- How right-wing violence has become normalized;
- How perhaps “totalitarianism” is better than “authoritarianism” for what is going on;
- How Republicans trying to roll back same-sex marriage are fighting a losing battle, cf. that Stephen Prothero book;
- A psychiatrist explains how changes in definitions of autism resulted in the apparent increase in autism rates;
Saying violence on the right is “extremist” isn’t correct; violence on the right has become normalized.
NY Times, Jamelle Bouie, 21 Jun 2025:Right-Wing Violence Is Not a Fringe Issue [gift link]
It is simply a fact that the far right has been responsible for most of the political violence committed in the United States since the start of the 21st century, with particular emphasis on the past 10 years of American political life.
Examples from 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022.
What’s critical for us to understand that this isn’t a problem of the fringe. Not only was President Trump permissive of right-wing violence throughout his first term — consider his reaction to the violence in Charlottesville — but after losing his bid for re-election, he also led an organized effort to overturn the results, culminating in a riot in the Capitol. And what was one of his first acts back in office? He pardoned the rioters, in as clear an endorsement of violence on his behalf as one can imagine.
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Maybe “authoritarianism” is no longer the adequate word.
Salon, Mike Lofgren, 22 Jun 2025: America slides into totalitarianism — and it won’t be easy to reverse, subtitled “‘Authoritarianism’ is so 2018 — Donald Trump and his minions want to conquer all of civil society”
We’ve seen a spike over the last few years in the use of the word “authoritarianism.” This is the predictable result of the recent rise of authoritarian regimes which, to a greater or lesser extent, work to subvert and dismantle the institutions and practices of democracy and the rule of law.
A survey of more than 500 political scientists found that they believe the United States is headed towards authoritarian rule. A majority of Americans, according to a PRRI poll, now believes Donald Trump is “a dangerous dictator.” (It remains an enduring mystery why this majority didn’t stumble onto this conclusion before the November election).
There is, of course, another term for modern dictatorial regimes, one that gained considerable currency during the Cold War after the 1951 publication of “The Origins of Totalitarianism” by Hannah Arendt, but which has somewhat fallen out of favor.
How does authoritarianism differ from totalitarianism? There is no precise description of either; like other political terms, they are subject to questionable definitions that often depend on the viewpoint of whoever is using them. Marxist writers shunned the word “totalitarian”; Nazi Germany was invariably referred to as “fascist,” while the Soviet Union was a “people’s democracy.” But “totalitarian” was a favorite term of anti-Communists throughout the Cold War.
Fairly long piece. I’ll quote a couple of the pull-quotes.
Totalitarian leaders tend toward charismatic styles and have a genuine bond of loyalty with their followers, who often express extreme, exaggerated enthusiasm for the leader and his movement.
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America presents a paradox similar to early 20th-century Germany: It leads the world in science and technology, its universities are the finest anywhere, its cities are hubs of economic vitality. Yet much of the interior is economically and culturally backward.
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Political absolutism has been a temptation throughout American history. But its most recent outbreak is unique; the intellectual ground had been prepared by religious fundamentalist theocrats and white supremacists for more than four decades.
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An illustration of the theme of Stephen Prothero’s WHY LIBERALS WIN THE CULTURE WARS (EVEN WHEN THEY LOSE ELECTIONS), which I reviewed here.
NY Times, guest essay by Kristen Soltis Anderson (a Republican pollster!), 22 Jun 2025: Roll Back Legal Same-Sex Marriage? Republicans Are Getting It Wrong. [gift link]
Almost 10 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex marriage would be legal across the country. Today, sensing a political shift toward socially conservative policy, Republican policymakers in states from Michigan to Tennessee have begun proposing bills that would roll back same-sex marriage.
These lawmakers may discover to their dismay that they have the politics of the issue quite wrong. Though the cultural winds have shifted on many issues, Republican voters are not clamoring for an unraveling of same-sex marriage rights. Republican voters have objected to socially progressive policies that they believe incur a cost to themselves or others, but the experience over the past decade with legal same-sex marriage has persuaded many in the party that it is nothing to be feared.
The last line here evokes the zero-sum thinking of some conservatives, who worry that granting “rights” to people unlike themselves will somehow deprive them of rights. In most cases, it doesn’t work that way.
And yet there’s a paradox in conservative thinking. The writer notes:
There are two main lines of argument that seem to resonate most strongly with Republicans on preserving same-sex marriage: Live and let live, and leave well enough alone.
And follows this line of thought to the end. Without mentioning the strain of conservative (MAGA) thinking, religiously based, that is certain of what is true and right, because Bible. And would repeal marriage equality and many other things that don’t conform to their thinking.
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Someone who was “in the room where it happened” explains. Not that such testimony will have any effect of RFK Jr or any of the others who know what they know, because they just *know*. (Based on primal biases, as I’ve explained.)
NY Times, guest essay by Allen Frances, a psychiatrist, 23 Jun 2025: Autism Rates Have Increased 60-Fold. I Played a Role in That.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of health and human services, is correct that reported autism rates have exploded in the last 30 years — they’ve increased roughly 60-fold — but he is dead wrong about the causes. I should know, because I am partly responsible for the explosion in rates.
The rapid rise in autism cases is not because of vaccines or environmental toxins, but rather is the result of changes in the way that autism is defined and assessed — changes that I helped put into place.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was the chair of the task force charged with creating the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or the D.S.M.-IV. Sometimes called the “bible of psychiatry,” the D.S.M. influences medical practice, insurance coverage, education and treatment selection.
And so on. This essay is fascinating for how the writer’s task force tried to balance the needs of care workers, parents, and patients. It included the new diagnosis of “Asperger’s syndrome.” But they didn’t anticipate some of the consequences, e.g. how some school systems over-diagnosed, for their own funding. The writer admits that their conclusions back then had unfortunate consequences. (This is the complexity of real life.) And then concludes:
Mr. Kennedy’s statements that people suffering from autism don’t pay taxes, implying they are useless, has created outrage among patients and families. His proposed autism registry is a scary invasion of privacy.
Figuring out how to accurately diagnose and appropriately treat autism is incredibly hard and the source of many fraught conversations among researchers, clinicians, people who have autism and their families. We need a health secretary with the good judgment to judiciously help us navigate these thorny questions and properly allocate scarce research resources. Instead, we have Mr. Kennedy, who has only served to sow confusion with false promises, to trigger anger with disparaging comments and to replace funding for real science with wasteful false science.
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Note the drop down menus at the top of this page are currently in chaos. I’m experimenting in order to figure out why the ddsmoothmenu functions on sfadb.com aren’t working.
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Listening to Springsteen. I have all 21 studio volumes lined up in a row…
