Signs of Collapse: When We Normalize Abnormality

Now that the collapse of our political, economic, social and ecological systems is accelerating, the signs of this collapse, including scapegoating, corruption, and social disorder are becoming more obvious. This is the sixteenth of a series of articles on some of these signposts. Blinken/Biden testimony — anti-genocide protesters, 2023; video from CBC Humans, it is said, can be made to accept and believe almost anything, if we’re conditioned long and hard enough. Joseph Goebbels notoriously said “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.” In George Orwell’s 1984, the governing party insists the masses accept that “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength”. This effect is called the Illusory Truth Effect: The illusory truth effect… is the tendency to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure… When truth is assessed, people rely on whether the information is in line with their…