Katy Tur interviewed several Right-Wingers who made it clear the Right-Wing echo chamber’s misinformation completely captured them.
Right-Wing media, the enemy of the truth
Katy Tur points out that with a COVID-infected president, hundreds of thousands of Americans dead, and the country in dire straits, truth is important. She visited a Republican area in New York, Staten Island, given all of the sometimes nefarious and unreliable information out there.
Katy interviewed several people in a grocery store parking lot. They were adamant about not voting for Joe Biden. But that was not the most concerning part. This was just a random contact with voters in the area. These people seemed to have bought into the QAnon conspiracy theory.
The far-right QAnon conspiracy theory has made waves in this election after US President Donald Trump’s acknowledgment of its adherents in August and an increase in Republican and independent congressional candidates embracing the movement, which many consider a mad hoax or even a cult.
Followers believe a high-ranking, anonymous government official called “Q” provides top-secret information in internet posts about a cannibalistic, satanic cabal of “Deep State” actors engaged in a child trafficking ring that Trump has been chosen to dismantle.
Katy later interviewed a professor who pointed out that this misinformation can occur on both the Left and the Right, but it is now entrenched on the Right. He said sometimes trying to give the misinformed facts can actually harden their positions.
While I believe what the professor says is correct based on how people approach the misled. I have a different theory governed by my interaction with Right-Wingers in my community — they make up most of my suburb — which takes a different approach.
I do not want to minimize that race plays a part in the position on the Right. But I understand it is a tool. So in my interactions, I use it as a matter-of-fact point in particular items. My initial goal is first to earn their ears. And to earn their ears, they must first like me.
Additionally, they were informed by sources they’ve been made to trust, and that took time. So we won’t change most with one fact-based conversation. I generally spend most of the encounter, if not all, asking them questions and then asking them for solutions. Their solution often, after being respectfully and methodically probed, would take on a Progressive result.
I recently wrote the book It’s Worth It: How to Talk To Your Right-Wing Relatives, Friends, and Neighbors, where I discussed the techniques I use and give some examples from my radio show, which reaches Conservatives and Progressives and even trolls alike.
The growth of a fringe that seems to be bordering on crazy did not occur overnight. It was a victim of neglect where we allowed a tumor to grow. While it is not our fault, we have not exercised sufficiently that ‘we are our brothers and sisters’ keepers.’ And like many times it is difficult to bring an errant child back in line, so it will be with the fringed Right Wing.