Epidemiologist Dr. Gary Slutkin: MAGA is a "dangerous and lethal syndrome" of “Authoritarian Violence Disorder”
  • Rhoeri@lemmy.worldEnglish
    42·
    1 month ago

    Oh it’s definitely similar to a disease. It attacks the area of the brain that sources intelligence and common sense.

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      39·
      1 month ago

      I’ve been calling it a mental illness for at least a decade. I suspect that a constant exposure to disinformation induces a state similar to narcissism, with severe empathetic impairment, but there is a clear corruption to their logic and how they process information, as evidenced by the constant double-think — holding contradictory beliefs and opinions simultaneously — and defaulting to negative/positive opinions about anything based almost entirely on logical fallacies, and a child-like reasoning of “goodies and baddies”.

      “my abortion was different”

      “won’t someone think of the children” but also let em starve and die in a mass shooting.

      “Trans and gays are pedophiles” but also my teams pedos and sex criminals have my undying support.

      There are literally thousands of examples like this daily. I consider religion — which teaches you to trust your feefees, “just have faith”, and reject critical thought — to be the main source of this logical corruption and mental illness.

      • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        5·
        1 month ago

        Fox News has been spreading this disease since 2000 (and the crazy right wing talk radio even longer).

        This is a much deeper and longer problem than many want to admit.

    • Carrolade@lemmy.worldEnglish
      92·
      1 month ago

      I feel like common sense is more a standard mental immune system function that helps prevent the infection from taking hold. These are susceptible populations, though, essentially immunocompromised.

      So, I suppose we need to take some MAGA, weaken it with formaldehyde or something, and then inject that into people’s brains to give the brain a chance to fight back before it gets overwhelmed.

      • Notyou@sopuli.xyz
        10·
        1 month ago

        So, I suppose we need to take some MAGA, weaken it with formaldehyde or something, and then inject that into people’s brains to give the brain a chance to fight back before it gets overwhelmed.

        I’ve been trying to convince anti-vaxxers that it isn’t the medicine, but the micro plastics that are causing all the “new diseases” and being able to diagnose more autistic kids. I would rather them believe that it is caused by plastics and not medicine. I think being anti-plastic is better than anti-vax.

  • Jordan117@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    1 month ago

    I genuinely wonder how much of the rise of this kind of belligerent stupidity can be traced back to widespread, low-level lead poisoning decades ago that’s starting to manifest in earnest now.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
    211·
    1 month ago

    I’ve been around Maga folks and I haven’t yet caught it. Maybe I’m immune? Or maybe it’s the skirts I wear. We need to force Maga adherents into skirts so that they get better.

    • Albbi@lemmy.ca
      15·
      1 month ago

      Their leader tries to force himself into skirts. Forcing them to wear skirts might work though.

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
    19·
    1 month ago

    There is one person that built the foundation to all of this: Rush Limbaugh. The right is always right and everyone else is lying.

  • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
    7·
    1 month ago

    This was such a disappointing article.

    Yes, I agree with all of the things said and will be voting for Kamala. But this is a former WHO epidemiologist, so do we get information on how we would apply the learnings of epidemiology to treat this epidemic of irrational, self-harming personality-worship? Do we get any diagnostic characteristics? Any way to contain the spread? Any practical guidance whatsoever?

    Nope, just a low-effort rant.

    This is just another gawker, pointing and gasping at the slow-motion trainwreck of Trump running into democracy. I really really wish some of these articles would actually try to propose solutions.

    • krashmo@lemmy.world
      6·
      1 month ago

      What are the solutions though? I don’t think this descent stops until the MAGA crowd gets most of what they want and realize it sucks ass to live that way which is going to come with a lot of pain for everyone. They’re clearly not willing or able to learn from history, think through policies without experiencing the negative consequences personally, or distinguish reality from propaganda and/or wishful thinking. What options for resolution does that leave us with?

      The only thing I can see that might work is fighting them off until enough of the old folks in their camp die and hoping the younger crowd doesn’t follow in their footsteps. That’s not a particularly appealing plan but I’m not sure what else is on the table.

      • MentallyExhausted@reddthat.comEnglish
        4·
        1 month ago

        I’m vaguely hopeful that continuing to lose at the ballot box will de-motivate them enough for this current frothing at the mouth to die out.

      • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        3·
        1 month ago

        What are the solutions though? I don’t think this descent stops until the MAGA crowd gets most of what they want…

        That’s where we’re headed, sure. What we need is someone to explain (a) the forces at play at some deeper level, and (b) tell us how we fix it.

        That’s why this is a disappointing article: The headline proposes an interesting idea - treat the Trump/MAGA mental illness as a disease - and then immediately forgets about it. We deal with diseases all the time, and even if mental disease is a challenge to diagnose and treat, it’s a great framework! Studies may be able to show most MAGA disease vectors are people with X, Y and Z verifiable, objective psychological disorders or features. They may theorize that if we treat those disorders, we can save those people from this type of self-harm (which is what MAGA is at this point). That’s a fantastic concept! Similar to the far too unexplored concept of treating this as a cult deprogramming. If we work the problem maybe we can come up with a solution that doesn’t involve fascism winning, or us all killing each other in a civil war.

        Instead, it’s just “this is bad…really bad.” Ok, thank you Mr. WHO epidemiologist.

        (I know, I’m not helping either - but I’m not smart enough in epidemiology, or cult deprogramming. Comment posting is my therapy, nothing more.)

  • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
    5·
    1 month ago

    It’s a symptom of a disease for sure. Lack of critical thinking, rampant misinformation passed off as facts, and unchecked campaign spending are the disease.