Both Siderism as Hypnopædia

 

This is an excerpt from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World:

"These early experimenters," the D.H.C. was saying, "were on the wrong track. They thought that hypnopædia could be made an instrument of intellectual education …"

(A small boy asleep on his right side, the right arm stuck out, the right hand hanging limp over the edge of the bed. Through a round grating in the side of a box a voice speaks softly.

"The Nile is the longest river in Africa and the second in length of all the rivers of the globe. Although falling short of the length of the Mississippi-Missouri, the Nile is at the head of all rivers as regards the length of its basin, which extends through 35 degrees of latitude …"

At breakfast the next morning, "Tommy," some one says, "do you know which is the longest river in Africa?" A shaking of the head. "But don't you remember something that begins: The Nile is the …"

"The - Nile - is - the - longest - river - in - Africa - and - the - second - in - length - of - all - the - rivers - of - the - globe …" The words come rushing out. "Although - falling - short - of …"

"Well now, which is the longest river in Africa?"

The eyes are blank. "I don't know."

"But the Nile, Tommy."

"The - Nile - is - the - longest - river - in - Africa - and - second …"

"Then which river is the longest, Tommy?"

Tommy burst into tears. "I don't know," he howls.)

That howl, the Director made it plain, discouraged the earliest investigators. The experiments were abandoned. No further attempt was made to teach children the length of the Nile in their sleep. Quite rightly. You can't learn a science unless you know what it's all about.

"Whereas, if they'd only started on moral education," said the Director, leading the way towards the door. The students followed him, desperately scribbling as they walked and all the way up in the lift. "Moral education, which ought never, in any circumstances, to be rational."...

This is how Both Siderism got so deeply and ineradicably into bones of millions of Americans that they can't shake it or stop their brains from reflexively responding with "The Extremes on Both Sides" to every Republican atrocity.  

The key was repetition.  Mindless repetition.  For decades.   From every level of media from Meet the Press and The New York Times to your local paper.  Over and over and over again, drumming into the minds of a great, God-fearing nation the important moral lesson that, however plain and openly monsterous the GOP might become, the cause of that problem is always , always, always "partisans on Both Sides".  

And the more the institutions all around them shudder and crack under the weight of Republican perfidy...the tighter the public clings to the pillar of moral truth they have been trained to believe by all those trusted voices repeating "Both Sides Do It" endlessly.  

But like poor Tommy from the story, while they are able to flawlessly recite their political mantra whenever they are triggered -- 

"Extreme - partisans - on - Both - Sides - are - to - blame."

-- the minute you try to dig into the meaning behind the mantra -- to ask , "What exactly do you mean by 'extreme' and 'partisan'?" or "What are some examples of extreme partisanship on the Left that actually had the effect of damaging our institutions?" -- you get Tommy's blank, befuddled stare, because Both Siderist have no answer to those questions.  

And the harder you press, the more confused and ridiculous and angry the responses become, because to the Both Siderist you're not asking perfectly reasonable questions, you're attacking their faith.  The axiomatic axel on which their whole political identity turns. 

 At which point you can stop asking any questions at all and move on.  Because at the most primal level they believe that what you are trying to trick them into doing is trading their safe and comprehensible world of the Both Siderist Lie, for an incomprehensible, terrifying chaos.  

And that they will not do.  

I Am The Liberal Media