Extraordinary Popular Delusions
And the Madness of Crowds
‘Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds’ is an early study of crowd psychology by Scottish journalist Charles Mackay, first published in 1841. The subjects of Mackay's debunking include alchemy, crusades, duels, economic bubbles, fortune-telling, haunted houses, the Drummer of Tedworth, the influence of politics and religion on the shapes of beards and hair, magnetizers (influence of imagination in curing disease), murder through poisoning, prophecies, popular admiration of great thieves, and historical relics. Which brings us to the 2024 US Election!
As I type, the President of the United States and leader of the free world - mistakenly referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump” just a few hours after he introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin.” : (
I owe an apology to my friends and family - both on the left and right, for ignoring and tuning out the fitness of the P.O.T.U.S. Fox News along with some of my friends on the right are sometimes like the boy who cried wolf, with all of their funny memes and conspiracies about this or that - they were right about the POTUS.
Since President Joe Biden turned in the worst Presidential debate performance in modern history - it has been sobering to see that MAGA doesn’t have a monopoly on deluded and cultish behavior! Local Albuquerque Parks and Recreation advocate Diane Denish uses the fallacy of Whataboutism to blame the media for not fact-checking Trump during the debate. Wouldn’t it help to have a candidate who could fact-check Donald Trump - in real time? It’s as if Biden is transforming into Trump in front of our eyes! Biden has started wearing heavy bronzer - attacking journalists, lashing out at elites for disloyalty - like a wanna-be populist. He is taking the advice from unqualified family members. #CULT46
I’ve also tuned out a lot of friends and family on the left over the past few months, and their protests to ‘Free Palestine’. I have been a registered (hard-core moderate) independent voter since 2003, profoundly disillusioned by ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’. I recently updated my voter registration here in New Mexico - to vote for U.S. President Joe Biden in the 2024 Democratic primary. My primary reason for doing so had been a campaign by local Free Palestine activists/protesters to vote uncommitted in the primary. If the 2024 New Mexico primary was held today - I’d vote uncommitted. The debate was disqualifying and the White House's response to the debate’s aftermath has also been disqualifying.
It’s been sobering to see people in positions of power - unable to speak truth to power! New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham takes an oath to the US Constitution, but she was more concerned about Donald Trump winning New Mexico than calling on POTUS to step aside. With a credible candidate, it wouldn’t be in doubt. A handful (turning into a deluge) of Democrats have called on Biden to step aside, the New Mexico delegation is all over the place - but remains in silent cowardly consenses to say or do nothing.
Many Republicans put Country over Party and sacrificed their jobs by infuriating the feelings of Trump’s political base and cult.
The GOP has gone full in on fascism with the table set by the Supreme Court and all that I am asking for is a vigorous campaign fitting the moment - and have no confidence we're getting it! With absolute immunity, a Republican House and Senate - what starts with rhetoric and mass deportations could end in a Holocaust. They might start with legal migrants, Muslims, LGBTQ+, the homeless, but there will eventually be disloyal Republicans in these camps.
Biden deserves credit for his service and accomplishments of his Presidency - he signed more legislation than any POTUS since LBJ. The economy is humming - inflation is falling, but Joe has to go. We need a new generation of leadership, we have to look forward!
Democrats have had a coherent message for half a century. Protect and advance Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Protect and advance the right to vote. Protect and advance the equality of every American. Protect a woman's right to choose. Protect and advance sustainability through clean air, clean water, and endangered species habitat protection. Protect and advance the right of workers to collectively bargain for wages and working conditions. Provide every American child with the opportunity for a world-class, free, public education. Protect and advance the rights of individuals against the influence of business interests.
That's not an inflammatory, emotional message like "lock her up" or “build the wall" or "Hang Mike Pence." but it is a coherent, sensible, and American message. The GOP is about Grievance. Books are terrifying, America's cities are terrifying. Immigrants are terrifying. The future is terrifying. A party of the fearful.
Yet this party is on track to win a landslide election, along with taking the US Senate, the US House, they already have the US SCOTUS
Is Democracy coming to the USA - or is Fascism coming to the USA?