Buried deep in the new Pew poll exploring the effect of Romney's Mormonism in the election lies a disturbing result:
Views of Obama’s Religion
The number of conservative Republicans who say Obama is a Muslim has doubled since October 2008 (from 16% to 34%). There has been virtually no change in the share of moderate and liberal Republicans who say Obama is Muslim, or among any Democratic or Democratic-leaning groups.
H/T to the
Midday Thread for drilling down to this poll result for us. The cause of Republican confusion on the objective facts of the President's religion is hardly unknown or hidden. Consider the daily bombardment of lies, hate and fear rained down upon that minority of Americans who self-identify as conservative Republicans. Limbaugh, FOX, and too many others, notably including many elected officials, spew nonstop, with Megachurch pulpits lined up at their side.
As noted in the MDT, quoting Paul Waldman in The Prospect:
Liberals look at conservatives claiming that Obama is a socialist or that he doesn't really love America and think, "Those people are nuts." But there is practically consensus in the GOP that these things are true. If a Republican candidate came out today and said, "Barack Obama is a good person who loves his country, but I just think he's wrong about policy," that candidate would probably get kicked out of the party.
Waldman's remark that most of us must think that most of those Republicans "are nuts" causes me to wonder whether they really are. If this really is some form of psychosis, then I also wondered whether it is an induced psychosis, caused, in some direct and tangible way, from the endless flood of media misinformation that defines reality for this group of our fellow citizens.
Come see what I found.
The GOP faith in the nature of the President's faith struck me as a delusion, because it just isn't so, but they believe it anyway. But what would a mental health professional say? Checking the authoritative PsychCentral website taught me a lot in a hurry. Delusional disorder is carefully described:
Delusional disorder is characterized by the presence of non-bizarre delusions which have persisted for at least one month. Non-bizarre delusions typically are beliefs of something occurring in a person's life which is not out of the realm of possibility. For example, the person may believe their significant other is cheating on them, that someone close to them is about to die, a friend is really a government agent, etc. All of these situations could be true or possible, but the person suffering from this disorder knows them not to be (e.g., through fact-checking, third-person confirmation, etc.).
People who have this disorder generally don't experience a marked impairment in their daily functioning in a social, occupational or other important setting. Outward behavior is not noticeably bizarre or objectively characterized as out-of-the-ordinary.
Am I missing something. This seems like a precise description of many conservative Republicans.
Then there is this, from the section on treating delusional disorders:
Trust is a key issue, as is unconditional support. If the client believes that the therapist really does think he or she is "crazy," the therapy can terminate abruptly.
It appears that more than 1/3 of self-identified conservative Republicans believe Barack Obama to be Muslim, a demonstrably and objectively untrue fact. The trend line is up. Their delusion fits the subtype:
Persecutory Type: delusions that the person (or someone to whom the person is close) is being malevolently treated in some way
It is of a kind with Birtherism, as the delusional beliefs serve to delegitimize the President and paint him as an intolerable and unacceptable usurper.
Delusional Disorder is an honest to goodness mental illness, though relatively a mild one given the general absence of "marked impairment in their daily functioning". If figures in the media are intentionally spreading this mental illness, should we have to put up with it as a society? Would the 1st Amendment permit them to spread the common cold or other mild physical illness? I don't think so. Why should we allow them to spread mental illness?
These sickened minds are those of our neighbors and coworkers and family and friends. This is a preventable national mental health crisis, and no one has even noticed.