The Milgram Experiment and MAGA, random thoughts on what's going on.
My personal opinion is that nothing excuses it, these people are responsible but I also know a bit more now and it's always interesting learning new stuff. I'm going to school now and learned terms I didn't know but explained for me mentally how MAGA could be the way they are.
There's something called the agentic state and it's the state where authority overrides your conscience by getting people to see themselves as an agent for someone's orders under specific conditions.
These people feel less personally responsible because it's on authority and not on themselves, the authority makes it ok using certain language and being present in the room. So this overrides their mental state and leaves people open to "just following orders."
There were other things I found out like how people are less likely to commit atrocities over the phone for instance.
In Milgram’s basic study, about 65% of people went all the way to the maximum shock level when:
The experimenter was in the same room
At a prestigious university
Wearing a lab coat
In the lab, several things pushed people to keep going:
The authority figure (scientist in lab coat) calmly saying “The experiment requires that you continue.”
The prestige of the setting (Yale University).
Being told the shocks were “painful but not dangerous.”
So authority basically overrode people's decision making by essentially telling them that it didn't hurt the person though it was painful (kind of like how MAGA convinces itself that it's for everyone's own good and immigrant's welfare when they hurt others,) and that the experiment requires you to continue (which the govt convinced maga that for our safety and security, these harsh tactics are "required" when it's not the reality.)
Agentic state = you see yourself as an agent for someone else’s orders, so you feel less personally responsible for what happens.
Like: “I’m not doing this because I want to — I’m just doing what the boss/teacher/experimenter told me.”
In contrast:
Autonomous state = you see yourself as personally responsible and acting from your own choices.
There's something called the agentic state and it's the state where authority overrides your conscience by getting people to see themselves as an agent for someone's orders under specific conditions.
These people feel less personally responsible because it's on authority and not on themselves, the authority makes it ok using certain language and being present in the room. So this overrides their mental state and leaves people open to "just following orders."
There were other things I found out like how people are less likely to commit atrocities over the phone for instance.
In Milgram’s basic study, about 65% of people went all the way to the maximum shock level when:
The experimenter was in the same room
At a prestigious university
Wearing a lab coat
In the lab, several things pushed people to keep going:
The authority figure (scientist in lab coat) calmly saying “The experiment requires that you continue.”
The prestige of the setting (Yale University).
Being told the shocks were “painful but not dangerous.”
So authority basically overrode people's decision making by essentially telling them that it didn't hurt the person though it was painful (kind of like how MAGA convinces itself that it's for everyone's own good and immigrant's welfare when they hurt others,) and that the experiment requires you to continue (which the govt convinced maga that for our safety and security, these harsh tactics are "required" when it's not the reality.)
Agentic state = you see yourself as an agent for someone else’s orders, so you feel less personally responsible for what happens.
Like: “I’m not doing this because I want to — I’m just doing what the boss/teacher/experimenter told me.”
In contrast:
Autonomous state = you see yourself as personally responsible and acting from your own choices.
36-40, F
