A philosophical "phantasm" is the projection of one's views onto facts, rather than allowing facts to inform one's views. This mechanism facilitates cognitive dissonance.
Interviewer to republicans: “What was the cause of the civil war?”
Watch, Cognitive Dissonance cause sheer ignorance here.👇
@skykiss Years ago, when I was a plant supervisor responsible for hiring with a crew of ~60 people, I came to realize ~10% of the population was unable to perform moderately complex assembly tasks. They just weren't smart enough. Fast forward & I now know why scams, such as the Nigerian prince email scam, are so successful & long lived. The people in that video, apparently ~30% of us, are the people who fall for such scams. I don't know if it's willful stupidity, but it's exasperating.
Shoot a Black Lives Matter protester?
-- Forgiven.
Be a Nazi and walk downtown waving a Nazi flag?
-- Police escort to do so.
Attempt to overthrow the government?
-- Freely run for re-election.
Peacefully protest for Black Lives Matter, or Israel's treatment of the people in Gaza, or against Nazis, or Trump? A beating, jail time, possibly death, and those who do this to you, forgiven.
You may be privy to or unfamiliar with how the ultra-wealthy are taking advantage of the system. Either way, you’ll find this report by @ProPublica to be staggering. The facts are clear: there is a class war, and we’re losing.
“…it demolishes the cornerstone myth of the American tax system: that everyone pays their fair share and the richest Americans pay the most.”
Autocrats in China, Russia are now making common cause with MAGA Republicans to discredit liberalism and freedom around the world. 🚨
These dictatorships around the world have coalesced to promote autocracy - and how some Americans (we see you, Republicans) and Europeans help them.
Lawsuits, threats, and smear tactics have chilled government, academic, & tech-company responses to disinformation.
One could call this a secret authoritarian “plot” to preserve the ability to spread Antidemocratic conspiracy theories, except that it’s not a secret. It’s all visible, right on the surface. Russia, China, & other state actors—Venezuela, Iran, Hungary—work with Republicans to discredit democracy, to undermine the credibility of democratic leaders, to mock the rule of law. They do so with the goal of electing criminal Trump, whose second presidency would damage the image of democracy around the world, as well as the stability of #democracy in #America, even further.