Saving the American Mind in Trump II: Invest in a New ‘Mental Infrastructure’

The resistance starts with a rebuild of our political life from the ground up

Attendees at the West Chester University “You’re Being Brainwashed” tour stop in West Chester, PA, on October 31, 2024. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED)

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When the vote counting is completed, we will be able to ponder these sobering facts: 

Despite the sense of a groundswell for Donald Trump, despite the huge ground effort and help from the likes of Elon Musk and Joe Rogan, Trump did not really do that well, adding at most a couple million votes to his 2020 total.

Meanwhile, nearly 10 million 2020 Biden voters stayed home and deserted Kamala Harris.

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In September of 2023, I wrote a piece about how concerned I was that Joe Biden’s health was getting noticeably worse and I didn’t see that being openly discussed, much less seriously addressed. That piece of mine fell mostly on deaf ears; and I got a little negative pushback. “Don’t bring that up,” I was told. One fellow I know and respect said, “That’s their issue, not ours.”

Then, right after Biden’s abysmal debate performance in June, I, along with many others, came out quickly with a call for him to abandon his candidacy. 

After he did bow out, I wrote a piece saying that I didn’t think Harris ought to be automatically crowned his successor. That opinion generated a great deal of anger. How dare I say that! 

I was supposed to be excited about her and get on the bandwagon. My concerns — including that she hadn’t really proven herself, that she seemed weak on a number of fronts, and that the public might welcome a chance to quickly review a handful of some of the party’s most talented figures — generated heat. 

I bring it up now because I think it’s critical not to be intimidated away from common sense. (By the way, I’m not sure this was about either race or gender — I have a feeling Michelle Obama, with her tremendous presence and clarity, could have truly energized the public and bested Trump.) 

I also think it’s critical in particular that the media be willing to say what has to be said, no matter the fallout. 

Related: Some Advice for the Democrats - WhoWhatWhy

And that’s one thing about Trump. He is — at least as perceived by his supporters — someone who says what he thinks. Same with his bro-in-arms, Elon Musk.

If this country is to get back on track, we need a lot more candor. No matter how upsetting it may be to some people. The fear of speaking one’s mind without calculating the pros and cons of each word down to the fifth decimal point — the precautionary sense that one “better not go there” — has been debilitating. 

Let’s Go There 

Now, here’s some candor that I can express because I am not a candidate. No candidate can say this. But, as one fellow New Yorker just said to me, “We live in a bubble, so we have an unrealistic sense of America. That election — that’s who we as Americans are — and how we’ve always been… Trump didn’t change us. He revealed us.”

He’s right. Barring the discovery and proof of outcome-altering election interference — that is, assuming that the election’s results honestly and accurately reflect the intent of the electorate — this is who we are now. I know it, and you know it. Biden and Harris know it. But they — and we, to some extent — need to keep up the charade, because you’re never supposed to question the characteristics and motives of “the people” themselves. 

However, we know that the American population, like others elsewhere, is easily led into some dark corners of bias and bigotry. All too many people are, at least some of the time, mean, selfish, dishonest, suspicious, lazy, paranoid, ill informed, intolerant, close-minded, superstitious, envious, attracted to authoritarian figures — and violence.

For people with an agenda, facts and reality are practically invisible. GOP voters are sophisticated enough to find, in the bottomless digital quagmire, enough scraps of information to construct a semi-coherent rationale to justify their beliefs and actions. No matter how flawed this construct might be, it requires a measure of cognitive ability.

The Trump coalition appealed to knee-jerk responses fueled by emotionally charged grievances. A large share of those voting for him, based on interviews I’ve seen, simply parrot points from speeches and ads, without any hint of original thinking or even of whether they actually understand the claims — many of which are untrue and even nonsensical. 

A minority of Trump’s supporters are well educated and smart, but they’re single-mindedly self-interested, cynical, and lack a devotion to the greater good. They’re perfectly happy to see others humiliated and marginalized. The Bannons of the MAGA crowd — masters of what’s known in the propaganda trade as punching down — come to mind. 

The rest — of course, they’re not all like this, but many of the rest — are ideal targets for manipulation. 

How were they ever led to do things against their own interest?

The Mental Infrastructure

The only way to fix the situation — assuming it is even possible to fix — is to invest  in something I’m calling “mental infrastructure.” For example, making sure that every American who wants to go to college, or an equivalent post-secondary-school institution, can. And that they are also exposed not just to “practical” training like IT, marketing, engineering, business — but to the often maligned liberal arts, where one learns about such things as the history of ideas, the roots of democracy, the fate of earlier republics, and so on. 

At some point in our education we all need to be trained in critical thinking, real “research” (which involves more than idly Googling something), learning to weigh alternative viewpoints, and, perhaps most important, understanding how we know what we know. In other words, the meaning and value of proof and the nuances involved in its pursuit. 

That “mental infrastructure” also needs to take into account how the control of technology and media by the money-driven is bound to lead in directions that are not salutary to a government of, by, and for the people. We see that most clearly in the growing influence of figures like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Joe Rogan. 

There’s a lot of money available for good, but, based on my own experience in raising money to grow an honest, nonprofit, philanthropy-funded news organization, too few people are willing to commit what it takes to build and maintain that new mental infrastructure. 

We see how much money is poured into losing campaigns — the lion’s share of which ends up back with the tech and media tycoons. What we don’t see enough of (and yes, I am making a pitch for WhoWhatWhy and its peers in the noncommercial, nonpartisan media) is a determination to fund enduring efforts to rewire the American mind so it can operate at full potential. And nourish the American soul, which, as we can see, is in dire need of such enrichment. 

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