Politics Is The Art Of Repeating Things

I see quite a few flummoxed folks on Bluesky these days wondering how and why there are apparently millions of Americans who believe the Los Angeles wildfires are a direct result of diversity programs.

And look, I'm sorry if I'm the one breaking this news that, yes, there are lots and lots of people with internet connections who believe – some sincerely, some in bad faith – that California's efforts to diversify its leadership and give opportunities to historically marginalized groups has led the rampaging, climate change-fueled fires that appear to be straight out of the nuclear detonation scene from Terminator 2 (not to make light of a tragedy; the images were staggering though). This is accepted reality for every red-pilled, broken-brained social media user out there: These fires, burning out of control in highly populated areas, are happening because a so-called DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) beneficiary did not properly do his or her job.

Elon Musk, the leader of the international fascist movement (I was glad to see French President Emmanuel Macron call him this) is on board with this narrative, to one one's great surprise.

Whether or not Musk means this – I tend to believe he does after spending so much time in the self-made hell of fascist chatrooms – his implication is clear and virulently racist. The world's richest man is telling his followers, of whom there are millions and millions, that people of color have no business leading anything, anywhere, at any time. He is trying to re-establish white people (men) at the top of the hierarchy of oppression – a lasting obsession of the right and a cornerstone of its belief system. It's a dangerous little game Musk is playing; the worst part is that he knows it.

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Far-right influencers and politicians and activists have spent most of the Biden years convincing the public that everything bad that happens is because a black or brown person was put in charge. And it has been widely accepted by mainstream media outlets as a part of the American political discourse even though Christopher Rufo has said the right uses DEI attacks in bad faith. Rufo and his vile cohorts used this exact strategy to viciously attack Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott after the Key Bridge collapsed back in March. Scott, naturally, is black. That he is the duly-elected leader of a major U.S. city does not figure into this racist equation.

‘We Know What They Want To Say’

We’ve reached the part of America’s red-pilling where any time anything bad happens anywhere in the world, it reinforces the legitimacy of white supremacy. That’s right folks. Any time a plane crashes or a train derails or – as happened in Baltimore this week – a bridge collapses after

Bad Faith TimesDenny Carter

Rufo has been explicit about why he has engineered cultural and political attacks against "critical race theory" and later, diversity initiatives. He's not even hiding it: Rufo wants to re-segregate American society by inflaming racial hatred – the kind that can and has turned deadly.

Gustave Le Bon, a 19th century political philosopher and author of The Crowd: A Study of The Popular Mind, was among the earliest politics knowers to point out that repetition is the key to swaying the public in one's preferred direction. It would hardly be a shock if Rufo and his ilk were familiar with Le Bon's theories on how certain ideas are drilled into the marrow of the public consciousness.

“Assertion pure and simple, disconnected from all reasoning and all proof, represents a sure means for instilling an idea in the popular mind," La Bon wrote in 1895. "In the end, the thing represented becomes encrusted in those deep regions of the unconscious where the motives of our actions develop.”

It's a strategy used to great effect by some of the 20th century's worst people. That includes the recently-departed Jean-Marie La Pen, an avowed racist and antisemite the longtime leader of France's postwar fascist movement. "Politics," La Pen once said, "is the art of saying and repeating things incessantly until they are understood and as­similated."

This principle cannot only be used for evil. It cannot be reserved for the worst among us, who view life as a no-holds-bar battle for total domination (Rufo has said he's teaching his children that "life is a fight"). I've written quite a bit about ways the left – or at least those who oppose fascism – can use messaging to their advantage, and the advantage of society at large. Repetition is key among those strategies. In the US, that means Democrats and their surrogates must be more disciplined in hammering home messaging that will alter the public consciousness.

In a deeply perverse way, the California wildfires present a good example of how effective repetition can be. Following four years of right-wing media telling its consumers that every bad event is caused by humble efforts to include people of color in the fabric of the nation, we have untold millions of Americans seeing a city burn and saying this is the fault of some faceless black or brown person. These flames exist because of them. The country is burning because of a government diversity program. If this sounds insane to you, that's because it is.

Anything can be instilled in the popular mind. It's a useful lesson, if a depressing one.

Follow Denny Carter on BlueSky at @dennycarter.bsky.social.