Illegal Aliens and Hate Talk Radio

[The Backlash Cometh]

So I'm minding my own business and walk by a construction crew who has hate talk radio on and the subject is illegal aliens. Now, I don't mind the subject, and in fact some people are generally shocked at my point of view, however, it dawns on my that the subject is ALWAYS about illegal aliens on hate talk radio. And so, when my right-wing friends decide to send political spam to me, I shouldn't be surprised that the subject is illegal aliens.

Then, a light bulb goes off and I realize that this really isn't about an honest discourse about safeguarding our borders or about cutting down on unfair competition for American workers in the restaurant, construction, agriculture or hotel industries. This is about something entirely different. This is about keeping our country divided based on prejudices. This is about harnessing those prejudices, and controlling everyone who listens to that crap by giving them a common identity with a common target and, thus, channeling their energy to a common purpose.

And they are clever, because they know how to keep their flock from straying, because some of the sheep must be listening to us and beginning to show some skepticism. At least that's the impression I got from the way the talk radio host started mimicking some of the things we've been telling them. We say here on DU all the time that the Bush Administration is using fear to control Americans, and some of that talk must be filtering through, because the hate talk radio guy said, and I paraphrase, There are somethings we should fear and somethings we shouldn't fear and we'll be talking about that and sorting things out in the next hour. (No doubt one thing they will probably convince their flock that they shouldn't fear, is global warming.)

Oh, and on a semi-tangent. I'm wondering if there is something psychological going on with this mode of communication. Has anyone ever have this happen to them: You're busy working with your hands, maybe wrapping packages, or doing some other menial job and only paying half a mind to what's on television. Then the following week, or the week after that, you do the same menial job and suddenly in a blast, you remember every bit of the television show as if you had been intently watching it? It happens to me all the time. I can even remember the emotions I was feeling at the time I was watching the show. I just wonder if this is a part of the human psyche that's behind the mind-bending that goes on when people listen to talk radio while they're working.

[jedicord]

1. You're right on the racism theory, IMO.

My niece says it's all about securing our borders, but then says we should outlaw people putting Mexican flags on their cars.

My response is, then we should outlaw other countries' flags as well, along with those decals that indicate foreign heritage. She, in fact, has one for Sweden (my mom was born there).

At least that shuts her up.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. How do we seperate the valid points of the argument, from the prejudice?

[jedicord]

4. As with my niece and many other people, you can't.

She uses the valid arguments as a cloak for her racism.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. There is one way to get to them:

Use Satire! Not clever enough to come up with the exact punchline, but the more we talk about this, the better chance we have of finding someone who can reach them that way.

[EFerrari]

23. Beware of pseudo logic.

It sounds reasonable but when you push on it, it falls apart under the burden of fact.

And, beware of anyone who pits working people against working people. They may think they have a valid point, but the deep logic is usually baloney.

Three, beware of any argument that vilifies brown people as a group. The United States has a long history of racism. It's not going away anytime soon. And the Republicans need it to muster their base. :shrug:

[The Backlash Cometh]

25. Which means, that we will forever have to be on our toes, ready to

counter their arguments.

[EFerrari]

30. Or, at least, listen with a practiced ear.

[Zookeeper]

3. To address your "semi-tangent"

When I watch TV I nearly always work on a project at the same time. It amazes me that years later I will pick up a quilt (for example) and find the memory of the TV shows, or movies that were in the background when I worked on it.

I think you have come up with a very interesting theory....:thumbsup:

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Yes, I think someone must have figure this out a long time ago.

I don't think the right-wingers just lucked into this.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Hate radio as subliminal indoctrination?

Could be something there - but of course, the people who listen to that shit CHOOSE to listen to it, so it's not exactly stealth brainwashing.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Everyone is prejudiced.

I admit I'm becoming retroactively prejudiced. But when you do it collectively, well, that's the kind of stuff that was the subject of social studies classes -- how Hitler managed to snare in so many.

[lumberjack_jeff]

6. Absolutely correct. Also...

When they talk about the topic, they usually gloss over the job competition aspect and talk instead about "speak english" or "they're getting rich on tax $".

They prefer to talk about these non-issues because talking about the real problem which comes from unregulated immigration (wage suppression) inevitably raises the culpability of US business.

I see unregulated immigration as a problem nearly as severe as the lack of universal health care, the twin deficits and global warming, but right wing radio has deftly exploited it in a way that keeps people angry at people who are not the source of the problem.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. So what news source do we have available that can educate

the right-wing listeners so they understand how they're being brainwashed?

[Beer Snob-50]

11. all great facist regimes have done this

whether it was germany with the jews or most middle east countries with isreal, everyone needs a common enemy to keep everyone focused.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. But, I think they've found a ...psy-oped way to do it.

Is that the correct word?

[Beer Snob-50]

17. I think that is the correct word.

on hate radio, they discuss how illegals are getting free education, jobs, and lots of government handouts that are not afforded to YOU...an American citizen!! they are brainwashing us in order to further their own agenda.

[Clark2008]

13. It's not ALWAYS about illegal aliens.

Today, while going to get lunch, I heard Neil Boortz compare the Democrats to al Qaeda about 10 times in five minutes.

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. 10 times in five minutes.

Trying to drill it in, wouldn't you say? If my theory is correct, that they're trying to ride into the brainwaves while the brain is not in critical-review mode, then I'd say they could trigger some powerful associations if they succeed in marrying those two words.

Does anybody know in Psychology terms, what kind of brain activity is taking place when you're doing repetitious, or laborious work?

[Clark2008]

15. It creates a groove

Some wrinkle in the brain easily remembered - like how we teach our children ABCs - we repeat it over and over.

For example, there was a thread on this board the other day about a helicopter traffic person who was simply making a side comment about Barak Obama, but KEPT saying Osama. The Reich-Wing drilled that into our heads about two weeks ago. I don't think this traffic person was necessarily a Reich-wing whacko, but the message was still drilled into his/her head and he/she couldn't escape it.

[LeftishBrit]

16. I think you're right

Those who wish to preserve or increase their power find it useful to exploit people's tendency to focus hate on an outside group. It's particularly useful if they can get people to fight one another, and so 'divide and rule'. Even without that, however, there is an advantage in inducing fear and hate as a means of rallying round the Leader.

Also some individuals find it easy to explain their problems in life in terms of a single Enemy group, and perceive everything bad that happens as somehow, indirectly or directly, linked to that one Enemy group. It could be Immigrants (that is a common target group for hate in the UK as well). It could be Jews. It could be Communists. It could be Moslems. It could be Westerners. (I have a friend who grew up in Mao's China, and who sees a remarkable similarity between the Maoist promotion of fear of Western foreigners, and Bush's promotion of fear of Arabs and Moslems.) People in power tend to exploit this tendency to focus on an Enemy, partly because it can be directly used to get people to fight the rivals of the people in power, and partly because there's nothing like fear of an enemy to get people to rally round a 'strong leader'.

[LTR]

18. The whole immigration debate smacks of racism

Granted, I do have concerns about illegal immigrants and the burden on the working class and the general infrastructure, but for wingnuts the whole thing smacks of xenophobia.

The big arguement I often hear from them is that sealing the Mexican border harder keeps terrorists from crossing. Funny, I thought most terrorists came in through Canada. At least the 9/11 hijackers did.

[bananas]

19. It's called "state-dependent memory" or "state-dependent learning"

at least that's what it used to be called.

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. The definition is interesting, but the example sucks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-dependent_learning

[distantearlywarning]

21. Sorry, posted in wrong place. n/t

[distantearlywarning]

22. From my post on the other thread about this:

Persuasion depends on message content. If it's a highly involving message that you have to think carefully about then you won't be easily persuaded by it if you are doing something distracting while you listen.

If it's a message that is full of peripheral cues, then you will be MORE persuaded if you are distracted

Right-wing journalists and the Bush administration rely heavily on peripheral cues in their propaganda - using pictures from 9-11 in campaign ads is a great example. Another example is something DUers have complained about recently: "accidentally" calling Obama Barak OSAMA. It's not an accident, and it has the intended effect on listeners who are distracted or not motivated to think carefully about what they are hearing.

I don't know for sure, but I think it is HIGHLY likely that the Bush administration has communication and social psychology Ph.D.s on their campaign staff, and persuasion is a field that has more than 50 years of laboratory research invested in it. You can be sure that they know and use every trick researchers have discovered to get people to do whatever it is they want them to do (hate liberals and immigrants, be afraid of terrorists, vote for a Republican, whatever). If you know what you're looking for, you notice it all the time. And to quote someone above: they might have just "lucked out", but I doubt it. This information is free for the taking for anyone with a university affiliation.

I also know that the government uses social psychologists to manipulate populations in the middle east, because I was looking at job postings in my field recently and ran across one for the U.S. military requesting applications from social psych and communication Ph.D.s to do work on just that thing. The pay was excellent. Somebody will undoubtably take the job. It won't be me.

The average lay-person has literally NO idea how easy it is to manipulate a human being psychologically.

Edited to add: that's why I NEVER listen to administration propaganda, not RW talk radio, Bush's speeches, nothing. I don't want them messing with my mind. And this stuff is so subtle, even if one is educated, you can still get snared.

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. I can't listen to hate radio. Something about it turns me off.

It's more than just their opinions that turn me off. It's the whole method of communication that sends off so many red flags. For me, it's like finding myself in the middle of a Hitler rally.

[distantearlywarning]

29. Exactly. n/t

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

24. It's all about harnessing the political energy of hating "the other".

"The Other" = African Americans ("Solid South" strategy of the GOP ever since 1960s Civil Rights movement)
"The Other" = Arabs/Muslims (Gulf War II and generalized post 9/11 fearmongering)
"The Other" = Mexican people (anti-immigrant racist hysteria)
"The Other" = Gay people (Defense of Marriage amendments every election cycle)

[The Backlash Cometh]

27. Yes, that's part of it. I believe that's what another distantearlywarning called

peripheral images.

[distantearlywarning]

28. Peripheral cues

Well, peripheral cues can be almost anything, not just images of a hated outgroup. But you're right - they do use that kind of stuff as a heuristic to drive persuasion.

Mayberry is also correct - they also use the natural human tendency to denigrate and reject the "other" to manipulate citizens.