The Captured Republican Mind

According to the headline, Republicans are "Buying Guns in response to COVID-19" but won't wear masks. That seems about right: The Republican resistance to masks right now makes about as much sense as shooting the virus or something.

On the other hand, if you watch Fox News you are convinced that cities are full of riots every night and Democratic governors are standing by pointing teams of looters towards Goya establishments so they can properly pillage them. Given that situation, who wouldn't want some guns? If they come for The Omnivore's bean-stash, things are going to get bloody.

Uh huh.

The Omnivore wants to point out that while the above is tongue in cheek, you would be forgiven for thinking "well, it kinda makes sense"--after all, we do have civil unrest. There have been riots--and Republicans see the gun as the go-to for personal protection. Even if you aren't sitting on a pile of delicions Republican beans, you might be forgiven for stocking up on the ammo.

Right?

Right?

Alt-Right?

Wrong

Forget for a moment that The Omnivore's friends in cities don't seem to report post-apocalypse conditions (maybe in Portland?) the problem isn't simply one of an abundance of caution. No, if that were the case, the guys buying guns would also be wearing masks. After all, no one rightly thinks masks could have no effect no f'ing way--and we are being told to wear them by doctors on both sides and by political figures on both sides of the aisle (Mitch McConnell, for example).

So why aren't they wearing masks?

The same reason they're buying guns: Psychological Capture. Dr. David Kessler defines "Capture" as the unconscious focusing of attention on something and bringing with it a suite of emotional connotations with it. The focusing of attention in "Capture" is both not-intentional and is an iron-grip. The subject doesn't realize they have been captured and thus, cannot escape.

Whether this theory of his is right or not, it fits well with what's going on with a subset of Republicans caught in the fugue of COVID and masks. They are focused on the liberal perspective around (everything): COVID. 

They (rightly) see COVID as the thing that is going to de-MAGA America and is most-likely to unseat Trump. Biden might beat Trump without COVID but the presence of COVID makes it far, far more likely. Their attention is focused not on the threat, primarily, but on the potential / coming liberal win in November (and therefore in life) on the back of this viral pandemic.

The focus on liberals--the capture--means they are incapable of seeing their actions in the larger context. The virus is an attack against them. It is something in league with the liberals.

This comes out in several ways. It makes no sense to say "The Libs are Working With The Virus" but they can say things that they feel do make sense. As always, these are reverse-rationalizations where they (and most people) start with the outcome and work backwards to get the rationalization. For example:

• The Media is over-blowing the virus. 
• The President's Advisors are secretly working against him, whispering in his ear to destroy the economy.
• Dem-Governors are allowing the protests (because they get media attention which hurts POTUS) while cracking down on good, MAGA church attendance (which is indoors, includes much singing and so on).
• The Libs are requiring Masks as a religious show of fealty and/or submission.

All of these are obvious bullshit. If we know anything it's that the administration has consistently downplayed the virus. We have no reason to believe that the president's science advisors are working against him secretly or otherwise. The protests are different from regular church attendance for a number of reasons (outdoors, cracking down on them would just raise the heat level, etc.), and the wearing of masks isn't religious and isn't political.

The capture here also makes it clear that the Republicans would buy guns: buying guns gives you the same psychological hit of owning-the-libs as not wearing a mask. It means you're in the club. It's promoting things you like that libs hate (in your mind). And so on. 

Pretty much all of Republican ideology has become focused, singularly, on what makes Libs angry. Want to make libs angry? Repeal Obamacare. That'll make them angry (never mind that it'll just lead to chaos and lots of people, Lib-and-otherwise losing their healthcare coverage). This philosophy exists at, pretty much, all levels of government and is one of the governing precepts for guys like Mitch McConnell and the Freedom Caucus.

It's also . . . 

QAnon.

The Rise of QAnon In The Captured Mind

The story of QAnon is a crazy one: the Dems (and many other world leaders) are running a world-wide pedovore (eating children) network that is being fought by Military Intelligence who recruited Donald Trump to take down the whole system. The good guys explain their war against the ultimate evil by posting on 8chan (now 8kun).  In the spectrum around this floats aliens, flat-earth, a still alive JFK Jr., and so on.

And yet, the headline: Head of the NYPD gives interview with QAnon Mug In Background. Maybe someone just gave the dude the mug and he kept it. Maybe it means literally nothing--but really? At least 11 GOP Candidates are QAnon friendly. It's not evenly distributed--there are zero Democratic candidates who buy into large scale politically based bat-shit conspiracy theories (this is because there is nothing in the Democratic sphere that approximates QAnon in terms of scale, belief, and support).

The not-wearing-a-mask thing and the support for QAnon might not seem linked at first--but The Omnivore thinks they share a common-cause: in both of these the focus is on talismans (the Q symbol and the non-mask stance) that the users think make Libs angry or scared. There's no reason not to wear a mask. There's no reason  to believe QAnon is real or to display a Q-sign--but we know that across a large swath of Republicans the interest in both is solid and possibly growing. 

What Happens Next?

The Omnivore certainly doesn't know what happens next--but The Omnivore can tell you what it probably means: because the Capture is intense and subconscious then the next move of the GOP will almost necessarily be  whatever they can think of that makes Libs angry. Expect Dinesh D'Sousa 2024.

More seriously, we will see a narrowing of the GOP focus to working only--perhaps solely--against Libs and even less in favor of any form of guidance.