Is it useful to examine why so many white people, with their built-in white privilege, would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with wannabe dictators like Trump, Abbott, and DeSantis?
Just watched Till and then tuned-in to a Washington Journal segment where a woman told Toure "we" are tired of being called racist and then referred to him as "you people". OMG---that's it in a nutshell!
The racists, misogynists, and fascists do not like being shamed and labeled. Pride and arrogance---that IS what gave us Reagan and Trump. Some Americans do not want to look into the mirror to see how badly we've aged in these important matters.
After the onslaught of money put into hate radio, hate TV, and hateful think-tanks, people on the right were empowered to start the name-calling and to even do more killing. We did not label them or call them names for the many years before and during the time it took for them to reveal themselves.
The Republicans have grown to hate the truth. They hate anyone trying to tell it, but I HAVE to. They hate us for fighting back, but we MUST.
Because capitalism in the hands of our two political parties has failed them (as over 100 Democrats are compelled to vote against socialism) and the establishment cannot be trusted.
Another simple one, Thom. Dictators of note have all strutted about wearing jodhpurs and knee-high riding boots without a horse visible for miles. It's manliness of the highest order. Privileged Whites, either male or female, just go batty over manliness. It's in the genes.
Thom, when the Federal reserve raises the interest rates from what I can tell, it causes prices to go up and causes more inflation. The FED in my opinion is raising interest rates to replace Biden with a right wing capitalist fascist, not a socialist fascist. Supply line shortages is what causes inflation, whether intentional or not.
These fascist cult followers, most of them are white males, will learn the hard way that the globalist autocrats are not racist. They just want cheap labor and power and as much money as they can grab.
Biden needs to use his bully pulpit to educate Trump's followers. Biden needs to repeat over and over again like Trump that dictators can torture, kill, starve, enslave, poison , harvest organs, dissect slaves in bathrooms and much more.
The Fascist autocrats are classist. The fascist cult followers think they will be treated better than the liberals. All the autocrats fascist care about is if you can make money for them. If you are a useless eater, expect what Putin is doing with his disposable crowd. Sending them off to war to be killed by American bullets.
Someday American soldiers will be sent off to do battle with the Chinese and that will be how the prisons and intellectuals and many more groups get exterminated.
OK. So, this is the dernier cri. Born in 1953, lived it (unconsciously) "got it," as great people (you know who they are) became heard late 80's ff. Here you have encapsulated the essence of it all, maestro. I just wish there was a sign of the slightest chink in the lemming imperative to mass servility and suicide. My mother is immortal as avatar of the type: never failed to vote against proven economic common sense, (GI Bill and WPA, experienced benefits to her and family.) never failed to Pavlov-respond to scapegoating propaganda (dirty lazy hippies, bra-burners, and Khruschev/Obama) Master's Degreed college teacher absolute puppet of Rush and his ilk. Where is the teensiest pinprick in the hardwired DNA compelled to comply hook-line-sinker at slightest sneer of any given Trump-type?
“While Black history is under attack in schools across the nation by these same people, white Americans also need to learn their own history and Reaganism’s role in it.”
Easy for Thom to say. Not so easy to make it happen. When have white Americans ever learned their own history in school? What needs to change so that accurate and unvarnished history is offered to all students and not merely glossed over or blown off by disengaged or ill-prepared students? How can conditions be changed so that people will not be inordinately fearful and paranoid, and large numbers will not turn to racist, homophobic, and misogynistic scapegoating and fascistic ideology?
The right-wing inspired attacks at school board meetings, the outrageous moves to sanitize curricula and history and to demonize CRT, along with attempts to undermine other honest efforts to teach accurate versions of history, and the concerted attempts to monetize and privatize schools are all extremely disturbing.
School and education come up in these discussions literally every single day. Yet, we have mainly platitudes, bromides, unanswered questions, impractical suggestions, and impossible demands.
This is a special request for Thom to do a “deep dive” and a focused and comprehensive study and at least one “daily take” on this topic.
I Firmly believe that there is massive confusion and no small amount of ignorance relative to these issues and that it will no longer suffice to merely take a position or to issue general statements without much more clarity, detail, and the same kind of phenomenal historical analysis for which Thom is revered. We cannot fight the right and prevent further erosion of knowledge and awareness about crucial issues because of public indifference or lack of insight unless we ourselves have a much better understanding of what has been happening and a vision for what we want for the future.
There are many, many more questions than answers. How do we stop an authoritarian fascist like the governor of FL (do not say his name)? How do we bolster public schools (which I have said are not truly public schools since the states control every aspect of their existence) and create more awareness and public support to maximize the resistance to privatization? What can be done to overcome structural factors contributing to racial inequality and subtle racism in schools and elsewhere and facilitated by media?
Did we all buy into the idealized Johnny Appleseed type image of people such as Horace Mann that we were given (where else but in school?) and did we too easily believe that their motives were pure as the driven snow as missionaries for the Enlightenment’s appreciation for education? Were those people truly striving to preserve democracy by urging intellectual development, edification, and academic excellence?
It should be noted that there are striking similarities between the highly influential and primarily wealthy individuals more than a century-and-a-half ago who were most instrumental in bringing us public schools and compulsory attendance laws and the billionaires, oligarchs, and fascists behind these right-wing machinations today. They were born-again capitalists according to some observers. Horace Mann, for one, was greatly impressed with the Prussian military-style academies which were organized to produce highly disciplined miniature soldiers ready to do battle. Does that comport with what we know about childhood development, child psychology, and an optimal model of pedagogy in 2023? Do we want soldiers (some of whom will die prematurely), or do we want scholars, humanitarians, and good citizens?
Here is what Dr. Peter Gray a highly respected PhD Psychology professor and author wrote in his blogpost on his Psychology Today blog entitled, “Freedom to Learn”, copied on the Salon website: “School is a prison -- and damaging our kids” (2013).
Schools as we know them today are a product of history, not of research into how children learn. The blueprint still used for today’s schools was developed during the Protestant Reformation, when schools were created to teach children to read the Bible, to believe scripture without questioning it, and to obey authority figures without questioning them. The early founders of schools were quite clear about this in their writings. The idea that schools might be places for nurturing critical thought, creativity, self-initiative or ability to learn on one’s own — the kinds of skills most needed for success in today’s economy — was the furthest thing from their minds. To them, willfulness was sinfulness, to be drilled or beaten out of children, not encouraged.
What are the implications for educating youth to enable them to be better prepared to participate in democracy? Elsewhere Dr. Gray says:
It’s obvious that compulsory schooling (which literally means forced schooling) is an assault on children’s liberty. Children are required to go to school, and in school, they are not free. In fact, children are more deprived of their liberty in school than adult criminals are in prison. They are told exactly where they must be and what they must do almost every moment; freedom of speech and assembly are banished; they have no say in the rules they must follow; and when they are accused of violating a rule, there is no due process in determining guilt or innocence or what their punishment will be. School has always been like this, but it is worse today than in times past because there is more of it and it is even more rigidly administered and restrictive than in the past.
Quoted from Peter Gray’s Psychology Today Blog, 2/28/19
It occurred to me to do a thought experiment as I worked on a new project the other day. Jefferson has been affectionally called the father of our democracy, as I recall. He spoke and wrote passionately, eloquently, and often about liberty, freedom, equality, justice, and the brotherhood of man. He almost certainly understood liberty as a concept as well as any psychologist living today or as well as those from the past to whom we look for its definition, such as James, Bettleheim, Maslow, or Rogers.
Jefferson also spoke about the essential need for the citizens of a democracy to be educated and well-informed. He surely would have said that a person must be free in her mind and free in his thinking to be liberated and to participate meaningfully in democracy.
The question to ask then is, would Jefferson ever have entertained the idea of using attendance laws or any form of force or coercion to compel a citizen, or all citizens, to become educated? Are you kidding!!!
The answer to that question should be obvious and swift. Jefferson would most likely have turned his back and walked away in disgust at such a ludicrous and insulting question. Liberty and education must be on an equal footing. There is no education without liberty, autonomy, and agency. Forcing education or schooling at any age is anathema to the concept of democracy or liberty. The mind cannot be free if the body is held captive or kept immobile and restrained for extended periods. Adults who have not enjoyed liberty and autonomy as children are never truly free. Jefferson surely knew this.
What is forced learning if not pernicious mind-control and a deprivation of agency, autonomy, and free thought? The issue arises solely because, since the founding of the country, schooling has mistakenly been conflated with education. The two are different, if not opposites.
We rail against the billionaires and arrogant and powerful people who today are trying to control school curricula or who are determined to privatize schools. But how did we get the paradigm that we currently have? We got it from fascist-minded wealthy capitalists who wanted to proliferate institutions that would shill for capital and for “stability” so they could continue multiplying their profits at the expense of the “rabble” and the students under the thumb of authorities that they could also control. It was never about education or democracy.
Dewey started advocating for change over a century ago and spelled out in great detail what the issues were for decades. Brown v. Board was in 1954. The Civil Rights Act was 1965. Holt and Kozol were active in the 80’s. How much longer are we going to wait for schools to catch up and stop the mediocrity and stop mass-producing mindless drones? Why are educators given a pass, and where is the leadership?
Why would anybody embrace fascism? Because of abject ignorance, fear, and a lifelong conditioning to depend on authority and infallible leaders, perhaps? C’mon people. C’mon Thom. It is time for a moment of truth.
Thom, I'm half-way through Screwed, and wondering if you're a member of the Thomas Paine Society. Is it relevant today, or should I join something noisier?
Your article details two core values of the "strict father" authoritarian family model that dominates the GQP: They believe in a social hierarchy to all things, and for living things, severe punishment is manditory to maintain their hierarchy.
Many people, world-wide, are taught and believe this. They seek out and elect "social dominators," "Trump, Abbott, and DeSantis," Erdoğan, Orbán, who share, and will turn, these core values into reality. They support voter suppression and "drug wars" to keep 'inferior' people from changing their assigned position on their hierarchy. They love tax breaks for the rich who can buy politicians who write laws to enforce their hierarchy.
The details and the research on these "strict father" values and why they are part of the GQP worldview can be studied in the works of Professor George Lakoff. His latest, recently revised, book on "family models" is titled "Don't Think of an Elephant - Know Your Values & Frame the Debate."
When are the book burnings going to start. They sure do not want people learning something that does not fit the right's narrative. They do not want us to come to that "wait a minute revelation; what are they trying to put over on us?". We all know people who talk like progressives when it comes to unions, the environment and so on and still vote for republicans.
Way more expert on Fascism and the cause of it then I am, Thom. You are using a lot of history re "White Male" supremacy. We are not living today predominately in Male Supremacy. Yes, we have a history of male dominance. But that is clearly changing. In my profession of therapy, probably 80% are women. And there are more women entering law, medical and graduate programs. And certainly more women in Congress. All this White male supremacy stuff get tied up with "toxic" masculinity. Not that there aren't really stupid White males holding on to "old" ways of Being. I typically ask men, in particular what "misandry" means. Most don't know. I'll will leave it at that...
Gerald casale, a co-founder of the new wave rock group "Devo" (short for deevolution) emphasized how so many people seem to find it very comforting to adopt mindless conventions so they don't have to make individual decisions. Devo inherently recognized how america was changing in the early 80s and moving further away from its cultural and political heritage.
Whereas carol Quigley in his great history called "tragedy and hope" discussed how the middle class society that had predominated in America involved a forward-thinking mentality in which people believed that their own individual effort would produce a better future for their individual lives. The key sociological concept was the future is not just a repeat of the past (eg, make america great again), rather, the future is uncertain but is subject to being moulded by the workings of people living in a democratic society with middle class values.
Here is one piece of casale speaking about "devo":
We had many of the same problems back then as we do now. There were the beginnings of this move to the right back then with the rise of [Ronald] Reagan. He was empowering the evangelicals. Pat Robertson and all those guys were being taken seriously and pressuring congressmen and senators. So “Freedom of Choice” was about if you don’t take it seriously, there are despots and tyrants that will take away from you. That’s the war that never ends… between leaders who are sane, democratic, tolerant and have egalitarian tendencies versus those with dictatorial tyrannical tendencies. We were trying to warn people by saying “freedom of choice is what you got.” People will choose mindless conformity because it’s more convenient. Because it’s comforting to not have to think about things and make a decision. Devo was always kind of sugarcoating heavy subjects with a dollop of satire and humor.
Just watched Till and then tuned-in to a Washington Journal segment where a woman told Toure "we" are tired of being called racist and then referred to him as "you people". OMG---that's it in a nutshell!
The racists, misogynists, and fascists do not like being shamed and labeled. Pride and arrogance---that IS what gave us Reagan and Trump. Some Americans do not want to look into the mirror to see how badly we've aged in these important matters.
After the onslaught of money put into hate radio, hate TV, and hateful think-tanks, people on the right were empowered to start the name-calling and to even do more killing. We did not label them or call them names for the many years before and during the time it took for them to reveal themselves.
The Republicans have grown to hate the truth. They hate anyone trying to tell it, but I HAVE to. They hate us for fighting back, but we MUST.
I have forwarded to my 17 yr granddaughter and 20 yr old grandson. Theirs is the generation that needs to know their own history.
Because capitalism in the hands of our two political parties has failed them (as over 100 Democrats are compelled to vote against socialism) and the establishment cannot be trusted.
An excellent, very succinct portrayal of where we are. I'll be referencing this article in my own writing.
The Good news?
. . . Strongmen often tend to crash and burn, before and after they ascend..
Another simple one, Thom. Dictators of note have all strutted about wearing jodhpurs and knee-high riding boots without a horse visible for miles. It's manliness of the highest order. Privileged Whites, either male or female, just go batty over manliness. It's in the genes.
Thom, when the Federal reserve raises the interest rates from what I can tell, it causes prices to go up and causes more inflation. The FED in my opinion is raising interest rates to replace Biden with a right wing capitalist fascist, not a socialist fascist. Supply line shortages is what causes inflation, whether intentional or not.
These fascist cult followers, most of them are white males, will learn the hard way that the globalist autocrats are not racist. They just want cheap labor and power and as much money as they can grab.
Biden needs to use his bully pulpit to educate Trump's followers. Biden needs to repeat over and over again like Trump that dictators can torture, kill, starve, enslave, poison , harvest organs, dissect slaves in bathrooms and much more.
The Fascist autocrats are classist. The fascist cult followers think they will be treated better than the liberals. All the autocrats fascist care about is if you can make money for them. If you are a useless eater, expect what Putin is doing with his disposable crowd. Sending them off to war to be killed by American bullets.
Someday American soldiers will be sent off to do battle with the Chinese and that will be how the prisons and intellectuals and many more groups get exterminated.
OK. So, this is the dernier cri. Born in 1953, lived it (unconsciously) "got it," as great people (you know who they are) became heard late 80's ff. Here you have encapsulated the essence of it all, maestro. I just wish there was a sign of the slightest chink in the lemming imperative to mass servility and suicide. My mother is immortal as avatar of the type: never failed to vote against proven economic common sense, (GI Bill and WPA, experienced benefits to her and family.) never failed to Pavlov-respond to scapegoating propaganda (dirty lazy hippies, bra-burners, and Khruschev/Obama) Master's Degreed college teacher absolute puppet of Rush and his ilk. Where is the teensiest pinprick in the hardwired DNA compelled to comply hook-line-sinker at slightest sneer of any given Trump-type?
“While Black history is under attack in schools across the nation by these same people, white Americans also need to learn their own history and Reaganism’s role in it.”
Easy for Thom to say. Not so easy to make it happen. When have white Americans ever learned their own history in school? What needs to change so that accurate and unvarnished history is offered to all students and not merely glossed over or blown off by disengaged or ill-prepared students? How can conditions be changed so that people will not be inordinately fearful and paranoid, and large numbers will not turn to racist, homophobic, and misogynistic scapegoating and fascistic ideology?
The right-wing inspired attacks at school board meetings, the outrageous moves to sanitize curricula and history and to demonize CRT, along with attempts to undermine other honest efforts to teach accurate versions of history, and the concerted attempts to monetize and privatize schools are all extremely disturbing.
School and education come up in these discussions literally every single day. Yet, we have mainly platitudes, bromides, unanswered questions, impractical suggestions, and impossible demands.
This is a special request for Thom to do a “deep dive” and a focused and comprehensive study and at least one “daily take” on this topic.
I Firmly believe that there is massive confusion and no small amount of ignorance relative to these issues and that it will no longer suffice to merely take a position or to issue general statements without much more clarity, detail, and the same kind of phenomenal historical analysis for which Thom is revered. We cannot fight the right and prevent further erosion of knowledge and awareness about crucial issues because of public indifference or lack of insight unless we ourselves have a much better understanding of what has been happening and a vision for what we want for the future.
There are many, many more questions than answers. How do we stop an authoritarian fascist like the governor of FL (do not say his name)? How do we bolster public schools (which I have said are not truly public schools since the states control every aspect of their existence) and create more awareness and public support to maximize the resistance to privatization? What can be done to overcome structural factors contributing to racial inequality and subtle racism in schools and elsewhere and facilitated by media?
Did we all buy into the idealized Johnny Appleseed type image of people such as Horace Mann that we were given (where else but in school?) and did we too easily believe that their motives were pure as the driven snow as missionaries for the Enlightenment’s appreciation for education? Were those people truly striving to preserve democracy by urging intellectual development, edification, and academic excellence?
It should be noted that there are striking similarities between the highly influential and primarily wealthy individuals more than a century-and-a-half ago who were most instrumental in bringing us public schools and compulsory attendance laws and the billionaires, oligarchs, and fascists behind these right-wing machinations today. They were born-again capitalists according to some observers. Horace Mann, for one, was greatly impressed with the Prussian military-style academies which were organized to produce highly disciplined miniature soldiers ready to do battle. Does that comport with what we know about childhood development, child psychology, and an optimal model of pedagogy in 2023? Do we want soldiers (some of whom will die prematurely), or do we want scholars, humanitarians, and good citizens?
Here is what Dr. Peter Gray a highly respected PhD Psychology professor and author wrote in his blogpost on his Psychology Today blog entitled, “Freedom to Learn”, copied on the Salon website: “School is a prison -- and damaging our kids” (2013).
Schools as we know them today are a product of history, not of research into how children learn. The blueprint still used for today’s schools was developed during the Protestant Reformation, when schools were created to teach children to read the Bible, to believe scripture without questioning it, and to obey authority figures without questioning them. The early founders of schools were quite clear about this in their writings. The idea that schools might be places for nurturing critical thought, creativity, self-initiative or ability to learn on one’s own — the kinds of skills most needed for success in today’s economy — was the furthest thing from their minds. To them, willfulness was sinfulness, to be drilled or beaten out of children, not encouraged.
What are the implications for educating youth to enable them to be better prepared to participate in democracy? Elsewhere Dr. Gray says:
It’s obvious that compulsory schooling (which literally means forced schooling) is an assault on children’s liberty. Children are required to go to school, and in school, they are not free. In fact, children are more deprived of their liberty in school than adult criminals are in prison. They are told exactly where they must be and what they must do almost every moment; freedom of speech and assembly are banished; they have no say in the rules they must follow; and when they are accused of violating a rule, there is no due process in determining guilt or innocence or what their punishment will be. School has always been like this, but it is worse today than in times past because there is more of it and it is even more rigidly administered and restrictive than in the past.
Quoted from Peter Gray’s Psychology Today Blog, 2/28/19
It occurred to me to do a thought experiment as I worked on a new project the other day. Jefferson has been affectionally called the father of our democracy, as I recall. He spoke and wrote passionately, eloquently, and often about liberty, freedom, equality, justice, and the brotherhood of man. He almost certainly understood liberty as a concept as well as any psychologist living today or as well as those from the past to whom we look for its definition, such as James, Bettleheim, Maslow, or Rogers.
Jefferson also spoke about the essential need for the citizens of a democracy to be educated and well-informed. He surely would have said that a person must be free in her mind and free in his thinking to be liberated and to participate meaningfully in democracy.
The question to ask then is, would Jefferson ever have entertained the idea of using attendance laws or any form of force or coercion to compel a citizen, or all citizens, to become educated? Are you kidding!!!
The answer to that question should be obvious and swift. Jefferson would most likely have turned his back and walked away in disgust at such a ludicrous and insulting question. Liberty and education must be on an equal footing. There is no education without liberty, autonomy, and agency. Forcing education or schooling at any age is anathema to the concept of democracy or liberty. The mind cannot be free if the body is held captive or kept immobile and restrained for extended periods. Adults who have not enjoyed liberty and autonomy as children are never truly free. Jefferson surely knew this.
What is forced learning if not pernicious mind-control and a deprivation of agency, autonomy, and free thought? The issue arises solely because, since the founding of the country, schooling has mistakenly been conflated with education. The two are different, if not opposites.
We rail against the billionaires and arrogant and powerful people who today are trying to control school curricula or who are determined to privatize schools. But how did we get the paradigm that we currently have? We got it from fascist-minded wealthy capitalists who wanted to proliferate institutions that would shill for capital and for “stability” so they could continue multiplying their profits at the expense of the “rabble” and the students under the thumb of authorities that they could also control. It was never about education or democracy.
Dewey started advocating for change over a century ago and spelled out in great detail what the issues were for decades. Brown v. Board was in 1954. The Civil Rights Act was 1965. Holt and Kozol were active in the 80’s. How much longer are we going to wait for schools to catch up and stop the mediocrity and stop mass-producing mindless drones? Why are educators given a pass, and where is the leadership?
Why would anybody embrace fascism? Because of abject ignorance, fear, and a lifelong conditioning to depend on authority and infallible leaders, perhaps? C’mon people. C’mon Thom. It is time for a moment of truth.
Thom, I'm half-way through Screwed, and wondering if you're a member of the Thomas Paine Society. Is it relevant today, or should I join something noisier?
Hi Thom,
Your article details two core values of the "strict father" authoritarian family model that dominates the GQP: They believe in a social hierarchy to all things, and for living things, severe punishment is manditory to maintain their hierarchy.
Many people, world-wide, are taught and believe this. They seek out and elect "social dominators," "Trump, Abbott, and DeSantis," Erdoğan, Orbán, who share, and will turn, these core values into reality. They support voter suppression and "drug wars" to keep 'inferior' people from changing their assigned position on their hierarchy. They love tax breaks for the rich who can buy politicians who write laws to enforce their hierarchy.
The details and the research on these "strict father" values and why they are part of the GQP worldview can be studied in the works of Professor George Lakoff. His latest, recently revised, book on "family models" is titled "Don't Think of an Elephant - Know Your Values & Frame the Debate."
https://www.powells.com/book/dont-think-of-an-elephant-10th-anniversary-edition-know-your-values-frame-the-debate-9781603585941
Thom helps us see who the GQP is. Lakoff helps us understand why they are who they are and how to respond to them.
Man I grew up during this time I remember those things happing, its hard to believe,
but God dam seems like
these tyrants have succeeded. As if we don't Struggle enough, hopefully we can over come this oppression.We Must become critical thinkers !
When are the book burnings going to start. They sure do not want people learning something that does not fit the right's narrative. They do not want us to come to that "wait a minute revelation; what are they trying to put over on us?". We all know people who talk like progressives when it comes to unions, the environment and so on and still vote for republicans.
Now that’s an EQ-- an essential question.
The answer to an EQ offers the reality-- the truth, and a solution.
Way more expert on Fascism and the cause of it then I am, Thom. You are using a lot of history re "White Male" supremacy. We are not living today predominately in Male Supremacy. Yes, we have a history of male dominance. But that is clearly changing. In my profession of therapy, probably 80% are women. And there are more women entering law, medical and graduate programs. And certainly more women in Congress. All this White male supremacy stuff get tied up with "toxic" masculinity. Not that there aren't really stupid White males holding on to "old" ways of Being. I typically ask men, in particular what "misandry" means. Most don't know. I'll will leave it at that...
Gerald casale, a co-founder of the new wave rock group "Devo" (short for deevolution) emphasized how so many people seem to find it very comforting to adopt mindless conventions so they don't have to make individual decisions. Devo inherently recognized how america was changing in the early 80s and moving further away from its cultural and political heritage.
Whereas carol Quigley in his great history called "tragedy and hope" discussed how the middle class society that had predominated in America involved a forward-thinking mentality in which people believed that their own individual effort would produce a better future for their individual lives. The key sociological concept was the future is not just a repeat of the past (eg, make america great again), rather, the future is uncertain but is subject to being moulded by the workings of people living in a democratic society with middle class values.
Here is one piece of casale speaking about "devo":
We had many of the same problems back then as we do now. There were the beginnings of this move to the right back then with the rise of [Ronald] Reagan. He was empowering the evangelicals. Pat Robertson and all those guys were being taken seriously and pressuring congressmen and senators. So “Freedom of Choice” was about if you don’t take it seriously, there are despots and tyrants that will take away from you. That’s the war that never ends… between leaders who are sane, democratic, tolerant and have egalitarian tendencies versus those with dictatorial tyrannical tendencies. We were trying to warn people by saying “freedom of choice is what you got.” People will choose mindless conformity because it’s more convenient. Because it’s comforting to not have to think about things and make a decision. Devo was always kind of sugarcoating heavy subjects with a dollop of satire and humor.