Homo Politicus: Hate Speech And Paranoid Defenses

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

What is happening today in social networks in any discussion of politics - only the lazy was not horrified. Swearing is a pillar, opponents accuse each other of mortal sins. People quarrel, stop communicating because of the “wrong” post, like or “wrong” person found on the friend’s friend. Social media users write disgusting and sometimes terrifying things, pouring curses or contempt on everything, absolutely everything

How did we get to this life? What kind of psychological mechanism pushes people to such behavior?

Things are constantly happening in the world for which we were not ready, and which greatly spoil our life. Psychologically, adults know how to live with what shit happens - unpleasant, but we can handle it, they say. That's when some shit does happen, then an adult: first, he admits that yes, something happened. Secondly, he will react (get angry or burn, or both), and then (thirdly) he will correct the consequences as much as possible and (fourthly) will live on. Those who are psychologically immature use psychological defenses - and, as far as I can tell, paranoid defenses are the most widespread today.

Paranoid defense involves:

• A split view of the world: some objects and people are extremely bad and there is not even a small positive line in them, while others are absolutely kind, good and correct, and there is not a grain of evil in them. There is black and white, and they never intersect in the same person or in the same phenomenon.

• Identifying oneself exclusively with the "good". I am good and correct, and since I am good, then there is not the slightest bit of evil in me (see the previous point).

• And since there is nothing bad in me, then everything is bad … somewhere. Outside, not inside me. And others are to blame for my troubles! Bad people, evil witches, stupid, inept, thieving and insidious government - or, on the contrary, trashy petty and mean little people bought by the West who will sell their homeland for 30 silver dollars. The choice of "evil forces" is extremely wide. The only common thing here is that THEY are to blame. Other. Not me.

• Therefore, if something bad and wrong happens to me, it is … not me! I'm not to blame! And someone bad forced me. I myself, so kind and glorious - but never, no way. If not for these vile ones (… write in …), then how would we have healed! Yes, life would be the most beautiful! …

(All of us from time to time do something not particularly attractive. So, if something bad, idiotic or vile is done by a person with paranoid defenses, then it is not he himself who is to blame. is attributed to "evil forces" - well, those who play the role of evil forces, masons, liberals or, on the contrary, putinoids. if they weren't like that, I wouldn't have to …!”).

Just imagine what happened … something. Unpleasant, bad, spoiling your life - or just something for which you are not ready. And you have strong feelings. No, not that - STRONG !!! FEELINGS!!!!!! It can be hurt, jealousy, pain, anger, anger - or even embarrassment and love. The main thing is that the feelings are so strong that you are not able to cope with them. Anxiety torments, incomprehensible excitement tears to pieces.

What to do? When a small child experiences strong feelings that he cannot cope with, he kind of separates himself from these feelings, pretends that these feelings (and their source) are not in himself, but outside. Remember children's stories? In them, black is decisively separated from white, good never intersects with evil. A mother or a fairy godmother is kind and beautiful; evil stepmother, mean witch, mischievous stepsisters - ugly and malicious. In real life, a sharp division into black and white is not absolutely sharp, but in fairy tales - only this happens. It is in such a magical, fabulous situation that a child can "take out" his strong emotions (most often negative ones) and attribute them to some external source. "I am angry because an evil witch threatens me", "A terrible babayka can take me from a kind, warm house into an unkind, alien world, where they will offend me or even eat me."

An adult in ordinary conditions usually knows how to live with the fact that he himself is not ideal, and those around him are not angels and demons, but ordinary people, half and half. It is difficult for an immature person (or a child who, by definition, immature) to cope with such an ambivalent picture of the world. The black and white world is simpler and more psychologically comfortable. But we manage to visit it only in childhood, or … in extreme conditions. For example, people who have gone through the war usually talk about the "front-line brotherhood" and how wonderful people were during the war years, how they gave their last and helped, not sparing themselves. You could relax and feel the warmth: you are among your own people, the world is good and kind. And if not for these creatures on the other side of the front, then it would be great if we lived with such a people!

So, by the way, that same paranoid defense worked, only "everything bad" can now be split off and taken out there, in the camp of the enemy, where, perhaps, not people in general, but vile ghouls. While their own - Real People, they are kind, loyal and selfless. Former front-line soldiers are usually sad: why is it impossible to live according to the laws of the front-line brotherhood in peacetime? Well, that’s why it’s impossible, because somewhere you have to merge the “negative”. There was an enemy there, it was psychologically safe to ascribe everything bad to him, so that only "good" remained for oneself and one's own. In the ordinary world, “in the civilian world,” one has to put up with the fact that ordinary people are not angels, but not embodied evil either. It is more difficult and psychologically unsafe. The black and white world is simpler and more comfortable.

(By the way, I remembered: almost everyone who was in Kiev on the Maidan in 2013-2014 mentions this feeling of "brotherhood", "support", "sincerity", etc. It was easy to experience such feelings: days of hatred for injustice, for the meanness of the government, for the corrupt government. Against the "evil lord" - "for the people." The world seemed simple and clear. We will win - and a wonderful life will begin; it cannot but begin, after all, how many wonderful people are around Here is another example of "front-line friendship").

Politics - in general, almost an ideal lightning rod, allowing you to throw off irritation and negative emotions on those who "deserve" them. In times of social upheaval and "hard times", the passion for politics grows: people feel that life is becoming more difficult, that circumstances have become more unfavorable. So someone is to blame! Well, I'm not myself - I'm about the same as always, I haven't done anything particularly bad, which means that SOMEONE arranged everything bad. And someone must answer for this !!! Further - a matter of taste and convictions: who exactly the person will appoint responsible for their difficulties. Instead of experiencing all the nuances and complexities of a situation, which in reality is influenced by thousands of factors, a person can take all his anger and resentment outside, attribute to the most unsympathetic characters, and thus win at least a little peace of mind.

While the matter is limited to squabbles in social networks, then everything is not so scary. The really scary things happen when people go from word to action. The mechanism of paranoid defense does not fail here either: I do something terrible (throw stones, shoot at others, set fire, etc.) because they forced me. They are themselves to blame! My friends and I discussed everything and decided that these are the absolute evil, the representatives of Lucifer on our planet. Should we let the devil reign in our world? Well, this is how the destruction of those who disagree becomes logical and justified. But after all, living people die from this (and yes, the events of recent years have brought us hundreds of photos on social networks: people do die).

Paranoid Defense does not allow the feeling of guilt to break through to consciousness: yes, I killed. But I only killed because they were to blame! They did something so terrible that death is the least they deserve! This means that the stronger my guilt is, the more (potentially) I will blame others - the side I have harmed. And the harder I will deal with them in the future. This is how the mechanism of increasing cruelty, provoked by paranoid defenses, is twisted.

And in order not to doubt the correctness of his behavior, not to be ashamed of his viciousness and limitations, a person usually fences himself off from alternative sources of information (which is why users of social networks quarrel violently, ban each other and unsubscribe from those with whom they do not coincide in political positions). The most irrepressible users, those who are gnawed from the inside most of all, go to their opponents on the pages and "re-educate" them, trying to instill "the right thoughts" - well, you have to do something, since someone on the Internet is wrong, you need to urgently put things in order and instill the only correct point of view. After all, I am right, and a reasonable person cannot disagree with me! (And whoever disagrees is a ghoul and an idiot, it is logical).

I want to note importantly: no, paranoid defenses - not some special terrible brain damage. They, these defenses, are common to everyone, and absolutely any human being goes through the stage of a paranoid view of the world (remember the story about good fairies and evil witches?). It's an immature way to deal with your strong and negative feelings, and it works. With some cost, but it works (the cost is that you have to see the world inhabited by insidious and frightening creatures who want to harm me; this can be scary). As he grows up, the child moves from black and white thinking to an integral view of the world, realizing that each of us has both good and bad sides. And I myself am also not absolutely good, and sometimes I do not the best deeds, and this does not turn me into a fiend. No, I am alive and ordinary - and a different person, he is alive and ordinary. Just like me.

We all fall into paranoid defenses from time to time; they are simple, they help to cope with strong feelings and maintain sanity. I recently met a vivid example of such a paranoid defense: my friend came to visit, complained about her man for a long time, and then asked: “Well, tell me that he is a goat!”. Obviously, this is a gross oversimplification; in those relationships, the friend herself did a lot of different things, and not only her husband can be blamed. But in the heat of the moment to swear: "Here is a goat, fool, brute!" It is difficult to live with it all the time, the paranoid defense is strong and fast-acting, but, I repeat, it makes the world uncomfortable and drains a person from the need to constantly struggle with external evil. But as a quick and effective way of situational discharge - yes, it works, and it works better than most. Another thing is that then you have to return to the ordinary world and understand that the husband is neither bad nor good, and I am not an innocent victim of a scoundrel.

And as applied to politics, this is especially difficult. They quarreled for so long, ascribed so many dirty tricks to each other. Now we can only be pacified by physical breeding far away and time. Time for passions to subside. And you know what? This is real. In the end, after the Second World War we made peace with the Germans; especially no one hates them and does not beat the Germans met on the street as "fascists". That is, it works.

I tried not to take sides (although I have my own preferences) and to be as objective as possible, that is, I tried to evenly offend everyone. I don’t know if it worked, but I would like to keep for myself the opportunity to return to an integrated view of the world, to the idea that all people are imperfect, and I am imperfect too. And that you have to love people as they are - with some flaws and some absurdities. And you have to learn to live with it.