The Paranoid Style

In the 1950s and 60s, an historian called Richard Hofstadter wrote a number of essays, which included "The Paranoid Syle in American Politics". It was a response to the McCarthyite hysteria and the rise of the (then - sadly not by today's standards) extreme conservatism of Barry Goldwater. It's an interesting book for all students of American history and politics.

Sometimes we Brits are amazed by the crazy things that go on in the States. Honestly - Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for the Presidency?????

But this book describes a phenomenon which we are now seeing in the UK. I heard some really weird conspiracy theories aired in the EU Referendum. It's been reported that some voters were taking pens to the polling stations as the pencils were provided so that inconvenient votes could be rubbed out if they weren't what "the authorities" wanted.

And some of the tweets and Facebook postings that I've seen - in the debate about the Labour leadership are unbelievable - this appeared in one comment that appeared on my Facebook feed

"....Especially, the amount of corrupted councillors and MP's who are associated with the Bilderberg group, free mason etc. And the links of this labour party has with Bilderberg group and the back handers it's getting from elite and the filthy rich to manipulate governments to their own advantages."

and lots of other comments have been made suggesting international conspiracies by sinister forces.

I would encourage you to read this excellent book - it is both a history and exposer of the tactics - powerful tactics - that exploit fear. We need to consider how to respond to this rising tide of fear-mongering.