When it comes to preserving their extraordinary wealth and power, the 1% count on manipulating the public’s understanding of what’s happening, what’s right, and what’s possible. My research shows that their favorite “mind games” often target our doubts and concerns in five domains: vulnerability (Are we safe?), injustice (Are we being treated fairly?), distrust (Who …
Author Archives: royeidelson
Another Crossroads for the APA
“America happens to be my client. Americans are who I care about. I have no fondness for the enemy, and I don’t feel like I need to take care of their mental health needs.” — Bryce Lefever, former U.S. Navy clinical and SERE psychologist, member of the APA’s 2005 Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics …
POLITICAL MIND GAMES on the Gary Null Show
It was a pleasure to join Gary Null on his WBAI/Pacifica and Progressive Radio Network show today from New York City. We discussed my new book, POLITICAL MIND GAMES: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What’s Happening, What’s Right, and What’s Possible. You can listen to our conversation here:
“They’re Different from Us”: The Profiteers of Prejudice
“They’re Different from Us.” It’s a favorite mind game of the self-serving 1% when they want to stifle broad opposition to their agenda. By manipulating our understanding of what’s happening, what’s right, and what’s possible, this psychological appeal takes advantage of prejudice to promote distrust and division within and across communities. Today’s greed-driven plutocrats know …
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My Interview with Egberto Willies on “Politics Done Right”
On June 6th I had the opportunity to talk with Egberto Willies about authoritarians, plutocrats, racial justice, and political mind games on his “Politics Done Right” show. You can listen to the half-hour interview HERE.
Authoritarians, Plutocrats, and the Fight for Racial Justice
On the campaign trail, Donald J. Trump routinely lashed out at protesters brazen enough to disrupt his choreographed rallies. In Birmingham, Alabama, he shouted, “Get him out of here. Throw him out!” The next day he added, “Maybe he should have been roughed up.” In Burlington, Vermont, Trump ordered his security personnel to “Throw them …
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The APA Speaks Out Against Gina Haspel
The journey to redemption is long and often tempest-tossed. But the American Psychological Association (APA) took another noteworthy step last week when CEO Arthur Evans Jr. sent a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee, expressing concern over President Trump’s nomination of Gina Haspel as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Amid heated debate over …
The DCCC’s Mind Games and the Ballad of Roy Moore
It’s bad enough that the business-friendly Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and other establishment Democrats are aggressively tipping the scales in favor of their hand-picked “moderate” candidates in primary contests around the country. It’s even worse that they’ve now taken to defending this strategy by comparing unwelcome progressives to the likes of Roy Moore. We …
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My Interview about POLITICAL MIND GAMES with Bill Newman of WHMP Radio
In late April I had the pleasure of being a guest on Bill Newman’s WHMP Radio Show. Bill and I spent 20 minutes discussing the political mind games that the super-rich and powerful use to advance their selfish agenda while betraying the common good. You can listen to the interview below, beginning at the 5:00-minute …
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The 1%’s Mind Games: Psychology Gone Bad
“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely …