Page 53 - Tom Steyer Issue
P. 53

Steyer: I think it’s an appeal to the most primitive form of tribalism, don’t you? If you talk about Nazism, it’s basically setting aside your decency and humanity and going to a place that is pre-human. Isn’t that really what we’re talking about? You, by definition, are denying someone else’s humanity.
Cooper: That’s the only way you can get away with doing something like that.
Steyer: And everything comes out of that.
Cooper: Do you have knowledge of Jungian theory or Myers-Briggs about temperaments and different intrin- sic value systems?
Steyer: Yes, I’ve heard of that.
Cooper: I keep thinking myself of how the majority of the population on the planet are what we call “sen- sories.” They don’t like change and if something is in their minds, they go with it. They’re very hard to alter, where an intuitive can abstractly think of something and say, “OK, that makes sense. I can understand what a table is. I don’t have to touch it and feel it to understand that’s a table.” I keep looking back at how Germany was able to convince a whole group of people to do these things, trying to parallel what’s happening with this pro- paganda that is put out in different governments around the world. It’s somewhat of a roadmap, it seems, to take control of the narrative.
Steyer: Yeah. It’s very scary.
Cooper: The question is, knowing the history, how do you not let it repeat?
Steyer: Well, I tried “Need to Impeach.” (laughs) Cooper: (laughs) You did, didn’t you?
Steyer: I don’t know if you noticed.
Cooper: I’m in California, I noticed! (laughs)
Steyer: Honestly, 8.5 million people signed that petition. I mean, isn’t the story of all of those movements, including civil rights, that you have to stand up against something that’s wrong? That you have to do it all the time? Whatever that old saying is, “The only thing it takes for evil to flourish is for good people to do noth- ing.” Isn’t that the point?
Cooper: I hope you and I will have the opportunity to talk more about that.
Steyer: I would love that, too, Chet. That would be
great.
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