%%Insert preview image below.%% > [!abstract] Abstract > - **Publish Date:** [[01-16-2024]] > - **Author(s):** Alex Gutentag > - **Source:** Public > - **[Archived URL](https://ia601304.us.archive.org/26/items/elite-psychopathology-driving-democrats-soft-coup-attempt/Elite%20Psychopathology%20Driving%20Democrats%E2%80%99%20%E2%80%9CSoft%20Coup%E2%80%9D%20Attempt.pdf)** > - **Summary:** To stop Donald Trump from becoming president, journalists, activists, and government officials are undermining democracy in the name of saving it. > - **Tags:** #Election2024 > [!info|no-icon flex bg-c-gray]- PDF Copy <br> _{**Click to Expand ➜**} > > <br> <div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 60%;"><iframe src="https://docs.google.com/viewer?embedded=true&url=https://ia601304.us.archive.org/26/items/elite-psychopathology-driving-democrats-soft-coup-attempt/Elite%20Psychopathology%20Driving%20Democrats%E2%80%99%20%E2%80%9CSoft%20Coup%E2%80%9D%20Attempt.pdf" style="top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; border: 0;" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> # Full Text After [[Donald Trump]]'s landslide victory in the Iowa caucuses yesterday, both [[CNN]] and [[MSNBC]] [refused to carry his speech](https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1747115294617915542?s=20), instead airing speeches by Florida Governor [[Index 📚/Person/Ron DeSantis]] and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. MSNBC host [[Rachel Maddow]] said that the danger of Trump's triumph came not just from him but also from his supporters. "If we're worried about our democracy falling to an authoritarian and potentially fascist form of government, the leader who is trying to do that is part of that equation," [she said](https://x.com/alx/status/1747101793388036536?s=20), "but people wanting that is a much bigger part of that equation." If reelected in 2024, Donald Trump is likely to politicize the US military, [[NBC News]] [reported](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-military-fears-rcna129159) on Sunday. During his last term, according to NBC, some of Trump's appointees prevented him from abusing his presidential powers, but in 2024 Trump will surround himself with only loyalists. "Now, bracing for Trump's potential return," wrote NBC reporters, "a loose-knit network of public interest groups and lawmakers is quietly devising plans to try to foil any efforts to expand presidential power, which could include pressuring the military to cater to his political needs." But this one-sided portrayal of Trump as a potential dictator ignores the abuses of power perpetrated by Democrats and anti-Trump government bureaucrats over the last seven years. In partnership with civil society and the mainstream media, federal government agencies created a vast censorship network and appear to have used offensive [counterterrorism and influence tactics](https://public.substack.com/p/us-military-contractors-used-counterterrorism) against the American people after 2016. And in 2020, Democrats [pursued strategies](https://public.substack.com/p/us-officials-turned-regime-change) that closely resembled color revolution techniques used abroad. These activities, in addition to a [pattern of entrapment](https://public.substack.com/p/political-strategy-to-paint-republicans) and demonization of Trump supporters as violent domestic extremists, were anti-democratic and authoritarian. Some of the media's criticism of Trump is legitimate. Last December, Trump said that he would be a "dictator" on "day one" of his second term, and he has made other inflammatory remarks that suggest a disregard for the separation of powers. To be sure, journalists should aim to hold all politicians accountable and not give Trump a pass for incendiary comments or divisive language. While his "dictator" language was inappropriate, it was clear that Trump meant he would issue executive orders, not end democracy. And the mainstream media's coverage has been relentlessly biased, criticizing Trump while condoning Democrats' attacks on the democratic process. For example, in reporting that Trump threatens to use the military to serve his own political agenda, NBC did not question the efforts of lawmakers and Democrat-aligned non-profits to delegitimize Trump's presidency if he is elected. These efforts, activists and politicians told reporters, will include weaponizing litigation and creating "a coalition to challenge Trump from day one." This appears to be a plan to undermine a democratically elected president and subvert the military chain of command for political ends. In fact, Democrats and Never Trumpers already politicized military, intelligence, and national security agencies for their domestic counter-populist goals after 2016. Following a widespread disinformation campaign about alleged Russian election interference after the 2016 election, the Department of Defence (DOD) added "information" as a new and seventh joint function of the military in its 2017 *[Doctrine for the Armed Forces of the United States](https://irp.fas.org/doddir/dod/jp3_0.pdf)*. And in 2019, the DOD, the [[Department of Homeland Security]] (DHS), the [[DOJ|Department of Justice]] (DOJ), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the [[FBI|Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI), and the National Security Agency ([[NSA]]) [announced](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2019/11/05/joint-statement-doj-dod-dhs-dni-fbi-nsa-and-cisa-ensuring-security-2020-elections) a "whole-of-government" approach to election security and disinformation. The Twitter Files and subpoenaed documents have since revealed that former security agency employees [embedded](https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1604895371360374784?s=20) within social media companies and that DHS and its partners improperly [targeted](https://public.substack.com/p/new-documents-reveal-us-department) political speech to [interfere](https://public.substack.com/p/us-government-officials-sought-to?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2) in the 2020 election, while government officials [coerced](https://public.substack.com/p/new-facebook-files-expose-biden-censorship) tech companies into compliance. Since 2016, Pentagon-affiliated groups have often worked on "anti-disinformation" initiatives and censorship, including [Graphika](https://www.graphika.com/), which receives DOD funding, and Mitre, a major defense contractor. Public and Racket also [discovered](https://public.substack.com/p/ctil-files-1-us-and-uk-military-contractors) evidence that DOD, DHS, and FBI employees worked in a government-partnered group created by US and UK military contractors, which aimed to flag and remove alleged disinformation about [[Covid-19]]. Documents, [recently obtained by Matt Taibbi at Racket](https://www.racket.news/p/a-foia-story-the-state-department) through a Freedom of Information Act request, show that the State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC) was walking a "fine line" between legal messaging for foreign audiences and illegal messaging "targeting Americans." In addition to these narrative controls and censorship measures, government officials appear to have participated in efforts to prevent Trump from taking office again in 2020. In anticipation of January 6, [[Democratic Party]] operatives created a [disinformation plot](https://public.substack.com/p/false-claims-of-insurrection-minutes) to spread the false narrative that Trump and his supporters would engage in a violent coup attempt. Rosa Brooks, a former Defense Department counselor and Washington, D.C. reserve police officer, organized the [Transition Integrity Project](https://public.substack.com/p/years-of-planning-behind-democrats) in 2019. Brooks and other political operatives, including [[Norm Eisen]] (co-founder of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), made plans to use civil unrest and lawfare to prevent Trump from taking office. Attendees included John Podesta, former White House Chief of Staff and Hillary Clinton campaign chair, Democratic National Committee Acting Chair Donna Brazile, and political commentators David Frum and Bill Kristol. It was Podesta, upon the defeat of Hillary Clinton, whose presidential campaign he chaired, who helped orchestrate the Russia hoax, which involved the illegal abuse of DOJ, FBI, and DHS powers. When Trump was elected in 2016, Podesta's Center for American Progress (CAP) fully embraced the so-called "Resistance," which didn't just disagree with Trump's policies but also promoted the conspiracy theory that Trump had not been legitimately elected. The legacy media has neglected to cover these illegal schemes, which should be massive political scandals, in favor of endless attacks on Trump. On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, the New York Times editorial board [condemned](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/15/opinion/iowa-caucus-trump.html) Trump's "multiyear campaign to undermine the rule of law and the democratic process" and "record of contempt for the Constitution." "Mr. Trump is now distinguished from the rest of the Republican candidates primarily by his contempt for the rule of law," wrote the editorial board. "The sooner he is rejected, the sooner the Republican Party can return to the difficult but necessary task of working within the system to achieve its goals."   This elitist view disregards American voters' concerns and is emblematic of the current media establishment. While claiming to uphold democratic values, Democrats and the mainstream news media are supporting the deep state's counter-populist war on democracy while expressing disdain for voters' right to choose their preferred candidate. Why is that? ## The Soft Coup The pattern of government-coordinated counter-populist efforts is highly suggestive of a soft coup attempt, in which unelected career civil servants used national security tools and influence tactics to subvert the Constitutional democratic process and persecute the state's political opposition. The repurposing of foreign counterterror and pro-democracy initiatives as domestic counter-populist maneuvers was effectively an internal regime change operation. Measures like the mass censorship of factual information about Covid-19, the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story, and the criminalization of "election denialism" all effectively allowed the deep state and its media allies to undermine democratic discourse and elevate Joe Biden. The insistence among Democrats and journalists that Trump is a threat to democracy is psychological projection. In psychoanalytic theory, projection and other defense mechanisms help a person shield him or herself from uncomfortable, anxiety-inducing thoughts and feelings. By projecting their own anti-democratic views and activities onto Trump and his supporters, Democrats are able to blame their enemies for the erosion of democratic norms and institutions – an erosion that they are primarily responsible for. In *The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense* (1936)*,* Anna Freud, the daughter of Sigmund Freud, describes how this process of projection works. The ego engaging in projection, she theorized, "learns what is regarded as blameworthy but protects itself by means of this defense mechanism from unpleasant self-criticism. Vehement indignation at someone else's wrongdoing is the precursor of and substitute for guilty feelings on its own account." Projection causes profound interpersonal strife. "The mechanism of projection disturbs our human relations when we project our own jealousy and attribute to other people our own aggressive acts," Freud wrote. The clearer someone's sense of guilt becomes, the more intense their projection must also become. The ego's "indignation increases automatically when the perception of its own guilt is imminent," Freud explained. Liberal elites' projections about fascism, authoritarianism, and the end of democracy stem from their internal discomfort with their own actions. These actions profoundly violate Democrats' stated beliefs and values, and this betrayal of values occurred in direct response to the perceived danger posed by Trump to the interests of the professional class. The Democratic Party has become, fundamentally, a class project of managerial elites. These elites, who occupy the media, academia, federal agencies, law, medicine, and other professional fields, are literally and symbolically threatened by the populist backlash led by Trump. Members of the professional managerial class benefit materially from globalization, mass immigration, and jobs programs created through large government bureaucracies and civil society organizations. Perhaps more importantly, they enjoy special influence through their status as technical experts and specialists, as well as through their role in entertainment, communications, and information management. Trump's nationalism, protectionism, and disdain for social niceties represented a major challenge to this globalized class of experts and arbiters of public opinion. After his election, they panicked, and, for self-preservation, they opted to use their entire arsenal to vilify, censor, and criminalize political dissent. Through this strategy, the professional class has adopted deceptive and remorseless tendencies and has weaponized social and political institutions against the American population. The resulting political formation is a "pathocracy," a term explained by the Polish psychologist Andrzej Lobaczewski in *[Political Ponerology](https://www.amazon.com/Political-Ponerology-Science-Psychopathy-Totalitarianism-ebook/dp/B09VZBYS34/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=Cj0KCQiA8t2eBhDeARIsAAVEga1Tp0uHW7WqZNDBgKQP6v854PXSpgPBpd4pda5lumNQsj8ui1yg0ygaAmSMEALw_wcB&hvadid=177295369807&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9032080&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=2399312209296693488&hvtargid=kwd-3672381411&hydadcr=3200_9859632&keywords=political+ponerology&qid=1675112509&sr=8-1)*. In a pathocracy, Lobaczewski wrote, "a small pathological minority takes control over a society of normal people." In totalitarian regimes, people with narcissistic and psychopathic characteristics dominate. "Under such conditions," wrote Lobaczewski, "no area of social life can develop normally, whether in economics, culture, science, technology, administration, etc. Pathocracy progressively paralyzes everything." Managerial elites' lack of empathy and manipulative conduct are psychologically abnormal. Their excessively histrionic, aggressive, and self-interested behavior is typical of the political conditions Lobaczewski describes, and their counter-populist crusade is symptomatic of a totalitarian, pathocratic regime in which the state has turned tools meant to protect against foreign threats against the domestic population. ## How Pathocracy Ends Trump's historic victory in Iowa has confirmed the profound legitimacy crisis facing American institutions. As some commentators [pointed out](https://x.com/ggreenwald/status/1747110442961609137?s=20) following the Iowa results, Trump secured this win while facing four criminal indictments. The constant insistence from the professional managerial class that Trump is a criminal, an insurrectionist, a coup leader, a dictator, and a fascist appears to have almost no effect on the electorate. Voters have lost confidence in the DOJ, the media, and other institutions, and they no longer trust that highly educated and credentialed experts have their best interests at heart. The warnings from technocrats and managerial elites about the death of our democracy may be a self-fulfilling prophecy. In fearing and overreacting to a potential democratic crisis, unelected bureaucrats and Democratic party loyalists have actually engineered such a crisis. Their prophecy of political chaos led to turmoil and havoc and has been fulfilled through Democrats' own decisions. The authority and legitimacy of governing institutions may have been permanently damaged in the process. Yet this also means that the reigning pathocracy will eventually come to an end. "The achievement of absolute domination by pathocrats in the government of a country cannot be permanent since large sectors of the society become disaffected by such rule and eventually find some way of toppling it," Lobaczewski wrote. "Such a system of government has nowhere to go but down." As cracks in the pathocracy begin to show, more and more people are converted away from its ideology. Explained Lobaczewski, "Those people who initially found the original ideology attractive eventually come to the realization that they are, in fact, dealing with something else that has taken its place under the old name. The disillusionment experienced by such former ideological adherents is bitter in the extreme. Thus, the pathological minority's attempts to retain power will be threatened by the society of normal people, whose criticism keeps growing." As these "normal people" acquire more knowledge about the pathocracy and its weaknesses, they communicate amongst each other about the pathocratic state and thus build new social bonds separate from the pathocracy that once infected all areas of life. Today, some of this process is underway. Based on the patterns we have already observed and documented, we have gained what the intelligence community calls "situational awareness" about the deep state's war on populism and how it will unfold. If nothing else, we now have the ability to analyze, understand, and communicate about the next steps the pathocratic state is likely to take in its desperation to retain power and control. ---  --- ## Keep Digging %%Space%% ### Tags #Archive/Article #Election2024 ### Footnotes & References