Democratic Lemmings Disunite

What Platner's fall says about all of us.

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THIS IS the problem with most voters today, especially partisans: We refuse to see what we don’t want to see or hear what we don’t want to hear.

Progressive voters and Democratic political consultants rationalized the Nazi tattoo, dismissed the sexist posts, ignored the sexting tsunami, and attacked anybody who threatened Graham Platner’s Democratic nomination for a Senate seat in Maine.

Now, less than a month after his nomination, Platner stands credibly accused of rape, and his defenders are finally, belatedly, withdrawing their support.

Politico reported Monday that a romantic partner, Jenny Racicot, said Platner showed up at her house drunk and uninvited one night in 2021, let himself in, and forced himself on her. Platner denied the accusation but said he was evaluating his campaign.

Under Maine law, Platner has to drop out by next Monday for Democrats to replace him on the November ballot.

He’s toast — and perhaps so are Democrats’ prospects for defeating Republican Sen. Susan Collins — because Maine Democrats refused to acknowledge the obvious: Platner never was a worthy candidate.

This was as predictable as it was avoidable — for anybody willing to see it coming.

But we live in a time of democratized and personalized communications, armed with digital technologies that allow us to choose what facts to ignore and what lies to embrace. These tools play to our worst instincts as human beings, as I wrote in one of my first posts at Convulsions 18 months ago:

You and everybody you know – in fact, every human on earth – is instinctually wired to lie and to be lied to. From the moment the serpent deceived Eve about the apple, and Eve deceived Adam, two competing truths marked the DNA of humankind: We are liars. We are dupes.

This paradox informed the evolution of the human species. Small tribes living in caves, large herds of primitive hunters tracking prey, and later, tens of thousands of citizens packed into primordial cities all were led by people, mostly men, who practiced what I call “liarship” – wielding power through lies and with the blind fealty of their followers.

The internet and social media have brought us back to that future. In “We, The Lemmings,” I argue that while President Trump is our liar-in-chief, he’s not our only fabulist.

President Biden’s refusal to acknowledge his declining mental acuity — or even address the public’s alarm — is a classic case of confirmation bias. Democratic leaders and members of the media who ignored what millions of American voters could plainly see may not be organizers of a mass conspiracy/coverup (as Republicans like to believe) but rather the weak-kneed victims of social conformity.

This virulent marriage between lemmings and liars has no bounds. Police lie about shooting Black men. Priests lie about pedophilia. Corporate CEOs lie about racial and gender salary inequity. Athletes lie about performance-enhancing drugs. Insurance agents lie about coverage. Pharmaceutical executives lie about drug trials. Doctors lie about patient outcomes. Neighbors lie to neighbors. Husbands lie to wives and wives lie to husbands. Modern communications enable their mendacity.

Scientists have long documented our inability to discriminate reliably between honesty and dishonesty, and psychologists are just now coming to grips with how technology is hyper-charging humanity’s worst instincts. Algorithms have no soul, no conscience; they’re cold calculations that trigger the sociopathy buried within us all.

After a few centuries of post-Enlightenment progress, a technological revolution in the first two decades of the millennium allowed humanity to revert to form. The internet and its assorted social applications delivered unprecedented power to almost every living person on earth. Like a communion wafer at Sunday services, this gift was placed in the palms of our hands via mobile phones, and we’re using it to crucify reputations, institutions, and the truth.

Bromides won’t save us. The question isn’t – How do we teach people to know fact from fiction? The better question is this: How do we make people want to know the difference – to even care that they’re genetically addicted to bullshit? And if we can’t make people voluntarily honor the truth, how do we create a new norm structure that forces a society to adhere to a common set of facts?

Even as the Platner episode shines a harsh light on left-wing lemmings, the question remains unanswered.

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HELP A GUY OUT: Today’s newsletter is inspired by an item in today’s “Morning Read-In.” If you’re not a paid subscriber, you also missed these insights:

• Iran reasserts its control over the Strait of Hormuz.

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• The Trump curse tanks the United States soccer team.

• A compelling essay on wealth inequality connects America’s first millionaire, billionaire, and trillionaire.

Why not start your day with the MRI? It’s what keeps Convulsions flowing.