitted to  trying to do, and turn America into the dictatorship he dreams of, then his reprehensible comments about our fallen, our veterans, and our active duty service members, will become true. Because it would mean that they all served, sacrificed, and died for nothing.

    Trump: “The men and women who serve in our military, along with America’s fallen in Arlington, are nothing more than suckers & lo5ers. And to prove it, I’m going to destroy the America that they served, fought and paid the ultimate sacrifice for. And republicans on Capitol Hill like McConnell and Lindsey Graham, are going to help me do it.”

  4. Before Trump, the best modern-day example of a cult of personality came to us from North Korea and Kim Jong-un, the despotic dictator that Trump admires so much.

    Kim Jong-un’s cult of personality paints him as a man who can do anything. According to this propaganda, he can climb tall mountains, even though like Trump, he is horrendously obese, and in terrible physical shape. Like Trump, Kim Jong Un brags about being able to make strong and intelligent military decisions, despite neither one of them having a military background.

    “This man is a genius at every level! Why can’t we all be like him? He must be something special, and we are clearly not. Ergo, let’s listen to him since he knows best.”
    — Trump supporters

    The Republican party has been replaced by a destructive cult known as Trumpism. It’s a cult rooted in lies, absurdities, wild conspiracy theories, self-deception, hypocrisy, self-righteous bigotry, doublespeak, and blind dogmatic obedience to the “Chosen One.”

    Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, who taught at Harvard Medical School, wrote a paper titled Cult Formation in the early 1980s. He delineated  primary characteristics, which are the most common features shared by destructive cults, destructive cults like Trumpism..

    1. A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose power. That is a living leader, who has no meaningful accountability and becomes the single most defining element of the group and its source of power and authority.

    2. A process of indoctrination or education is in use that can be seen as coercive persuasion or thought reform commonly called “brainwashing”.

    The culmination of this process can be seen by members of the group often doing things that are not in their own best interest, but consistently in the best interest of its leader.

    3. The exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling members.

    Here are some warning signs of a potentially unsafe group or leader.

    • Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.

    • No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.

    • No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget or expenses, such as an independently audited financial statement.

    • Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.

    • Former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.

    • The group/leader is always right..

    • The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing “truth” or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is acceptable or credible.

    As we’ve all seen, when it comes to the warning signs and characteristics of a cult, Trump and his followers check most of the boxes.

    1. Fifty years ago the 73-year-old Chairman Mao Zedong plunged into the Yangtze and swam nearly 15km in 65 minutes and “showed no sign of fatigue”. A world record time.
      I think Trump, and the entire GOP senate, should attempt to break his record.

  5. If knowledge is power, people should read:
    – ‘The Dictator’s Handbook’
    By: Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith

    – ‘On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century’
    By: Timothy D. Snyder

    – ‘Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America’
    By: Stacey Abrams

    – ‘Surviving Autocracy’
    By: Masha Gessen

    – ‘Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning’
    By: Timothy D. Snyder

  6. This isn’t about supporting a political party or even a political candidate. It’s about saving our democracy at the polls: the right to vote and have that vote counted and a peaceful transition of power. Vote as early as possible (vote.org), complete the census and help two people outside your household to do the same. It’s Now or Never – for Everyone. Thank you

  7. Nicolle Wallace gasped as if gut-punched when she heard Bob Woodward say the President is putting a dagger in the Constitution. This is no longer about parties, the red, blue or purple. We’ll fight later. This is a vote for fascism or saving our democratic republic. Two hundred and forty-four years old. Let’s protect our country from the fascists. Vote straight blue. Save our country.

  8. I’ve been physically sick to my stomach ever day since the 2016 election. I’m going to take care of myself, even if it means leaving.

    1. @Dee See really? So like the Breonna Taylor case except she got removed by murder? I guess we could send those cops in. Except for the one that got in trouble for putting holes in the drywall.

    2. Audrey Campbell police returning fire blindly into an apartment resulting in accidental death is not the same as a coup. You seem extremely confused.

  9. I’m beyond outrage. I will be voting early in person on October 6 when the polls open early in my state. I REFUSE to let this orange criminal hold my vote hostage through the postal service.

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