Mass delusion

Attention Palmer Report readers: sign up for our free mailing list here
-----
Note from Bill Palmer: if each of you reading this can kick in $10 or $25, it'll help keep Palmer Report firing on all cylinders at this crucial time in our nation's history: Donate now


It was the year 1962. A mysterious ailment was infecting employees at a United States textile factory in the dressmaking department. Vomiting, lightheadedness, and nausea were just some of the symptoms. Nobody knew what this ailment was. Wild stories started to spread about a bug that was loose in this textile factory that was biting people.

Over 60 employees were infected. Some were hospitalized. Just what WAS this horrific disease hurting so many? It was nothing. Well — that isn’t QUITE true. It WAS something — it was mass hysteria. You see, research was conducted on the ailment by experts in communicable diseases.

And while these experts did believe that a few people might have been sick, they found no evidence at all of a bug. Many taken ill could show no evidence of any bites from anything. And it was concluded that hysteria was to blame for these symptoms.

It was named The June bug epidemic. There are so many stories like this. I’ve spoken about some of them in other articles. They’re all part of mass hysteria or mass delusions. And that is what I think plays a huge role in the Maga world.

Mass hysteria and mass delusions are ” a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions of threats, whether real or imaginary, through a population and society as a result of rumors and fear.”

Some of these delusions are manifested by people thinking they have an illness, like the situation described above. And for some, it’s psychological. There is no doubt that masses of people in this country are psychologically delusional. And it does seem the more contact they have with each other, the worse they get.

The types of mass delusions these people believe in include:

Bill Gates is implanting chips in all of us as guinea pigs.

JFK Junior is still alive.

We’re living in a movie.

The January 6 insurrection was faked.

It’s become one unending, giant mass delusion. Social media has surely helped spread the delusions a lot quicker than they might otherwise have spread. But mass delusions go way back. This is not a new phenomenon.

Undoubtedly, future historians will study our Maga mass delusion just as we study other delusions from the past. And just like us, these future people will have their own mass delusions to deal with. Because sadly, the cure-all for these delusions has not yet been found.

Attention Palmer Report readers: sign up for our free mailing list here
-----
Note from Bill Palmer: if each of you reading this can kick in $10 or $25, it'll help keep Palmer Report firing on all cylinders at this crucial time in our nation's history: Donate now