Fear does strange things to the brain. I’m a psychologist and just a human being here witnessing the disintegration of norms right before my eyes on the daily. Never underestimate how abstracted people can become from whom they think they are in service to assuaging their fear. Eh?
1/2 🧵I couldn't agree more: When fear kicks in...people might think they're acting in service to a group...a mission...or a principle...but really, they're just doing whatever makes them feel safer or less anxious in the moment.
2/2 They lose sight of who or what they’re supposedly serving...because their true priority becomes self-preservation. We are watching that in real-time.
When contacting my senators and rep in Washington, I always ask them if they are waiting for congress to be dissolved or what. I've received no replies to that question.
It's same cowardice Dems have shown re: special interest $ influence in politics. Outside of purely performative acts, it's always about working within flawed system to serve greater good, ignoring how this compromise undermines any good done. And now we've reached natural outcome of such a system.