Julian Jaynes, a professor at Princeton, wrote about the earliest human societies and how their large-scale projects were consistent with hearing imaginary voices. The Jaynes Model considers a possibility that a large number of early humans experienced auditory hallucinations similar to what is reported today with schizophrenia and schizoid disorders. The big difference is that message content in the Jaynes Model voices is heavily influenced by those societies' authoritarian leaders.
These "voices" work like Tea Party members listening to Rush Limbaugh and television evangelists. The Jaynes Model predicts strong social cohesion, submission, and a willingness to work many hours to achieve group goals.
Does it sound familiar?
A charismatic leader 7,500 years ago did not have radio or television. But if Jaynes is right, this leader could plug in to the populace's hallucinatory voices and sell a broad segment of the community on a claim to personal godliness. Hours of daily communal prayer play a role in the indoctrination. The "voices" could be used to control people for war, for such as draining marshes, or to build the pyramids.
Being a god can be very, very cool. Ask a Roman emperor. Or a pharoah. Ask Ted Cruz.
Sigmund Freud also did work analyzing the messaging system for authoritarian controls. This is his theory of the Superego. But by Freud's day most people's messages had gone underground, become subconscious. The Superego operates with silent inhibitions on behavior. Submission to a strong leader is addressed by Bob Altemeyer and used for political analytics by John Dean in his works on the Nixon administration
The central threads include a behavioral inventory that depends on submission to authority figures and acceptance of non-rational arguments solely based on authoritarian packaging.
In a nutshell, this is how you influence people to vote against their own interests repeatedly. To worship a loon and gold digger such as Sarah Palin. This is how relentless ad hominem and rude name-calling at our American president are disguised as patriotism. Jaynes's auditory hallucinations are echoed by RWNJ "Message Discipline" and a well defined set of hoaxes.
Thing is: Never Underestimate the Effectiveness of Non-Rational Argument.
For most people on the Right politically, fact checking might as well not exist. They are a class of victims who have been "catfished" to believe that Republicans are so many Prince Charmings on white chargers. At the end of the day about a fourth of American voters have been manipulated to form a "Jaynestown USA" cult.
For Progressives to respond effectively it is not enough to fighting off single, atomic lies from the RWNJs. What modifies individual behavior is not the lies, but the hoaxes that create and then support. Follow below the orange muffin... we'll have a look at the structures of two of their major hoaxes and what it takes to keep them going... with links.