>By providing all the necessary clues to convince his audience that what they saw was truly “scientific,” Hörbiger’s doctrine “produced sensations of authenticity that made the distinction between ‘serious’ scientific work, committed to objectivity and rationality, and mere dramatic banter about it almost impossible, at least for the broader public,”
Did 'sensation of authenticity' leap off the page to anyone else? That is the exact phrase I would use to describe most enterprise sales decks.
Someone had remarked that the SS is what you'd get if the Pentagon hired the Church of Happyology to create a new branch of the military. I thought this was hilariously on-point; but then I refreshed the page to see more discussion, and the comment was gone. Are the clam spirits angry today?
There's a lot more. The rabbit hole goes deep and gets extremely bizarre.
There's also a strong affinity between the alt-right and some of the more bizarre currents of conspiracy theory: the flat Earth movement, Apollo hoax conspiracies, weird alternative theories of history like ancient alien wars, and the absolute wackiest 9/11 conspiracy theories (e.g. controlled demolition with energy weapons from space). You can see this very clearly if you look at overlapping participation and moderation of various Reddit forums and at the similarity of jargon and propaganda.
Historically it seems like totalitarian movements usually employ what we might term "radically anti-rational bullshit" as signaling. The Soviets did it too with Lysenkoism and statistical/mathematical quackery designed to bolster Lenin's theories.
It seems to serve both for social signaling within the movement and as a straightforward ideological stance on the profound and radical rejection of reason.
The left is just as bizarre. Here in Boulder people seem to be graduating from yoga to astrology to drinking 'structured water' from bottles charged with 'orgone energy' at a surprising rate.
It seems like overkill to use modern marketing techniques to twist people's cognitive facilities, ultimately just to sell more stretchy pants.
Although I hate drawing the parallel (Godwin's Law and all that) but the current "conspiracy right" delves into the "occult" to a certain extent: there are myths about Democratic operatives taking part in human sacrifices or running child-sex rings, publishing lists of confirmed kills!!! by this or that person and a consistent narrative of the (((globalists))) (read: Jews) and "deep state" impeding their current Savior from achieving greatness. Some people like Alex Jones go even further into full-on crazy territory.
Unfortunately it's becoming a mainstream part of politics.
First, some background - I'm an anarcho-capitalist, so when it comes to matters of policy I have as much issue with one side of the US political spectrum as another. I am explicitly not taking sides here.
Though I live today in a very blue community I was born and raised in a rural red state. I associate more easily with conservative Republicans because that was the community in which I was immersed during my childhood and as a young adult. I feel like I know how they "tick".
While there are certainly factions within the rising right wing that fit this description (e.g.: National Policy Institute, American Freedom Party), the vast majority of those who would be described as or even self-identify as "alt-right" are not part of them. They share very little with them aside from being associated with them by their political opponents.
> Historically it seems like totalitarian movements usually employ what we might term "radically anti-rational bullshit" as signaling. The Soviets did it too with Lysenkoism and statistical/mathematical quackery designed to bolster Lenin's theories.
I don't know anyone, of any political persuasion, that would disagree with this.
While it's easy to categorize the behavior of the right in this way, most on the right would do the same with the so-called "social justice" movement. Many would include those who advocate public policy to address climate change as well.
> It seems to serve both for social signaling within the movement and as a straightforward ideological stance on the profound and radical rejection of reason.
In my experience it is almost entirely signalling. The distinguishing characteristic of the "new right" is that they wear the labels applied to them in derision as badges of honor. See: http://sjwinsult.com/
> It seems to serve both for social signaling within the movement and as a straightforward ideological stance on the profound and radical rejection of reason.
Esoteric knowledge is definitely used for in-group signalling in elite "alt-rightish" affinity groups like frogtwitter. You gain status by having extensive knowledge of that stuff (e.g. relating current events to the Corpus Hermeticum) and posting about it semi-ironically. Then it filters down to the less-educated elements and gets taken seriously.
I would say it's the other way around, that people who are fascinated by the occult are liable to get sucked in by the alt-right. Same category of extreme paranoia.
Quite so. The cranks are coming out in force, unfortunately. Historically they have been generally rejected in the US, but with the increasing populist tendencies of the last decade, their reach has grown and gullible people are suckered in.
As weird as all the pepe stuff can get, there are massive differences of scale and seriousness when it comes to alt-right memes vs. Nazi mysticism. I don't retreat too far into "it's just trolling," and there really are some interesting people on the internet sincerely worshiping chaos gods, but it's much more of the case that a movement built on transgression and confusion enjoys using weirdness as a tactic compared to the Nazis sincere and orderly pseudoscience.
[+] [-] cirgue|8 years ago|reply
Did 'sensation of authenticity' leap off the page to anyone else? That is the exact phrase I would use to describe most enterprise sales decks.
[+] [-] eronhp|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] s_kilk|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] clock_tower|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] api|8 years ago|reply
https://pepethefrogfaith.wordpress.com
https://pepethefrogfaith.wordpress.com/smug-pepe-sure-makes-...
There's a lot more. The rabbit hole goes deep and gets extremely bizarre.
There's also a strong affinity between the alt-right and some of the more bizarre currents of conspiracy theory: the flat Earth movement, Apollo hoax conspiracies, weird alternative theories of history like ancient alien wars, and the absolute wackiest 9/11 conspiracy theories (e.g. controlled demolition with energy weapons from space). You can see this very clearly if you look at overlapping participation and moderation of various Reddit forums and at the similarity of jargon and propaganda.
Historically it seems like totalitarian movements usually employ what we might term "radically anti-rational bullshit" as signaling. The Soviets did it too with Lysenkoism and statistical/mathematical quackery designed to bolster Lenin's theories.
It seems to serve both for social signaling within the movement and as a straightforward ideological stance on the profound and radical rejection of reason.
[+] [-] rch|8 years ago|reply
It seems like overkill to use modern marketing techniques to twist people's cognitive facilities, ultimately just to sell more stretchy pants.
[+] [-] dguaraglia|8 years ago|reply
Unfortunately it's becoming a mainstream part of politics.
[+] [-] LyndsySimon|8 years ago|reply
Though I live today in a very blue community I was born and raised in a rural red state. I associate more easily with conservative Republicans because that was the community in which I was immersed during my childhood and as a young adult. I feel like I know how they "tick".
While there are certainly factions within the rising right wing that fit this description (e.g.: National Policy Institute, American Freedom Party), the vast majority of those who would be described as or even self-identify as "alt-right" are not part of them. They share very little with them aside from being associated with them by their political opponents.
> Historically it seems like totalitarian movements usually employ what we might term "radically anti-rational bullshit" as signaling. The Soviets did it too with Lysenkoism and statistical/mathematical quackery designed to bolster Lenin's theories.
I don't know anyone, of any political persuasion, that would disagree with this.
While it's easy to categorize the behavior of the right in this way, most on the right would do the same with the so-called "social justice" movement. Many would include those who advocate public policy to address climate change as well.
> It seems to serve both for social signaling within the movement and as a straightforward ideological stance on the profound and radical rejection of reason.
In my experience it is almost entirely signalling. The distinguishing characteristic of the "new right" is that they wear the labels applied to them in derision as badges of honor. See: http://sjwinsult.com/
[+] [-] defen|8 years ago|reply
Esoteric knowledge is definitely used for in-group signalling in elite "alt-rightish" affinity groups like frogtwitter. You gain status by having extensive knowledge of that stuff (e.g. relating current events to the Corpus Hermeticum) and posting about it semi-ironically. Then it filters down to the less-educated elements and gets taken seriously.
[+] [-] nerdponx|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pnathan|8 years ago|reply
But it's not confined to the Right, I assure you.
[+] [-] bbctol|8 years ago|reply