[Article] The Paranoid Style in American Politics, By Richard Hofstadter | Harper’s Magazine

[Article] The Paranoid Style in American Politics, By Richard Hofstadter | Harper’s Magazine

American politics has often been an arena for angry minds. In recent years we have seen angry minds at work mainly among extreme right-wingers, who have now demonstrated in the Goldwater movement how much political leverage can be got out of the animosities and passions of a small minority. But behind this I believe there is a style of mind that is far from new and that is not necessarily right-wing. I call it the paranoid style simply because no other word adequately evokes the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind. In using the expression “paranoid styleȁ I am not speaking in a clinical sense, but borrowing a clinical term for other purposes. I have neither the competence nor the desire to classify any figures of the past or present as certifiable lunatics. In fact, the idea of the paranoid style as a force in politics would have little contemporary relevance or historical value if it were applied only to men with profoundly disturbed minds. It is the use of paranoid modes of expression by more or less normal people that makes the phenomenon significant.

Radar and Sky Cover

It looks like later we might have some clearing with snow 🌨 showers up north.

Finger Lakes Trail

Here is a map of the Finger Lakes Trail, shown in Green . Unfortunately a few of the segments are missing from the trail, they are unavailable on OpenStreetMap at least based on my causal inspection of the data. This map by default shows the traditional USGS paper maps, but you can switch to alternative layers. Also shown are other DEC roads and trails with a dashed mark, and DEC lands with green overlay.

Data Source: Open Street Map extract, October 2020.