A Wide-ranging Conversation about Social Isolation with Bill Walton and Mark Tapscott

September 2, 2023 | Books, Community, Conformity, Education, Family, Freedom of Association, Friendship, Language, Loneliness, Media, Persuasion, Political Correctness, Politics, Propaganda, Religion, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness

There continues to be substantial interest in the phenomenon I discuss in my book The Weaponization of Loneliness. (Even Hillary Clinton seems very interested!)

One of the most comprehensive interviews I’ve done on the book is the one below hosted by Bill Walton on his show with Epoch Times editor Mark Tapscott and me delving into the topic.

I love doing one-on-one interviews, but having someone else’s voice and perspective can really help with a deep dive into the material. Mark is an amazing thinker and observer who touches on a lot of great points in this interview. Bill Walton opens by correctly noting that the surgeon general’s advisory on loneliness is (as I’ve written) just another excuse for government intrusion into the private sphere of life. This interview lasts about an hour, but we cover a lot of ground, so if you’re interested in the topic, please give it a listen (and subscribe to the amazing Bill Walton Show while you’re at it!)

Hillary Clinton and “The Weaponization of Loneliness”

August 12, 2023 | Books, Culture, Family, Free Speech, History, Isolation, Loneliness, Propaganda, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness

I was dismayed, though not hugely surprised, when I saw Hillary Clinton’s recent article at the Atlantic headlined with the exact title of my book, The Weaponization of Loneliness. You can read further about my reaction in this Federalist article, “Yes, Hillary Clinton is a Big Fan of ‘The Weaponization of Loneliness.’”

One purpose of Clinton’s Atlantic article is to promote Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s recent advisory on the loneliness epidemic, which, as I’ve written, serves as a blueprint for government invasion of the private sphere of life. As author of the 1996 book It Takes a Village –a soft treatise on collectivism–Clinton also presents herself as a forerunner to the advisory.  But another purpose is to set up a propagandistic narrative that positions her political opponents as the only folks who create and exploit social isolation. It co-opts the term “the weaponization of loneliness” to try to do that.

Was Clinton’s headline a coincidence, or made up on the fly by an editor? Highly unlikely. A major publication must carefully consider how to title a 3500-word article with Hillary Clinton’s byline. My book has been out since October, and its title has been circulated publicly in hundreds of interviews, op-eds, articles, and reviews, all related to my book’s thesis about social isolation as a political weapon. In fact, when I first considered the title and googled it several years ago, I couldn’t find it anywhere in print. Numerous interviewers and podcasters have remarked on how unique and compelling a title it is.

So it certainly seems like an effort to co-opt the term and associate it with a high profile public figure on the political Left instead of as the thesis of a lesser known author such as myself. If Hillary Clinton has a thesis for “the weaponization of loneliness” (which she does not) it is 180 degrees apart from mine. I focus on social processes and human impulses and agendas in which weaponized loneliness–and especially the fear of isolation–it is modelled throughout modern history. Clinton’s Atlantic article rails against all things “right wing” and then places the blame for our society’s alienation on what she once termed “a vast right-wing conspiracy,” featuring villains such as Newt Gingrich, Steve Bannon, “incels,” and Rush Limbaugh.

Hence, Clinton’s essay is not an exploration of the process of isolation as a political weapon. Rather, it seems intended to distract from many of her pet policies and programs that actually cultivate loneliness by building dependency on government as well as censoring and demonizing anyone with different ideas. Many of those policies have actually resulted in social fracturing and despair, including family breakdown, urban blight, addictions, attacks on free speech, and now the transing of children. Clinton’s Atlantic piece is meant to bury all of that and shift blame. Ultimately, if the invasive programs and policies of the surgeon general’s loneliness advisory are enacted, we are bound to see far more atomization and misery, not less.

The Exploitation – and Weaponization – of Loneliness: Now the Feds say they plan to “solve” our Loneliness Epidemic

July 31, 2023 | Books, Brainwashing, Bureaucracy, Community, Conformity, Culture, Freedom of Association, Friendship, Identity Politics, Isolation, Loneliness, Media, Persuasion, Political Correctness, Politics, Propaganda, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness

I recently had the honor of being interviewed by Jan Jekielek for his Epoch Times program “American Thought Leaders.”  Epoch Times posted it on Twitter and here, along with a transcript: Stella Morabito: Technocratic Totalitarianism, the Impulse to Conform, and Astroturfed Mobs versus Organic Protest

You can view the preview here:

Jan and I talked at length about the subject of my book, The Weaponization of Loneliness.  We covered a lot of ground on the human fear of social rejection and how it causes people to shut up –and even lie — about what they believe. The consequences are massive because mass self-censorship always gives a lot of oxygen to destructive agendas.  What are the dynamics involved in that? We discussed them in the context of conformity impulse, political correctness, identity politics, public opinion polling, mob formation, and how power elites build the illusion of consensus, even when there is no consensus.

Ultimately, this is all ramping up to be a war on the private sphere of life: family, faith, true community, and friendship. Those are the only institutions that give us the strength to resist totalitarian designs.

This is evident now that Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) recently introduced legislation called “The National Strategy for Social Connection Act.”  The bill is a follow up to the surgeon general’s advisory on “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Social Isolation.” It’s ironic because government policies–particularly those that promote family breakdown, addiction, urban blight, dependency, and more–are largely responsible for the loneliness epidemic in the first place! As I wrote in the Federalist, both the advisory and the legislation read like a blueprint for government takeover of the private sphere of life.  My latest article on that is here:  “Beware of Bureaucrats Wanting to be your BFF.”  

Government Plan to “Cure” Loneliness Will Cause Even More Loneliness

June 10, 2023 | Community, Conformity, Culture, Family, Free Speech, Freedom of Association, Friendship, Isolation, Loneliness, Political Correctness, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness

Loneliness, by Hans Thoma, 1880 (Wikimedia Commons)

Last month Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released an 81-page advisory called “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation.” In it, he makes the case that loneliness and social isolation have caused a major public health crisis. There is no denying that social isolation contributes to health problems both mental and physical. This is well documented. Hence, the advisory urges immediate government action to address the problem. But the devil is in the details.

I recently wrote a three-part series for The Federalist in which I analyze the advisory and what it portends for our lives. I predict the advisory will cause even greater isolation if it is implemented. It provides an open door for the government to intrude on private life. See the following links to my three articles:

To Address the Loneliness Epidemic, the Feds Want to Control Your Town and Your Friends

Federal Loneliness Advisory Sketches Blueprint for Regulating Everyone’s Private Life

Federal Loneliness “Advisory” Threatens to Destroy Freedom by Occupying Private Life

Among the many points I make in my essays are the following. First, government policies are in large part responsible for cultivating our crisis of loneliness. But far from easing up on those policies, the government continues full speed ahead to implement agendas that promote family breakdown, abortion, urban blight, addictions, censorship, and more that serve to separate people from one another and to promote social distrust.

Second, after playing such a large role in creating this malady, the federal government is now offering its “cure” in the form of a six pillared strategy that will build an “infrastructure”–both social and physical–to monitor our levels of social connection, from the public library to your volunteer fire department to your church and your family. It will enlist the entire health sector as well as Big Tech to aid in that endeavor. And it expects everyone to participate.

Third, the advisory states that the divisive policy called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” will be a big part of the strategy to promote social-connection policies on every level of government, and everywhere people might gather. It further notes that the benefits of social connection–if you have a strong family and friendships, for example–are not equitably distributed. Those who have strong social connections have access to benefits (read: “privileges”) in terms of health, education, employment, finances, and so on.

The big question is how in the world would the government be able to “equalize” those benefits? Well, in some way, it would have to regulate the relationships that provide access to them.

Most Americans don’t realize that this advisory is a blueprint to invade the private sphere of life — the institutions of family, faith, and community–under the guise of bringing us together. This would be a totalitarian’s dream-come-true. Needless to say, it would be very dangerous for the survival of civil society. I fear that few understand that strong social connections can only develop in the privacy that allows you to speak in confidence. You need those connections to fall back on in order to speak openly, especially in these days when doing so can lead to major reprisals by the government.

The scope of this advisory is unprecedented. Anyone who is paying attention to current trends–and who loves their family and friends–should find it chilling. More Americans need to wake up and push back against such plans. Because, as psychiatrist Carl Jung noted many years ago: “The mass state has no intention of promoting mutual understanding and the relationship of man to man. It strives rather for atomization, for the psychic isolation of the individual.”

On the Never-Ending High-Tech Lynching of Justice Thomas

May 12, 2023 | Family, Free Speech, Freedom of Association, Friendship, Isolation, Media, Political Correctness, Politics, Propaganda, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness

Over the past 32 years, the anti-freedom brigade in Congress and their allies in the propaganda media have waged a constant war against Justice Clarence Thomas. Clearly, he stands in the way of their agenda to un-do the Constitution, which is why their smears are all discredited and steeped in pure animus. In this post, I want to offer two resources for understanding what’s going on. The first is the phenomenal documentary “Created Equal: Justice Thomas in his Own Words.” Since the propaganda media won’t allow us to see the real man, I hope you will watch this spellbinding film. Here’s the trailer:

Indeed, as Justice Thomas, said, “We knew exactly what was going on: ‘This is the wrong black guy. He has to be destroyed.'”

The current Supreme Court is all that stands in the way of the Left’s quest for total control of every branch of government. They find Justice Thomas a threat because he is so honorable and so courageous a defender of the Constitution. And, of course, because he’s black. if people were allowed to see the man as he really is, he would be admired. So it shouldn’t surprise us that the demonization campaign against Justice Thomas has ramped up — along with an assassination attempt on Justice Kavanaugh, and other forms of harassment outside the homes of members of the Court who dare to defend the Constitution.

Secondly, there is a new and insidious aspect to the current attacks on Justice Thomas, which I wrote about at American Greatness. In my article titled “Targeting Thomas,” I discuss how the manufactured scandal against Justice Thomas and his family accepting hospitality from long-time friends reflects a growing war on friendship. This has never been an issue before, but as I’ll write in the future, the Mass State is preparing to invade private life as never before. I’ll have more on that later. In the meantime, here’s an excerpt from my American Greatness article:

Ultimately, this is a much bigger war than we realize. Demonization of the Thomases is a high-profile battle, but it reflects a deeper conflict—a war against friendship and against independent thought. It is actually a prelude to atomizing all of us, and threatening us with social isolation if we don’t adopt the Left’s anti-thought and dehumanizing agendas. 

New Interview on The Weaponization of Loneliness — with Bill Walton

May 10, 2023 | Books, Conformity, Free Speech, Freedom of Association, Friendship, History, Identity Politics, Isolation, Loneliness, Media, Persuasion, Political Correctness, Politics, Propaganda, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness

I love The Bill Walton Show. He and his wife Sarah are so insightful and interesting. They keep important conversations going, bringing light into the chaos of our times. I recommend you subscribe to Bill’s Youtube channel if you’re looking for in-depth discussions of the most critical issues of the day. Bill has interviewed many prominent thinkers, including George Gilder, Naomi Wolf, Arthur Laffer, James Lindsay, and Winsome Sears–to name a very few.

So I was honored to return to Bill’s show, this time for an in-depth conversation about my book The Weaponization of Loneliness. You can watch the discussion below:

We talked about the uses of isolation as a political weapon today, as well as throughout modern history. I’m actually amazed at the many points we covered in one short hour, though there was a lot more we could have said on this topic. My hope is that more Americans become conversant with the dynamics that lead to our self-censorship so that we can overcome that fear of ostracism and start speaking out. Because self-censorship gives a lot of oxygen to destructive agendas. Worse, it opens the door wide for far more punitive forms of top-down censorship.

Bill and I ended on a hopeful note. There is so much even one person can do to overcome the darkness and chaos that surrounds us today. Just one honest conversation with another person can open the door to new ideas and influences that that strengthen civil society. This causes the sort of ripple effect of freedom that tyrants always seek to squash through censorship. We talked about the revival of beauty in the public square. And the revival of comedy! We talked about my book club project on the topic of the Weaponization of Loneliness, and we discussed all of the parallel polises springing up. Please give our conversation a look and a listen! And please subscribe to Bill Walton’s wonderful podcast!

About My Un-aired Interview with Tucker Carlson

April 28, 2023 | Conformity, Free Speech, Identity Politics, Isolation, Loneliness, Political Correctness, Propaganda, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness

On April 4 I had the distinct honor and pleasure of being interviewed by Tucker Carlson about the subject of my book The Weaponization of Loneliness: How Tyrants Stoke Our Fear of Isolation to Silence, Divide, and Conquer. How ironic, then, that with Tucker’s dismissal from FOX News, our hour-long conversation–on the subject of silencing and censorship–was itself silenced. It may well have aired on the FOX Nation Show “Tucker Carlson Today” this past Tuesday, the day after he was gone from FOX.

As a bit of consolation, I wrote up the experience for the Federalist. It includes my reaction to the speech Tucker gave just last Friday at Heritage Foundation’s 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner, which I had the honor of attending. It was such a profound and hopeful speech. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that his speech–delivered with such heartfelt passion –was one for the ages. Here’s something from it that all Americans should take to heart: “The more you tell the truth, the stronger you become. And the more you lie, the weaker and more terrified you become.” This is so true. The whole purpose of political censorship is to squash our willingness to speak truth.

My Federalist essay (I don’t write the headlines!) is titled: I Taped a Show with Tucker on Censorship Right Before he Was Fired. Here’s an excerpt:

I believe our discussion was critical to helping more people grasp the human dynamics that lead to the mass misery, loneliness, and dystopian policies we see all around us today. More people must understand that destructive agendas depend upon the human impulse to self-censor. When we shut up or lie about what we believe in hopes of “fitting in,” we give abundant oxygen to tyrannical agendas.

But with the exit of Carlson, Fox News is a huge step closer to declaring that it’s completely on board with the media monopoly’s efforts to create the illusion of unanimity of thought. Such illusions are meant to tease out the conformity impulse by making us feel all alone in our views, and, therefore, less likely to express them.

But the cancelling of my interview was merely collateral damage in a far bigger picture. In my opinion, Americans’ decades of obedience to political correctness prepared the ground for the tyranny we see around us today. If only we could better understand these dynamics and learn counter-strategies, then we’d be in a better position to disarm those who seek to march us into censorship and ignorance and misery. But I promise to keep talking about this!

Woke = Anti-Thought

April 6, 2023 | Brainwashing, Conformity, Cults, Identity Politics, Media, Political Correctness, Propaganda, Society, Transgender, Weaponization of Loneliness

Human Events recently ran my column in which I offer a new synonym for the term “woke.” My candidate is “anti-thought.” The essay is here: “The True Definition of ‘Woke’ is ‘Anti-Thought.'”

“Wokeness” adds up to nothing more than mob- and media-enforced group think. For example, mobs such as the Stanford Law mob that I wrote about in my last post had no interest in reason or conversation. They certainly have no interest in the cross-pollination of ideas. And I doubt that they even believe in the slogans they spew because they don’t seem to have the capacity to even think them through. They’ve merely been conditioned and programmed to behave that way. After all, mobs don’t think. They can’t.

Another example is below: the violent treatment of a woman who simply wants to express her concerns about the current erasure of women by the transgender ideology. A couple of weeks ago, Kelly-Jay Keen
(whose Twitter handle is @theposieparker ) went to speak in New Zealand at a rally called “Let Women Speak.” She was violently assaulted by a totally feral mob for doing so. Check it out:

This is a clear case of mass hysteria, as Michael Schellenberger points out.  No different from the Salem witch hunts, or any other mass delusion in human history.  The destructive passions of a mob–whipped up through academia, the media, Big Tech and many other of our corrupted institutions– will stop at nothing to silence and destroy anyone who might speak against their ideology.  Indeed, to destroy anyone who thinks a coherent thought.  The woke– or the anti-thought brigades– seek to enforce nothing but ignorance and fear.  Like the Borg, they just want to absorb you into their darkness.

So our ONLY HOPE is to courageously speak out freely and often against the mobs.  This might seem scary, but it’s far better than being absorbed into their insanity.  Indeed, the mob has made it very clear that speaking truth is the one thing that it cannot abide.  So speak up!

Stanford Law is a Case Study in how Mobs Enforce Social Isolation

March 27, 2023 | Conformity, Cults, Education, Free Speech, Freedom of Association, Friendship, Identity Politics, Isolation, Law, Loneliness, Political Correctness, Propaganda, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness

In today’s essay at the Federalist I try to dissect the recent travesty at Stanford Law School in which a mindless mob shut down yet another campus speaker. The designated speaker was a federal judge, invited by the Stanford chapter of the Federalist Society. You can read the whole piece here: Stanford Mob Shows How Speech Restrictions Reinforce Social Isolation. Video of the disgraceful scene appeared on Twitter:

Clearly, Fifth Circuit judge Kyle Duncan’s dedication to natural law, due process, and civil society is why he and others like him are constantly targeted by mobs that despise the idea of real conversation. There’s no question we will descend into barbarism as members of such mobs get credentialed to practice “law.” They will be sure to shut down speech everywhere, right down to your personal relationships. This is exactly what they are being taught to do by University administrators (their tepid letters of apology notwithstanding) who are ruled by deans of so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI.)

As I’ve written many times before, free speech is a use-it-or-lose it proposition. And mobs of mindless narcissists like those at Stanford are hellbent on making sure we all lose it. We can’t let that happen because it is the path to total social atomization. And that means the end of social trust, the end of civil society, and, yes, the end of any path to friendship at all. Because if you can’t speak openly to people, you simply cannot develop real relationships with people. That’s exactly why totalitarians throughout history have always made a point of shutting down speech, even between two people: they see it as a threat to social engineering and control.

I love a recent Twitter post in which a young man duly spouts off woke narratives and apologizes about how he’s unfairly “privileged.” He has been conditioned to do that by mob enforcement. When challenged by his interviewer, a young woman of color named Savanah Hernandez, he discovers he can actually speak openly. He is able to have a REAL conversation: “Wow, these are the kinds of conversations I love having!” he says. “Now I know where we’re at and I can go for real!” Watch:

Indeed. People are starving to break free of the isolation–and the loneliness–that mobs are enforcing on them. People are starving for the real conversation and real friendship that’s impossible to have without free speech.

There’s a Connection between Loneliness and Political Censorship

March 1, 2023 | Conformity, Culture, Free Speech, Friendship, Isolation, Loneliness, Political Correctness, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness

Ask yourself this: If you cannot speak openly to people, can you develop relationships? Not really anything beyond the shallow. If you are always terrified of saying something “politically correct” and therefore constantly self-censor, how easily can you get to know anyone? Not very easily. When a government puts up roadblocks to open conversation, people become more atomized, more socially isolated, and therefore more lonely.

My piece in today’s Daily Caller considers all of this in light of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s call for a “Digital Bill of Rights” that would allow people to have more open conversations. I explore it in light of my thesis, which is the basis of my book The Weaponization of Loneliness.

Here’s a link to my essay: https://dailycaller.com/2023/03/01/morabito-after-defeating-disney-desantis-latest-legislation-might-solve-the-loneliness-epidemic/

And here’s an excerpt:

Intentionally or not, the enforcement of political correctness atomizes people.  The resulting isolation creates a vacuum for terror and social control. Americans must develop an awareness of this connection. It’s obvious from the history of totalitarian systems in which saying anything politically incorrect could land you in a Soviet gulag or put you at the mercy of Mao’s brutal Red Guard mobs. These are just two examples of many such recurring tragedies in human history. 

Furthermore, our loneliness epidemic both results from and contributes to the practice of self-censorship. Too often we self-silence in order to avoid social rejection for saying something that might be politically incorrect. This is a trap. Power elites use this fear of ostracism to enforce their narratives. They know instinctively that the human need to be accepted – coupled with the natural terror of social rejection – is a powerful driver of conformity.