The Abdication of Cognition (Part I)
Someone I am very close to, whom I will designate as "V," has become inextricably ensnared within the cult of personality that has formed, in recent years, around President Trump. Among the most unfortunate consequences of her all-encompassing ideological capture is the complete abdication of her thinking. If using critical thought to inform one's worldview and beliefs were likened to the masterful work of an engineer erecting a skyscraper after assiduously studying her craft, the process by which V constructs her worldview is like a college dropout armed only with all the insight to be found on the first page of a cursory Google search for "how to build a house." Not only is it sloppy, juvenile, and unbecoming, but it poses an active danger to anyone unlucky enough to trust in the "engineer's" knowledge and skill. But to stand aside and witness a woefully unprepared self-taught "engineer" at work may be grimly fascinating, as well as a poignant case study by which aspiring engineers may learn what works (or, more relevantly, what does not).
Try as I might over months and years to break through to V, to tell her that I care less about her support for Trump than about the bottomless bucket of specious reasons which inform her support, I have reached absolutely no common ground, nor have I succeeded in convincing her that her entire system of political and moral beliefs, at least to the extent that they are evident to anyone outside of her own head, is like a house built upon shifting sand. It has been unfruitful to appeal to her own convictions by arguing that her beliefs may be strengthened and made more persuasive should she attempt to argue them rationally. She may be vocal about her deep-seated contempt for anyone left-of-center, but even "owning the libtards" via cogent argumentation has not been alluring enough to convince V that her own thoughts are worth a modicum of introspection.
Discussions about politics, society, current events, and the economy tend naturally to drift, like mucky water flowing into the gutter, toward our ideological fragmentation. When neither of us could spare the effort to hold our tongues, we experienced heated "debates," at best, or explosive arguments, at worst. Often they would end in one of two ways: Either I would become reminded, once again, that discussing anything remotely cerebral with V is less productive than beatings one's head against a wall, or V would take umbrage at some perceived slight.
This has happened frequently enough that I have identified a series of patterns, errors, strategies, and attitudes that characterize V's mindset toward not only politics, but the world as a whole. I intend to explore these characteristics—what I will call cognitive patterns, for brevity's sake—in a series of posts. These may appear very familiar to anyone who has friends or relatives who identify with the MAGA movement, or anyone who frequently encounters Trump supporters arguing on social media. While these patterns of cognition are by no means exclusive to that crowd (and bearing in mind that supporting Trump does not necessarily indicate their presence), Trump supporters are who I will be focusing on because, according to my observations, the lion's share of pro-Trump argumentation tends to employ the patterns in question.
Plus, given my proximity to V and her full-throated endorsement of MAGA, I could very much use the catharsis.