Authoritarianism loves a misinformed public

Get informed

I’ve already told you that you absolutely need to read Katherine Stewart’s essential new book, Money, Lies, and God. In honor of its release today, I’m telling you again: Read. This. Book.

Buy it, borrow it from your library, buy one for a friend, start a book club, tell everyone you know to read it themselves.

As a journalist and author of two other books on religious nationalism, Katherine has been tracking this movement for more than a decade. She attends their events, reads their treatises, and can put all the pieces together for you in a way that is comprehensible. And, frankly, chilling. But if we don’t understand the forces coalescing to destry our democracy, we won’t be able to save it.

Salon’s Amanda Marcotte is another journalist who’s been skillfully covering various aspects of this movement. This morning, Salon published a conversation between the two. I include excerpts below, but I recommend reading the whole thing.

And also, get the book.

You describe the modern right as motivated by "reactionary nihilism." Can you tell me what you mean by this phrase, and, and how it plays out?

It's a description of those whose fundamental aim is really to destroy things, rather than create things. By reactionary, I mean that, rather than advance or progress toward a better society, this movement emphasizes a "return" to an imaginary better past. A past that includes elements of regressive social order, like gender hierarchy. It's a suppression of certain forms of speech, attacks on religious freedom of those who don't conform and racism. Put together, these words describe this anti-democratic reaction. It's those who believe that the democratic political system is so bad that it needs to be smashed and destroyed. At the same time, they're exalting a completely fictitious and unrealistic fantasy of a "golden age." It's retreating into a fantasy that's projected onto the past.

Right now, so much focus has shifted from the Christian right to the MAGA techbros like Elon Musk. But they're both in the mix. How does it all fit together?

The new right and Christian nationalists are a power couple of American authoritarianism. Both want to smash the institutions that safeguard our democracy. They've said it in different ways. The smashing of the "administrative state" is more of a new right concept. The Christian nationalist movement is more focused on rejecting pluralism and equality. But both are committed to this anti-democratic project. On the Christian right, they would say our democratic system is not godly. On the new right, they would say it simply doesn't work, that it's outlived its purpose. They want to smash it up and create something new, and that's an autocracy.

The Christian nationalist side has been an authoritarian movement for quite some time. They refer to Donald Trump like a biblical ruler. They compare him King Cyrus or King David, an imperfect ruler God chose to enact his will. Here's the thing about kings: they're not part of a democracy. They're the law onto themselves. Christian nationalists have persuaded themselves they're facing a demonic other, defined as anyone who doesn't believe as they do. They also believe God's hand is on Trump's shoulder. If anybody opposes him, they're going against God.

Trump became the perfect leader for an authoritarian movement. He doesn't respect the rules. He's a law unto himself. He's promising to smash heads, and that's fine with them as long as as they think it's the heads of their supposedly demonic enemy….

You [write] that a major step Christian nationalists have taken to advance their goals is to convince their voters "to transfer the perceived source of political legitimacy from democratic processes to the so-called higher authorities." Can you elaborate?

They believe the US is not founded on principles, but on a specific religious and cultural heritage. They argue America is on the brink of an apocalypse, owing to the rise of equality and what they call "wokeness." They argue democracy, as a system, isn't sufficient to meet the "challenges" of feminism and equality. They believe the democratic rules no longer apply, because we're facing this absolute apocalypse of equality. They want an authoritarian leader who puts himself above the law, who's gonna seize the reins of power, and scrap the rule of law in favor of the iron fist.

Why are they so convinced that we're in an apocalyptic moment?

This is what authoritarian leaders do. Christian nationalism is not just an ideology. It's also not just a political movement. It's a mindset, which includes 4 features. First is "us versus them" or "pure versus the impure," or those who properly "belong" in the country, and those who do not. Second, there's a sense of persecution. They claim white conservative Christians are being persecuted more than any other group in society. Third is the sense that we're facing an apocalypse. They share this view with the new right. It's always, "If we don't win this election, we're gonna go under the control of the Illuminati and the devil's gonna be controlling us for hundreds of years." So it's any means necessary to "save" us from this terrible fate.

Those three ideas clear the way for the acceptance of an authoritarian leader, someone who doesn't respect the rules, who will punish their enemies, and who will suspend the rule of law. If you look at what's happening in our politics today, you can see it playing out before our eyes. In the first weeks of the Trump presidency, we're seeing a version of Project 2025. They've been telling us for a long time they're gonna smash the institutions that safeguard our democracy. That's what they're doing….

Many of the big names in the MAGA movement are far-right Catholics — people like Bill Barr or Sam Alito — but their Catholic spin on Christian nationalism flies under the radar.

Christian nationalism is often characterized as a white evangelical movement, but it would be nowhere without ultraconservative Catholics. But that's why I focus on the funders and the intellectuals of the movement. The rank and file are very different and have different concerns. But the funders are not any one type. Some are Catholic, some evangelicals, some Jewish. Others are frankly quite atheistic. Religiously they're all over the place, but they agree on one thing: the need to crush liberals and destroy what they call the administrative state. Most funders are more driven by economic policy than by culture war issues. The culture war issues are what get the rank and file on board….

…But it's not just about fleecing [followers], but exploiting them for political gain. They do that by promoting fear. They tell them evil woke demons are going to come after you in your house. They're gonna change your kids' gender against their will in their public schools. They're gonna control every cent you own. The fear makes people susceptible to manipulation. How do you get half of American voters to support a guy who is a convicted criminal, who exploited all of these people that he's gone into business with? Well, you do it by convincing them that he is being persecuted, that the election of 2020 was stolen, that God's hand is on his shoulder, and if anyone else is elected, then that goes against God's will.

Many of these supporters don't recognize that American democracy might be destroyed. Some don't care. They think it's more important to put a strong man in power to demolish the supposedly dangerous radical left. But whether they don't care or don't know, it's because they've been colossally misinformed. That's how they rationalize their choices at the ballot box. And I would have to say this is not just about Trump. Authoritarianism loves a misinformed public. The anti-democratic movement has funded this massive propaganda campaign that has led us to where we are today.