Judge John H. Wilson (ret.) provides this exclusive report to the New York Analysis of Policy & Government
Recently, several prominent journalists and politicians have called for the “deprogramming” of supporters of former President Donald Trump. Most famously, Newswoman Katie Couric had this exchange with Bill Maher on his show, “Real Time” – “’(W)hat do you do about these people?’…Mr. Maher said. ‘What do you do about people who are in the government who don’t believe in our way of government?’
“’It is so shocking,’ Ms. Couric responded. ‘Not only are they not conceding, Bill…I also think some of them are believing the garbage that they are being fed 24/7 on the internet, by their constituents, and they bought into this big lie,’ she continued. ‘And the question is how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump.’”
Couric is not the only media personality who would like to see a change in the viewpoint of those on the right. As reported by Fox News, Couric’s “language mirrored that of liberal Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, who said last week on MSNBC that ‘there are millions of Americans, almost all White, almost all Republicans, who somehow need to be deprogrammed.’”
In an interview with former cult member Steven Hassan, Joe Hagan of Vanity Fair writes that “Trump, (Hassan) holds, has all the characteristics of a cult leader, and his followers the qualities of a cult, from the all-consuming devotion to a single malignant narcissist to the daily consumption of ‘alternative facts’ to immunize them against cognitive dissonance (a.k.a. reality).” How would Hassan go about “deprogramming” more than 70 million Americans? “Hassan says they can be, but the process will require not only empathy and individual family involvement but a wholesale change in how social media and information systems separate fact from dangerous fictions.”
In other words, eliminate the sources of information for Republicans in general, and Trump supporters in particular, such as Fox News, Newsmax, and eventually, usagovpolicy.com.
Putting aside the obvious fallacy of one side believing it has a monopoly on the truth, and wishing to impose that version of the truth on at least half the American population, deprogramming is not a gentle process. It is not accomplished with any level of “empathy” either. According to the New World Encyclopedia, “Deprogramming is the process of removing a person thought to be under ‘mind control’ from a religious or other community and influencing him or her to abandon allegiance to the group…Historically, it usually involved confining the person against his or her will without prior psychological evaluation…The courts in democratic countries where deprogramming occurred have generally ruled that it constitutes a serious crime, involving both kidnapping and a violation of the victim’s right to freedom of religion and association…A widespread state-sponsored, often extremely violent deprogramming campaign is in progress in China against members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.”
The Encyclopedia entry goes on to detail the general procedures for deprogramming, procedures with which Mr. Hassan should be very familiar. These include “Voluntary or involuntary removal from the ‘cult’ community,” “Holding the person in isolation, usually against their will,” and “Eliciting an overt sign that (the) deprogrammee has renounced his or her allegiance to the cult, such as a public renunciation.”
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“On October 1, 1949, (Mao Zedong) announced the creation of the People’s Republic of China…In the early years came consolidation of victory across his vast, populous nation: there were many class enemies and opponents of the revolution to neutralize and punish…Mao called for the young to go forth and ferret out the people’s enemies…The infamous Red Guards spread across China, waving copies of the Little Red Book of Mao’s slogans…Their ‘struggle sessions’ were highlighted by coerced ‘self‐criticism’ and public humiliation of anyone deemed insufficiently radical. Anyone in authority could be dragged before a crazed mob. Individuals with Western connections could be punished while their homes were ransacked. Universities were closed, education was abandoned, students were sent into the countryside to work and ‘learn from the peasants.’”
The concept of a “struggle session” should be examined in more detail. In her book, Enemies of the People, author Anne F. Thurston gives a description of a notorious struggle session held for the Chinese professor You Xiaoli:
“You Xiaoli was standing, precariously balanced, on a stool. Her body was bent over from the waist into a right angle, and her arms, elbows stiff and straight, were behind her back, one hand grasping the other at the wrist. It was the position known as ‘doing the airplane.’ Around her neck was a heavy chain, and attached to the chain was a blackboard, a real blackboard, one that had been removed from a classroom at the university where You Xiaoli, for more than ten years, had served as a full professor. On both sides of the blackboard were chalked her name and the myriad crimes she was alleged to have committed…
“The scene was taking place at the university, too, in a sports field at one of China’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning. In the audience were You Xiaoli’s students and colleagues and former friends. Workers from local factories and peasants from nearby communes had been bussed in for the spectacle. From the audience came repeated, rhythmic chants … ‘down with You Xiaoli! Down with You Xiaoli!’
“’I had many feelings at that struggle session,’ recalls You Xiaoli. ‘I thought there were some bad people in the audience. But I also thought there were many ignorant people, people who did not understand what was happening, so I pitied that kind of person. They brought workers and peasants into the meetings, and they could not understand what was happening. But I was also angry.”
It is not likely that either Katie Couric or Eugene Robinson truly wish to subject almost half of America to this form of “reeducation” and “deprogramming.” More than likely, they will be satisfied with eliminating their competition and becoming the sole source of information and news for the nation. But to even use this terminology exhibits either a fundamental ignorance of history, or an authoritarian impulse which is unAmerican to it core. In either case, the impulse to “deprogram” people with whom you have political differences is clearly dangerous for all concerned.
Illustration: Pixabay