I had to read “Welcome to the Alt-American West” (HCN, 12/24/18) a couple of times for it to really sink in. A better title would have been the “Alt-Right West,” because that is mostly where the altered reality lies. What Editor-in-Chief Brian Calvert describes jibes with what I saw in a video years ago by a professor at the University of Northern Colorado. He was researching why, in the face of scientific data and consensus, people deny climate change. In one scene, he was interviewing a man on the street, a very stereotypical old, fat jowly white guy. As the interviewer recited his facts and figures, in sudden exasperation, the big guy blurted out, “Look, I know it’s true. I just don’t believe it.” When I read Newt Gingrich’s explanation of essentially the same thing, the conclusion I draw is that there isn’t much difference between a person’s deliberately altered beliefs despite facts, and being brainwashed.
Mark De Gregorio
Masonville, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Brainwashed, Alt-Right.
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