On the line with us is Brian Welch. He is a both a clinical psychologist and an
attorney. That's an interesting combination. He's the author of the new
book, State of Confusion Political Manipulation and the Assault on the
American Mind. His website BrandtWelch.com Brian, welcome
to the program. Thank you Thom nice to be here. Thanks for joining us. So so you
know what is your core assertion here in this book? Well Thom, your introduction
there was a chilling bridge to what I'm talking about in state of confusion. And
the question I'm trying to answer is why is the human mind so vulnerable, to the
kind of manipulations that that led to Hitler. And you know differences have to
be acknowledged. But it's a chilling in its the way it's so uncanny in its
connection to what a number of us are experiencing in the present American
political scene. State of Confusion focuses on the American mind and less on
the mind of Donald Trump and more on the mind of the people who are supporting
him. And it really, in fairness, those of us who have been opposing him because
we're not doing a very good job of it. S the thesis is it to understand the
current predicament in America we have to understand the American mind in order
to understand how its vulnerable and how in fact we are we're being manipulated
and there is a hopeful note in the book as dire as things are now with
neuroscience and things we're learning about the mind if we will pay attention
to it we can improve our mental functioning and be less vulnerable to
demagogues whoever we think they are and however they operate on the tail end of
2008 back when george w bush was president your book first came out the
first edition of it and you were arguing that the if I if I if I have this
correct please correct me if I'm wrong that basically all the lies that we had
been told to get us into the war in Iraq the lies about our ongoing torture
programs other things like that that that we had been so gaslighted
that we had lost our ability to tell the difference between right and wrong or
for that matter truth in fiction eh what do I have that right and B are things
worse now or is this just a continuation is the trump presidency the logical
consequence of of you know basically 40 years of Americans being lied to ever
since Reagan started telling us that if you just cut taxes out of rich people
everybody would get a pay raise yes you've got it just right and I as I said
in the first edition of the book the problem and was not going to end just
because George Bush left office and the reason I wrote the second edition that
we're talking about now a state of confusion is that the mind has
deteriorated the situation has gotten a lot worse if you want a little quick
measure of that conjure up an image of george w bush and now conjure up an
image of Donald Trump and I think most of us have a visceral reaction to the
difference between the two but i talked about the way the mind works and why it
was vulnerable to the kind of things that have started happening in the in
the political in the political world and it's fascinating when you compare the
kind of manipulations or gaslighting that took place with the Bush
administration for example by Karl Rove or what have you if you now look at the
kind of statement in in the first edition of the book i marveled at the
intricacy and complexity of the deceptive web web that the far right was
using in the in their mass media today what's striking is how amazingly simple
it is if you look at Kellyanne Conway and what she says she doesn't have to
come up with elaborate deceptions she simply makes a few assertions and the
American mind has grown so weak that it's not able to discriminate to
challenge and to think critically and I document why that's happened in in the
book in state of confusion don't you think a lot of people just know that
she's lying through her teeth that Sarah Sanders is lying through her teeth I
mean the press comes out and says you know Sarah Sanders told another lie
today I mean it's it's it seems more like we're just going yeah I guess we're
powerless about it well I think that's where I'm
saying the the liberal or progressive mind is weak but the thing that we
forget in all that is that close to a majority of Americans don't think that
she's lying and they don't challenge it and if you watch CNN you're gonna have
one perspective on what's happened but I tell my progressive friends if you're
not watching Fox News you don't understand the reality that's being fed
to to the other half of the American mind yeah that's true that's where the
damage is being done now don't get me wrong with the onset of Fox News a lot
of media have moved in the direction of devious communications and the style
that I talked about in some detail in state of confusion but the fact of the
matter is this country is being fed very very different realities so you sit
there and you watch CNN or MSNBC you've got one reality you got to switch the
dial and watch them both simultaneously and it's it's stunning how different the
world is being portrayed with the two different media capital how bifurcated
are we to what extent do people who watch Fox News literally never go
outside the conservative media bubble they just listen to Limbaugh on the
radio and read Daily Caller online and to what extent to people who who you
know read DailyKos or Democratic Underground or alternate or something
like that you know not ever watch Fox News and just stay to to free speech TV
or MSNBC we are very bifurcated that's the point that I'm making about if
you're not looking at the other person's information and what forms their sense
of reality in the world then we don't know what's going on and we can't
understand the problem I'm trying to address that problem of our device
divisions in state of confusion by looking at the mind the most important
thing the mind does for us is create a sense of reality what we think reality
is now we think it's just something out there externally to be discerned and
to be noted but it's not it's a mental function by which we select certain
aspects of reality and we integrate them and we weave them into our own reality
sense once we have a hard time doing that we don't do so well and we don't
like to be threatened by realizing there are other perspectives that other people
have so now this is a country that's always had differences but we've been
able to tolerate listening to other people's perspective without being so
threatened that we have to start hating these people and seeing them as evil and
that's the big problem that's confronting America we can tolerate
differences but our minds capacity to tolerate is is breaking down because
it's been under so much stress and it's outstripping the capacity of the mind to
assimilate new information to process the kind of traumatic experiences that
are affecting our lives and to withstand the kind of political manipulation and
gaslighting thats permeating the airwaves and on our public discourse to
what extent is are you are you suggesting that we need to start paying
attention to them it seems to me like you know we need to figure out a way to
get them to start paying attention to us to the world view that is shared by the
majority of Americans and frankly the vast majority of people around the world
in developed countries my my primary message is that we need to start paying
attention to our minds to the way the mind works ours and theirs and when we
begin to understand these mechanisms that I talked about in the book what I
call the battleground but this this all sounds very didactic yeah you know
Bryant what specifically can I do to get the guy who lives next door to me well I
don't there isn't one right now but you know my next-door neighbor who watches
Fox News all day long to watch something else you you can start with listening
listening to him and not trying to insist with logic or reason that he
should give up his views but if you look at what I've said in state of confusion
Tom I've got a much more elaborate set things that have to happen they have to
happen at the national level in the communication style of our leaders they
have to start at the and they have to also take place at the individual level
in our communication with everyone paying more attention to how the mind
works so we're less vulnerable to the kinds of manipulative tactics that are
taking place so we can employ Mental Hygiene on ourselves and on our families
in our community okay.
Bryant Welch is the author the book is State of Confusion Political
Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind. Bryant thanks for dropping by.
Thank you good to talk