{"id":191573,"date":"2021-08-16T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=191573"},"modified":"2021-08-11T06:25:21","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T05:25:21","slug":"rumsfeld-then-desantis-now-the-lies-that-bind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/08\/rumsfeld-then-desantis-now-the-lies-that-bind\/","title":{"rendered":"Rumsfeld Then, DeSantis Now: The Lies That Bind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>10 Aug 2021 &#8211; <\/em>Given the horrific toll of the Iraq War, that disastrous misadventure hardly seems like a good template for combating COVID-19. Yet in key ways, recent pronouncements from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis\u2014whose state is experiencing an overwhelming <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/us-covid-19-cases-hit-six-month-high-over-100000-reuters-tally-2021-08-05\/\" >surge in cases and hospitalizations<\/a> amid his <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/education\/2021\/07\/30\/desantis-schools-masks\/\" >prohibition on mask requirements<\/a>\u2014should remind us of the propaganda we once heard from Donald Rumsfeld, the late former Secretary of Defense. The deadly consequences are reminiscent too.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_191577\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/desantis-pandemic-florida-usa-anglo-america.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-191577\" class=\"wp-image-191577\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/desantis-pandemic-florida-usa-anglo-america-1024x370.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/desantis-pandemic-florida-usa-anglo-america-1024x370.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/desantis-pandemic-florida-usa-anglo-america-300x108.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/desantis-pandemic-florida-usa-anglo-america-768x277.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/desantis-pandemic-florida-usa-anglo-america.webp 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-191577\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to the media on July 3, 2021 in Surfside, Florida.<br \/>(Photo: Michael Reaves\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In particular, three <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/royeidelson.com\/political-mind-games-free-pdf\/\" >\u201cpolitical mind games\u201d<\/a> stand out. Each takes advantage of a core psychological concern that influences how we make sense of the world.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First, \u201cIt\u2019s a False Alarm\u201d: when others raise doubts about your plan, offer overconfident assurances of success.<\/li>\n<li>Second, \u201cDon\u2019t Blame Us\u201d: when your rosy predictions are proven wrong, deny that anything could have been done to prevent the setbacks.<\/li>\n<li>And third, \u201cThey\u2019re Misguided and Misinformed\u201d: when you\u2019re questioned about falling short, attack the media for purportedly misrepresenting events.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Tragically, this trio of manipulative appeals has spanned time and space, from Iraq almost twenty years ago to the Sunshine State today. Let\u2019s briefly examine each component in turn.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The \u201cIt\u2019s a False Alarm\u201d mind game targets our psychological concerns about vulnerability.<\/strong> It\u2019s regularly used by officials to argue that the dangers others have identified are either imaginary or greatly exaggerated. This is a message that fits well with the public\u2019s preference to see the world as a predominantly safe place. When we\u2019re told that our worries are overblown and there\u2019s no cause for alarm, we\u2019re eager to embrace the good news\u2014especially when the \u201call clear\u201d signal comes from an authoritative source. Unfortunately, such unwarranted guarantees provide opportunities for the continuation of foolhardy and destructive policies.<\/p>\n<p>Consider that in 2002, just months before the invasion of Iraq, Rumsfeld confidently assured a radio audience, \u201cI can\u2019t tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn\u2019t going to last any longer than that.\u201d He also boasted, \u201cI don\u2019t do quagmires.\u201d And three weeks into the war, Rumsfeld triumphantly declared, \u201cthe Iraqi people are well on their way to freedom.\u201d As for concerns raised about lawlessness in Baghdad, he responded, \u201cStuff happens\u2026freedom\u2019s untidy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So too, DeSantis has taken to promoting a deceptive and dangerous upbeat message, one that ignores dire warnings from public health experts. For instance, at a news conference this past February he explained, \u201cI don\u2019t get bent out of shape about these positive tests because if you test 200,000 people, you\u2019re gonna get a lot of positive tests, so that\u2019s never been the barometer we\u2019ve used.\u201d More recently, he offered this unfounded assurance about the school year ahead: \u201cI think kids are very low risk\u2026I\u2019m confident that things will go well.\u201d The governor is even selling campaign merchandise with mottos like \u201cHow the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Turning to the \u201cDon\u2019t Blame Us\u201d mind game, this appeal exploits our psychological concerns about issues of helplessness.<\/strong> It\u2019s routinely used by officials who want to cover their tracks when anything with their fingerprints on it blows up\u2014literally or figuratively. In these situations, they claim that the responsibility lies elsewhere, or the bad outcomes couldn\u2019t possibly have been anticipated, or the resulting harm could never have been prevented anyway. Convincing evidence to support their innocence is rarely provided, but these excuses can still lead the public to underestimate their culpability.<\/p>\n<p>For example, as the U.S death toll in Iraq mounted and the war effort stalled, Rumsfeld refused to admit to any mistakes. During a town hall meeting with troops in late 2004, he dismissed their concerns about inadequate protective equipment this way: \u201cYou go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.\u201d He then added, \u201cYou can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up.\u201d Six months later, when questioned about his possible strategic errors, Rumsfeld offered this exculpatory analysis: \u201cYou have to remember that in every war, a battle plan doesn&#8217;t survive first contact with the enemy. This is in history. Why? Because the enemy has a brain and they\u2019re constantly adapting\u2026It isn\u2019t a mistake. It\u2019s just reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rejecting any personal responsibility for the ravages of COVID-19 in Florida, DeSantis has once again found his muse in Rumsfeld. Last week, for instance, the governor dismissed the idea that imposing restrictions could have reduced or prevented the current spike in cases. He insisted, against evidence, that \u201cThese interventions have failed time and time again throughout this pandemic&#8230;They have not stopped the spread.\u201d At the same time, DeSantis downplayed the worrisome trajectory of COVID variants, writing it off as a temporary and inescapable phenomenon: \u201cIt\u2019s a seasonal virus and this is the seasonal pattern it follows in the Sun Belt states.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Finally, the third mind game\u2014\u201cThey\u2019re Misguided and Misinformed\u201d\u2014preys upon our psychological concerns about who should and shouldn\u2019t be trusted.<\/strong> It\u2019s frequently used by officials to undermine the credibility of those who raise serious but unwelcome questions. Asking such questions<strong>, <\/strong>of course<strong>,<\/strong> is precisely the role that a free press is meant to play. Yet rather than responding directly to these inquiries, those in positions of power often try to cast doubt on the honesty or the expertise of their critics, portraying them as unfairly biased or insufficiently knowledgeable. When this ploy works, it leaves the public confused as to who and what to believe.<\/p>\n<p>During the Iraq War, Rumsfeld repeatedly insisted that press coverage was slanted against him and was misleading the American people. Amid early reports of detainee abuse at Guantanamo, he offered this disingenuous response at a news briefing: \u201cI haven&#8217;t found a single scrap of any kind of information that suggests that anyone has been treated anything other than humanely\u2014notwithstanding everything we have read and heard.\u201d A few years later, he issued a much broader condemnatory critique: \u201cThe worst about America and our military seems to so quickly be taken as truth by the press, and reported and spread around the world, often with little context and little scrutiny, let alone correction or accountability after the fact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for DeSantis, a year ago he lashed out at the media\u2019s COVID coverage this way: \u201cWe\u2019ve succeeded and I think that people just don\u2019t want to recognize it because it challenges their narrative, it challenges their assumption, so they\u2019ve got to try and find a boogeyman.\u201d Last week he was still blaming the press, this time for warning people about hospital shortages: \u201cI think it\u2019s important to point out because obviously media does hysteria, you try to fearmonger, you try to do this stuff. And when they\u2019ll talk about hospitalizations, our hospitals are open for business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All of these parallels are a stark warning. History is likely to remember <em>both<\/em> Rumsfeld <em>and<\/em> DeSantis as arrogant and reckless \u201cpublic servants\u201d who bore significant responsibility for unnecessary and unmitigated disasters. Thousands upon thousands of lives have been and <em>will be<\/em> diminished or destroyed by their manipulative, self-serving mind games. It isn\u2019t complicated. Successful crisis management requires leadership and integrity. When those qualities are replaced by unbridled personal ambition, devastation follows. We saw it in Iraq. Now we\u2019re seeing it in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>**************************<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: I provide a fuller account of these and other deceptive psychological appeals in my 2018 book, <\/em>Political Mind Games: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What\u2019s Happening, What\u2019s Right, and What\u2019s Possible.<em>\u201d It\u2019s now available as a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/royeidelson.com\/political-mind-games-free-pdf\/\" >free PDF here<\/a><\/em><em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>_______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/roy_eidelson-e1527957518662.png\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-110813\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/roy_eidelson-e1527957518662.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"131\" \/><\/a><\/em><em>Roy Eidelson is a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/\" >TRANSCEND Network<\/a> and was a member of the American Psychological Association for over 25 years, prior to his resignation. He is a clinical psychologist and the president of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eidelsonconsulting.com\" >Eidelson Consulting<\/a>, where he studies, writes about, and consults on the role of psychological issues in political, organizational, and group conflict settings. He is a past president of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.psysr.org\" >Psychologists for Social Responsibility<\/a>, former executive director of the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict, and a member of the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ethicalpsychology.org\" >Coalition for an Ethical Psychology<\/a>. Roy is the author of <\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/royeidelson.com\/political-mind-games-free-pdf\/\" >Political Mind Games: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What\u2019s Happening, What\u2019s Right, and What\u2019s Possible<\/a><em> and can be reached at <a href=\"mailto:reidelson@eidelsonconsulting.com\">reidelson@eidelsonconsulting.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>10 Aug 2021 &#8211; In particular, three \u201cpolitical mind games\u201d stand out. First, \u201cIt\u2019s a False Alarm\u201d: when others raise doubts about your plan, offer overconfident assurances of success. Second, \u201cDon\u2019t Blame Us\u201d: when your rosy predictions are proven wrong, deny that anything could have been done to prevent the setbacks. And third, \u201cThey\u2019re Misguided and Misinformed\u201d: when you\u2019re questioned about falling short, attack the media for purportedly misrepresenting events. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":110813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[867,267,556,109,372,70],"class_list":["post-191573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-anglo-america","tag-geopolitics","tag-manipulation","tag-politics","tag-propaganda","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}