Are there two kinds of belief, factual and emotional?

A reader of this blog is concerned about some people’s difficulty understanding Monetary Sovereignty (MS) and asks whether there is some way to present it so that the public can more readily understand it.

Of course, I’ve been attempting to do this for the past twenty-five years, with statements so simple that some economists tell me, “It’s not that simple.”

One risks omitting important details when they simplify an inherently complex subject.

The federal government can be viewed as a combination of Congress, the President, and the Federal Reserve. That combination can be compared to the Bank in the Game MONOPOLY, which, by rule and like the government, cannot run short of dollars.

If you skim through this blog, you will find repeated attempts at simplification.

I have concluded that any failures may be due to different ways of believing.

When I am contacted by someone who understands MS, the communication is cool and data-based. By contrast, I generally receive heat when I receive word from someone who doesn’t get it.

That’s natural, I thought. What is there to be angry about when you agree?

Months ago, I had another thought. It seemed to me that compassion is soft-spoken, while bigotry is angry.

Followers of Biden and now Harris seem to deal thoughtfully with facts, while followers of Trump seem to focus on passion, anger, and conspiracy theories.

Why?

Partly because bigotry is fear and fear is hatred, and those emotions lead to anger.

There is no calm reasoning with a bigoted MAGA who is shouting Fox News and QAnon lies

But I now believe it’s something even more than that. It is because admitting you have been wrong is too painful, even when the admission is secretly in your own mind.

It isn’t that Monetary Sovereignty is complex. It’s dead simple:

1. The federal government never can run short of its own sovereign currency.
2. Prices increase when products become scarce.
3. Raising interest rates increases business costs, which are reflected in price increases.
4. Deficit spending adds growth dollars to the economy.

Is that too complex for the average person? I think not.

Why do some people feel Monetary Sovereign is difficult to understand? It’s easy to understand, but it’s difficult to believe when you have been subject to many years of brainwashing.

And therein lies the difference.

I’ve spent years trying to help people understand Monetary Sovereignty when their problem is not one of understanding but of believing.

That is a much more difficult problem; Reciting the facts won’t solve it.

The MAGAs despise facts. They love conspiracy theories.

When you know you have truth and facts on your side, you might be frustrated by those who blindly accept “alternative facts,” as right-winger Kellyanne Conway famously expressed in defending Sean Spicer’s lies.

You may be frustrated, but not spit-in-your-face, physically-attack-Congress frustrated.

The gun-toting, hate-mongering MAGAs spew vitriol because they know they are wrong. They know Trump is lying to them, taking them for suckers, using them for his own personal gain, and secretly sneering at their ignorance when he’s not on stage.

(“I could shoot someone on 5th Ave. and not lose any followers.” Are those the words of a man who respects his followers’ intelligence?)

So they are angry at being seen as dupes, especially in their own eyes.

They will double down against the obvious and do anything to build a barrier between reality and their foolishness.

They will cover their gullibility with bluster and blindness.

“Wha, wha, I won’t listen to you. I cover my eyes and ears. Your words can’t hurt me.”

To maintain their belief in what they know to be nonsense, they join a mob, scream loudly or even silently, and let the noise in their head cover the truth and their emotion to cover their shame.

Thus, they allow pure belief and worship to wash over them without the burden of honest evaluation.

Hatred and anger are their only defense.

But it is exhausting. As the harsh glare of reality reveals, Trump’s armor is rusty. Each day, more people see the emperor has no clothes.

There stands before them is a befuddled, pitiful, failing old man, mouthing the same lies and insults that no longer fool even the most naive,

He is an often bankrupt business failure, an often losing political failure, an often adulterous marriage failure, an often indicted and convicted moral failure, and a son not even respected by his own late father.

The thrill is gone.

The crowds thin.

Those few who remain look around in embarrassment at their own naivete.

At last, it ends, not with a bang but with a whimper.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell; MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell; https://www.academia.edu/

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The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY