Read on Twitter
The right: *uses social media to plot violent overthrow of country*
Social media: *bans people plotting or encouraging violent overthrow of country*
The right: It's not fair! You're just attacking us because of our politics. You're being anti-democratic!
Everyone else:
Social media: *bans people plotting or encouraging violent overthrow of country*
The right: It's not fair! You're just attacking us because of our politics. You're being anti-democratic!
Everyone else:
The way Republicans and the right have responded to the Jan. 6 attack--explicitly by Trump supporters on Trump's behalf--has been an abusive tactic known as DARVO. https://twitter.com/O_Waite/status/1347801989636182016
DARVO is so effective because perpetrators of abuse twist reality so their victims look less believable and more aggressive.
Hence Republicans on the evening of the attack saying, "We're better than this. This is what Democrats do, not what we do."
Hence Republicans on the evening of the attack saying, "We're better than this. This is what Democrats do, not what we do."
See Josh Hawley engaging in DARVO at 1:18:15. He invokes the BLM protests as "violence against law enforcement," and then draws equivalence with the right-wing attack on the Capitol.
"DARVO...describes how perpetrators of interpersonal violence deflect blame and responsibility when confronted for their abusive behavior. When used, a perpetrator denies or minimizes the harms of any wrongdoing, attacks the victim’s credibility...
"...and reverses victim and offender roles such that the perpetrator assumes a victimized position and declares the victim to be the true perpetrator."
"'Outrage management' is a term that represents a set of techniques employed by perpetrators that mitigate observers’ negative evaluations of both perpetrators and their objectionable behaviors..."
"[S]uch outrage management techniques include casting doubt onto the credibility of the victim and denying the victims’ versions of events or reframing them so that they appear more innocuous." https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10926771.2020.1774695
Within 2 hours of the Capitol being cleared of violent attackers seeking to overthrow Congress to keep Trump in power, Republicans were already--from the halls of the Capitol--mobilizing to discredit the victims of right-wing violence and downplaying the violence itself.
While watching Republicans speaking during the electoral vote count, I tweeted this about the tactics I was watching: https://twitter.com/RomancingNope/status/1347043800741519361
"Researchers have also proposed that perpetrators will engage in one of two strategies in order to deflect blame for wrongdoing: either admit to committing the wrongdoing but emphasize previous good behavior (play the hero), or highlight some past suffering (play the victim)...
"In a series of experimental studies, Gray and Wegner examined the impact of these two roles on observers and discovered that playing the victim – but not playing the hero – effectively decreases the amount of blame ascribed to the perpetrator." https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10926771.2020.1774695
We are 3 days out from a right-wing attack, and efforts from private companies to crack down on both those who plotted and participated in violence on Jan. 6 and those who continue to plot future violent attacks have been met with cries of victimization from the right.
What's more, these cries of victimization have been met with calls for shifting political power and authority further to the right. The major calls have been for new laws to be passed restricting what social media platforms can and can't do or even nationalizing social media.
"By leading observers to see a perpetrator as less abusive and as bearing a smaller portion of responsibility for their harmful actions, DARVO helps deflect some of the blame away from the perpetrator."
The other component of this is downplaying the violence of perpetrators.
The other component of this is downplaying the violence of perpetrators.
"They were just walking around." "They didn't hurt anyone." "He just picked up those zip ties to be helpful."
These are all phrases we've heard in the last 3 days from people minimizing the threat to members of Congress and the Vice President on Wednesday.
These are all phrases we've heard in the last 3 days from people minimizing the threat to members of Congress and the Vice President on Wednesday.
"They were just angry." "They have legitimate concerns about the election." "They feel no one is listening to them." "If only you would take them seriously, they wouldn't have done this."
More phrases we've heard in the last 3 days that fall into the DARVO pattern.
More phrases we've heard in the last 3 days that fall into the DARVO pattern.
The goal of DARVO is to reduce punishments for perpetrators, pave the path for future violent behavior being deemed acceptable, and undermine the victims' ability to seek redress or make changes to protect themselves in the future.
Right now, it's working.
Right now, it's working.
And it's working in no small part because the press engages it. Republicans say, "BLM was violent, and some on the right were violent, and both were equally bad," and the media's language--due to race of the perpetrators--makes that seem true, even if objectively...
...there is no equivalence.
Republicans say, "This isn't us. We don't engage in violence. This is what Democrats do." And the press doesn't challenge them or refute them.
Republicans say, "This isn't us. We don't engage in violence. This is what Democrats do." And the press doesn't challenge them or refute them.
Republicans say, "Democrats didn't accept the 2016 results. Republicans aren't this year." And the press repeats this as if it's true.
Republicans say, "Liberal social media treats the right unfairly and are unfairly targeting us now." And the press amplifies that message.
Republicans say, "Liberal social media treats the right unfairly and are unfairly targeting us now." And the press amplifies that message.
"In a study examining the effect of exculpatory writing styles on perceptions of male perpetrators of domestic violence, researchers found that participants who read newspaper articles implicating a shared responsibility for the abuse...
"...assigned more lenient punishments to the perpetrator." - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10926771.2020.1774695
The way the press covers these events--and right-wing gaslighting in the aftermath--has a real effect on whether abuse is punished and stopped.
The way the press covers these events--and right-wing gaslighting in the aftermath--has a real effect on whether abuse is punished and stopped.
Media "both sides"-ism is, in fact, DARVO, and the result has been the steady, predictable escalation of right-wing violence over the last 30 years, but especially in the last 12 years.
The abuse--from right-wing leadership AND the press--has been so consistent and severe that when a Republican president sics a right-wing mob on the Capitol to overturn an election they lost to Democrats, Democrats are blamed for it.
"Some of the DARVO effects discovered in the first experiment were found to be reduced by learning about this perpetrator tactic. Moreover, having some knowledge about this tactic produced more pro-victim assessments:...
"...compared to those who made victim and perpetrator judgments without reading about DARVO, a smaller proportion of individuals who received information about DARVO agreed that the victim should be punished.
"DARVO-educated individuals were also more likely to agree that the perpetrator should be punished... [T]his perhaps suggests that a more extensive educational intervention...would result in additional inoculation against DARVO." https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10926771.2020.1774695
Journalists and reporters NEED to be trained on how to recognize DARVO. Newsrooms MUST be given the education and tools to recognize DARVO when they see it and to reject it.
If we do not, we will lose our country to violent extremists.
If we do not, we will lose our country to violent extremists.
On Wednesday we saw a violent attack on our nation's Capitol and an attempt from pro-Trump insurrectionists to commit mass murder of Congress and the Vice President. We know they are already planning to try again.
But the efforts to STOP that planning have been met with outrage.
But the efforts to STOP that planning have been met with outrage.
If social media isn't allowed to stop active planning for violent insurrection--or to ban users who have already participated in violent insurrection--because "it's partisan," then what we are saying is right-wing power is more important than laws and democracy.
A really crucial, final point I want to make here is that right-wing power is ultimately about WHITE power.
And this plays into DARVO too, because race impacts how we view the credibility and sympatheticness of both perpetrators and victims. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/1471-6402.00049
And this plays into DARVO too, because race impacts how we view the credibility and sympatheticness of both perpetrators and victims. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/1471-6402.00049
The press and the right are able to draw false equivalences between BLM and the attack on the Capitol, because BLM is Black people and allies questioning white authority and violence, while the attack on the Capitol is white people attacking Black voters diminishing their power.
