The United States has a Putinitis Problem
Programming note: As I write this the monthly inflation numbers have come out. Since inflation posts are some of my most popular, it’s clear y’all are interested. So, I will have a good bit to say about the numbers and hopefully get that out soon.
Despite all the Russian involvement in our politics the last 6ish years, Vladimir Putin has nothing to do with our Putinitis problem. He is just the most high profile example of it. To understand what I mean, let’s start with a quick war update.
Ukraine has made some serious leaps in their defense against the Russian invasion. They have moved to offense and have pushed Russian forces out of large swaths of Ukrainian territory. I don’t pretend to be a foreign policy or military intelligence expert, so I might be wrong in thinking that this feels like the beginning of the final phase of the ground war, and Ukraine will win.
How did this happen? It was only a few months ago that it was the new hotness in the US to praise Putin and Russia’s military as ubermensch—the red blooded, masculine, aggressive, EXTRA large Y chromosome types that ought to make the teeny weeny docile and woke US infantry men and women wet their mommy’s bed at night.
Now, the undermanned, under-equipped Ukrainian patriots appear to be pushing toward an inevitable victory (unless Putin decides to use WMDs—God forbid).
Most folks (myself included) expected Ukraine to make a brave but futile defense against a Russian juggernaut, but Russia was nothing but a hot air balloon—lots of fire, but no firepower.
Though I’m not an expert in foreign or military policy, some really smart people have some convincing ideas about why this happened. If you are interested in foreign policy I recommend reading the details, but the summary is good enough for this letter, since this is really about domestic policy. Essentially, oligarchs and military leaders took the money and resources for the military and enriched themselves with it, short changing the soldiers. They lied to Putin and told him all the “great” things the military was capable of with their supposed innovations and investments. They cared more about things being shiny for impressive military parades, and less about being able to make things go boom when Putin asked for it. I’m told that being unable to give Putin what he wants has been a pretty large drag on life expectancy in Russia over the years, so people just started telling Putin what he wanted to hear, rather than actually giving him what he wanted.
And so, here we are. Ukraine’s defense is heroic and amazing, and Putin is getting desperate.
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Since I write about domestic policy, you can probably see where this might be going. It would be really easy to highlight all the similarities between Putin’s failures caused by his subordinates and Trump’s. Perhaps Trump was even worse off than Putin, since he routinely sought out lackeys because he wanted to be told the lies.
But the truth is, like most things with Donald Trump, his isn’t the problem, just the most conspicuous symptom.
This Putinitis—telling people what they want to hear for one’s own benefit, rather than telling the truth—is epidemic in the United States. It’s a highly infectious disease that spreads through social media, legacy media, political infrastructure, and personal contact, and once a person is infected it is really difficult to cure. It infects both ideologies equally. Just a few examples of the symptoms in our civil leadership:
Trump—see above.
Beto O’Rourke wants to take away guns and thinks that won’t disqualify him from being governor of Texas.
Lindsey Graham is trying to ban abortion nationwide—despite the Supreme Court pretending all they wanted to do was let states decide.
Mike Lee thinks democracy isn’t as great as getting the outcomes he wants.
Joe Biden thinks cancelling student loans is a winner.
The list could go on for days, but you get the point. Over and over again our civic leaders are under the impression that their unpopular ideas are popular. They are being misinformed by their staff and aides about the realities on the ground. Political interests are telling policy actors that it is their benefit to be more extreme. After Mitt Romney lost in 2012 the answer from the fringe right was that he was not conservative enough. After Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 the answer from the fringe left was that she was not liberal enough.
The actual track record of the fringe candidates who walk this line on either side isn’t great. Outside of stacked or gerrymandered individual congressional districts, the record of these extreme candidates is pretty awful. They just don’t win, and bad candidates are the reason Republicans look unlikely to win the Senate in the fall. But these candidates just keep popping up because Putinitis is everywhere. Very Important People are being told what they want to hear and they make poor decisions because of it.
As bad as the problem is among civic leaders, Putinitis runs wild though every corner of real America too. People will sign up to be told exactly what they want to be told, and be hilariously overconfident about their decisions because of it.
Steve Bannon has just been arrested over money laundering/fraud charges because he raised millions of dollars to build a border wall, but didn’t seem to have any intent of actually building a border wall.
Alex Jones was found liable for nearly $50 million in damages because lied about the mass shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary. And that total could be growing soon.
True the Vote, which made itself out to be a 2020 election ‘fraud’ activist organization seems to have used donations to enrich its founders.
A founder of Black Lives Matter is accused of taking $10 million from the organization for personal benefit.
An election denier, previously convicted of fraud, can make a popular video of hilariously stupid claims, and people will celebrate it.
Accomplished researches who might have the gall to make their students think about uncomfortable things get fired because of the outrage their students feel.
This list could go on and on as well, but it can be best summed up in one necessarily all caps sentence:
WE HAVE POLIO IN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN!!!!!
Everywhere we look, over and over again, we have Putinitis spreading like wildfire. So many Americans flat out refuse to hear any information that doesn’t fit in their fragile bubble. We are only told what we want to hear, and we think we are informed and intelligent not despite this—but often because of this. White college educated activists are running around telling Latino voters they should refer to themselves as Latinx without enough self awareness to realize they are offending they very people about whom they insist they are allies.
Just like Putin these people, misinformed of the reality of the world around them, charge headlong and overconfident into public life of one sort or another, then lash out at people around them when they fail. The once mighty Russian bear has been tamed and may be put down because Putinitis reached the top of the government. Yet it spreads here, unchecked, and everyone seems to think we can avoid all consequences.
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Say what you will about Mitch McConnell—and I’ve said a lot—but he is absolutely immune to Putinitis. His example here is the miracle cure we all need for Putinitis. What makes him immune? He never wants to be told what he wants to hear, only what he needs to hear. He isn’t the kind of guy who punishes people for disagreeing. Instead, he actively seeks out different points of view from his own and is excruciatingly careful about the information he uses to make decisions.
Above all, he understands one inoculating principle—smart people listen to those whose job depends on being right. Talk radio hosts, cable news personalities, grassroots activists, and social media darlings don’t have to be correct about anything to keep their job. Everyone reading this can think of people from the other side who fit this description, but thinking flaws only apply to people from the other side is one of the first symptoms of Putinitis. Glenn Beck, Tucker Carlson, Rachel Maddow, Brian Tyler Cohen, and any of their other media counterparts don’t need to be right to keep their jobs; they need you to come back and listen to them again. This creates an incentive for them to not care about being right, but rather care about being inflammatory and addictive.
These people should be treated as what they are: entertainers. Anyone who wants to avoid Putinitis needs to understand that entertainment and information are not always overlapping. Political entertainment sources are not inherently bad, but the reason Mitch McConnell keeps winning is not because he listens to these entertainers. They have a role, but quality information isn’t it.
Find people whose job depends on being right. Experts in their fields who get fired if they are too wrong too often. Don’t just listen to the people who make you feel good—listen to the people who don’t care how you feel. It’s how Mitch McConnell has avoided the Putinitis plague for decades. Without this immunization the United States will run the same risks Russia has run, and the free world is counting on us to get things right.
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