DESTROYING INDIVIDUALITY
“Groupthink is a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. During Groupthink, members of the group avoid promoting viewpoints outside the comfort zone of consensus thinking. A variety of motives for this may exist such as a desire to avoid being seen as foolish, or a desire to avoid embarrassing or angering other members of the group. Groupthink may cause groups to make hasty, irrational decisions, where individual doubts are set aside, for fear of upsetting the group’s balance. The term is frequently used pejoratively, with hindsight.”
Eight Main Symptoms of Group Think
Illusion of Invulnerability:
Members ignore obvious danger, take extreme risk, and are overly optimistic.
Collective Rationalization:
Members discredit and explain away warning contrary to group thinking.
Illusion of Morality:
Members believe their decisions are morally correct, ignoring the ethical consequences of their decisions.
Excessive Stereotyping:
The group constructs negative sterotypes of rivals outside the group.
Pressure for Conformity:
Members pressure any in the group who express arguments against the group's stereotypes, illusions, or commitments, viewing such opposition as disloyalty.
Self-Censorship:
Members withhold their dissenting views and counter-arguments.
Illusion of Unanimity:
Members perceive falsely that everyone agrees with the group's decision; silence is seen as consent.
Mindguards:
Some members appoint themselves to the role of protecting the group from adverse information that might threaten group complacency.
THE DAILY RANT
This afternoon, while driving from Roswell toward Clovis (and onward into the land of GWB) listening to FOX News on XM, I heard a piece about a study of university professors suffering from liberal group think. It suddenly dawned on me that’s the problem we are experiencing within the conservative talk radio world and the conservative blog-sphere. It’s follow the leader, full speed ahead, and check your brain at the door! Conservative followers must do what ever their leaders (Rush, Malkin, etc who are manipulated by John Tanton and his anti-immigration minions) tell them to do. Doesn’t matter if they are right or wrong. As long as they are “CONSERVATIVE” nothing else matters, not truth, verifiable fact, racism, white supremacists, neo-Nazi supporters, the KKK or David Duke. It’s “CONSERVATIVE” and all that matters is “CONSERVATIVE”.
Conservatives have surrendered their brains and more importantly, their hearts and souls to a darker more malevolent force out there in political LA LA Land. Once upon a time there was honor in being “conservative”. We were better than the other guys. We were honorable, knew right from wrong, and were aligned with the right side of the Force. Ronald Reagan made us proud. Then, a funny thing happened. The far right turned on him. Richard Viguerie and Howard Phillips, today’s gurus of conservative dogma, even tried to force him not to run for re-election, but in their current mode of prevarications and canards, they have a tendency to forget to put this on their resume.
Once upon a time conservatives prided themselves on their individuality and their refusal to ‘be a common man’. Cults like the John Birch Society were avoided like the plague by anyone who was a rational Republican. Today, the John Birch Society is considered main-stream. Something is terribly wrong with this picture. The only thing I can think of is that possibly an entirely different group of people have become assimilated as conservatives – people who know absolutely nothing about the Republican Party. These are people who are mindless followers, not the leaders who were once Republicans.
Twenty years ago someone like Michelle Malkin would be ostracized for their extremist, white supremacist associates. I remember when David Duke was running for office. It was a scandal. Duke was excommunicated from all polite society. Today, he is a staunch supporter for a GOP Presidential candidate, Ron Paul. A major “Conservative” columnist like Malkin would never be allowed to flourish with her Vdare connections – and their connections to some very nasty people.
Today’s staunch anti-immigration conservative has gone so far a stream from the values and the things that Ronald Reagan stood for that in many ways it is almost blasphemy the way they “Worship” him. I was surfing some of the Malkin followers and sycophants this evening. It is absolutely disgusting. The Great Group Think Mind of the Puppeteer makes his proclamations. Malkin, Limbaugh, Coulter, Ingraham, Gallagher, and the others march lock-step to his bidding. They remind me of the scene in The Empire Strikes Back, where Darth Vader (not Dick Cheney) bows down in worship of The Emperor. That’s the way today’s conservative media and blog stars act. The act like a bunch of Islamists bowing to Mecca so many times a day when called to “Conservative Group Think”.
They write the same thing.
They criticize the same people.
They use the same ‘buzz words’.
They follow one another blindly.
If someone ventures from their chosen Group Think path they attack viciously. (Trust me, I know how vicious it is. They are like someone with a Borderline Personality Disorder, attacking a person at their most vulnerable).
If someone is stupid enough to flaunt the demands of The Great I Am (whoever he may be – and I suspect it is John Tanton – I sound like a broken record, but sometimes when dealing with the learning disabled, repetition is the only way to reach them) they are ostracized.
They belittle those who disagree with them.
They ignore those who disagree with them. Better yet, they use their work and research but NEVER ever give credit where credit is due. That would imply they are fallible. They can never be fallible. They are too great. Their egos are too great. They are too busy accumulating fawning followers to step away from the group and examine, logically, the effects of their actions.
If the individual continues to draw their ire, they turn that person into a monster or someone to belittle, constantly. Then, like the cheetah going after a migrating wildebeest on the Serengeti, they separate the weak from the herd and devour them – alive.
They destroy the reputation of those who disagree with them.
They refuse to question their motivations and their sources.
They have become what they fear most – the mindless follower.
It is quite obvious that Group Think now controls the conservative blog sphere. The top tier “conservative” blogs work almost in concert with our vaunted radio talk show multi-millionaires who never bother to check the sources of material that is spoon fed to them. The Group Think Blog Immortals and Media Millionaires demand complete obedience from their. They revel in their followers. It’s too bad they don’t have the same social conscience that Gene Roddenberry had with the Trekkies.
It has just dawned on me that we are dealing, for the most part, with the same mind-set. We are dealing with the adoring followers. They lack the critical thinking apparatus that makes them true Republicans. They are nothing but genetically re-engineered storm troopers for Darth Vader’s (not Dick Cheney) malicious cause.
The Republican Party has a tradition of nurturing leaders. It starts in high school. My senior year I worked directly with the late, great Lee Atwater. I learned my politics from him. I went on to do a little work with the College Republican, then when I ‘grew up’ and entered the world of adults I graduated to managing our local GOP headquarters. I became a precinct chair. I became a county officer. I then became the county chair where I helped get Lindsey Graham elected to his first term in Congress.
The GOP is not group-think. It is leadership. It is taking a stand as an individual. It is about refusing to join a movement or follow a politician who betrays the conscience of all that makes the United States of America so great. I have a feeling if Ronald Reagan were around today he would be the very first to denounce today’s “conservative” leaders, the way they were the first to denounce him.
As a post script, I have a serious problem with mindless drones. They have been almost lobotomized. They have been brainwashed. They have been persuaded to exchange one value for another, or accept one leader who espouses one ideology as long as they profess another.
I truly pity conservatives who have surrendered their right to think, freely.
Trackposted to Nuke's, Perri Nelson's Website, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary's Thoughts, The Random Yak, Right Truth, The Populist, The Pet Haven Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, Big Dog's Weblog, The Amboy Times, Wake Up America, and Conservative Cat, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.">
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