Like most Americans, prior to 2020, I had never met a real life actual Nazi. I was not looking for them but I doubt there were many to be found. But in the last year, at least half of my former friends and family have gone full-Nazi. I imagine many of you have had this experience as well? This is of course alarming and terrifying.

But here’s what’s especially weird. It was never a conscious choice for any of them. It was just like any other day. They experienced no discontinuity in thought. They were on the side of Good™️, they had always been on the side of Good™️, and this (Vaccine Jim Crow, Vaccine Apartheid, and Pharma Fascism) is Good™️. There was no self awareness, no shades of doubt, no acknowledgement of historical parallels, they did not read any studies nor evaluate any trade-offs. They experienced no conflict, no cognitive dissonance, nor any inner turmoil at all. There was no transition. “This is just what Good people do and I am a Good Person™️” they thought.

To my knowledge Hannah Arendt never mentioned this part — that the mental surrender to fascism is entirely subconscious, out of view from even the fascist him/herself. Yes, it’s banal, yes it’s bureaucratic, but it is above all unconscious.

What are the implication of that discovery? I think it makes our work considerably more difficult and different than we had imagined. We keep trying to speak to the rational mind but the rational mind has been closed for at least 18 months. It’s like the Rationality Shop is closed, an industrial metal shutter has been pulled down and locked at the bottom, and the proprietor is no longer on the premises.

Do we need to start speaking to the lizard brain (that’s what Pharma does) and if so, how do we do that? I don’t speak Lizard. But I imagine it’s all about activating emotions associated with fear, survival, sex, tribe, and instinct. So it might go something like this:

Pharma wants you and your family chronically ill for life.
The only way to survive is to rise up and fight back against Pharma now, every day and in every way.
Surrender = death. Silence = death. You must get loud if you want to survive.
You will never experience joy nor pleasure ever again if you surrender to the Pharma cartel.
Only ignorant people who hate themselves allow a ruthless multinational corporation to inject them with this toxic junk.

All of that is true. But is it a losing battle to fight on this level (instead of appealing to the rational brain) because then we are no better than Pharma? Or is it time to drop the gloves and do whatever it takes to defeat these monsters? I look forward to reading your thoughts in the comments.

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uTobian

Pharma fascism operates at the subconscious…