The Relevance of Milgram’s Experiments in Today’s World

by Armando Simón

Today’s toxic state in society is a cornucopia for psychologists. For example, Victimhood has become a status symbol in society to the point that non-minorities claim to be minorities in order to reap the sympathy and benefits of this status. Studies have shown professional victims tend to have negative personality characteristics, most notably the Dark Triad.

Then there is the matter of projection, the psychological mechanism wherein a person projects his/her own negative characteristics onto others. Thus, we see individuals call their opponents “fascists” while advocating and imposing censorship, calling for concentration camps for political opponents, engaging in the politicization of science and art, falsifying history, peddling propaganda, physically assaulting people having different viewpoints, and engaging in the indoctrination of children.

It is possible that you may not have heard of psychologist Stanley Milgram’s famous experiment. Milgram’s experiments on obedience to authority always had a political undertone, which he himself stated. He proved that a large majority of people would continue to engage in an immoral act when ordered by a person in authority, specifically administering increasingly painful electrical shocks to another person.

Even when the persons administering the shock became stressed and voiced the inappropriateness of the situation, they continued to do so when asked to continue, although a few (including some women) enjoyed their participation. The subjects were not threatened into doing so; they were simply ordered.

However, a small percentage of persons stopped participating and refused to follow orders.

The results of Milgram’s experiment are not confined to the laboratory. We see it taking place today in real time throughout different sections of society. I will give different instances.

Transgenders in Competitions

We live at a time when stating the obvious or citing facts is an act of courage and defiance.

There are men who were mediocre at sports but now pretend to be the opposite sex by calling themselves “transgender women” and participating in women’s sports. Predictably, they beat real female athletes. Everyone is expected to approve of their participation and shower them with adoration for winning. Everyone is also expected to not complain, not deride, and not boycott.

The same is true when these grotesque individuals take part in beauty shows and the elites award them the crown, or, when they are chosen to be models representing women, whether in magazine covers or promoting beauty products.

And we all must conform and agree to that stance, the premise being that if only everyone goes along and pretends that there are no differences between the transgenders and women, everything will be fine.

One difference between Milgram’s experiments and today’s instances of obedience to authority is that the latter often has threats and/or retaliation, as has happened in the transgender movement. Even so, there are individuals who stand firm against this travesty.

Indoctrination in Schools

Whether in high schools, elementary schools, or in universities there is a massive endeavor to indoctrinate youngsters on a number of seemingly different, but actually interconnected ideologies: transgender, homosexuality, anti-white racism, and anti-America.

Children have not yet become adults and learned to betray one’s beliefs and principles in order to placate mediocrities.

Consequently, there have been a number of students who have revolted against the indoctrinators; in fact, it seems that their numbers are greater than adults in other settings. Thus, we have seen a mass walkout of students in Ottawa over homosexual indoctrination. The students in a California class objected to the teacher showing a homosexual propaganda film in her math class whereupon she threatened the whole class (the same happened in a school in London). Students in a Boston school objected to all of the LGBTQ kitsch being displayed in the school and tore them down. In Massachusetts, the students disobeyed authority and refused to wear pro-homosexual items, and announced that their pronouns were “USA” and “Kiss my ass,” which apparently sent the authority figures into panic.

However, in contrast to mass revolts, when it is the lone student who refuses to submit unconditionally to the totalitarians, retaliation surely follows. Thus, we saw one student in Calgary taken into custody for objecting to homosexual indoctrination. In Idaho, one student was banned from attending his high school graduation ceremony and had a firefighting job offer revoked when he stated there are only two genders.

In Massachusetts, one student was sent home for wearing a t-shirt that stated that there were only two genders; the school explained that the t-shirt made others “feel unsafe.” In an Ohio university, a professor gave one student a zero on her paper because she used the term “biological woman.” In Scotland, a high school teacher kicked one student out of class because the student stated the scientific fact that there are two genders: male and female. He was subsequently expelled from school. A GoFundMe page for raising money in order to attend another school was shut down by leftists.

Note that each of the individual students did not back down.

In Maine, a young child read to the school board from a pornographic book available at the school, said book having become commonplace. It was not clear whether the school or the school board retaliated against him.

It has been my observation that the type of person who strongly believes that spanking a child for misbehaving should never be done because it is abuse is also the very same person who approves ripping out a young girl’s uterus, cutting off her breasts, and injecting that child with toxic chemicals under the banner of transgender rights.

Congress

When Ted Cruz was elected to the Senate, he instantly became aware that it was divided into the Democrats who were all in tandem behind an ideology, and the Republicans who were unprincipled career opportunists. He was told by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that government spending and bureaucracy-reducing measures would not be allowed. Cruz carried out a filibuster to make his point.

A while later, he introduced a bill, but it did not get seconded, a public slap in the face, and so the bill died; McConnell had ordered all his minions not to second it and the Democrats were certainly not going to second a Republican’s bill. Soon afterwards, a grinning Lindsay Graham stated that Ted Cruz could be murdered in a full session of the Senate and not a single witness would come forward (McConnell later ordered them both to appear together smiling to declare it had been a joke).

Cruz got the message. If he continued on his course, he would be isolated and he would get absolutely nothing accomplished and get no support on anything; his Congressional term would simply be a waste of time. He decided to shut up on certain things in order to get other things accomplished.

FBI

It has become obvious to many by now that the FBI has become politicized and there are elements within the bureaucracy that would like to turn it into a Stasi. It has begun to target innocent people in society who are ideologically suspect and also to protect the up-and-coming Nomenklatura (including meddling in elections). The FBI has even attacked some Congressional staffers, albeit in a mild manner.

For example, mothers who have become upset at absurd covid restrictions and also at the push to turn their children into homosexuals and transgenders have confronted the arrogant members of school boards and, as a result, were labeled as “domestic terrorists.” Steps began to be taken by the FBI to eliminate them, but a leaked memo caused unwanted publicity and the efforts were nipped in the bud (incidentally, the SPLC, a hate group, has targeted Moms for Liberty).

It is no secret that a section of the political spectrum has a deep hatred for religion and religious people and institutions, and feel persecution of these people and institutions is justifiable. Towards this end, they have particularly targeted Catholics (I suspect much to the delight of Baptists), thanks to the SPLC. However, once again, thanks to the efforts of a whistleblower this plot was nipped in the bud. Nonetheless, at least one Democrat politician applauded and justified the FBI’s plan, which brings to mind Lord Acton’s observation, “Every villain is followed by a sophist with a sponge.”

Now, by the very nature of any bureaucracy, the individual components are obsessed with keeping their jobs and will do whatever the head of the bureaucracy tells them to do. But, there are whistleblowers who are angry that the FBI, with a hitherto sterling reputation, has been distorted to serve the interests of one particular political party, shielding its criminal members and sympathizers from prosecution (“crimewashing” as Taki puts it), as is the case with crackhead Hunter Biden who under ordinary times would be serving multiple life sentences.

Obedience to authority is expected at the FBI and those individuals within the organization who have principles and stainless-steel backbones have been retaliated against. Even though attacks against the whistleblowers have been financial, derogatory and careerwise—one whistleblower and his family became homeless and almost penniless—they have not regretted their stance. A fundraiser has been set up to help them.

It is people like these who make history.

The Covid Fiasco

The Wuhan virus will go down as one of the biggest fiascos in history. Initially fanned because of China’s draconic lockdown together with a news blackout, initial ignorance of the disease, predictions from computer models of millions dead, fanned by alarmist news broadcasts from the media, and a public fed on a steady diet of Hollywood disaster films of zombies and Ebola pandemics, people throughout the world hunkered down in isolation by imitating China’s response. Within a few months, however, it became evident that there had been an overreaction.

Nonetheless, the Covid pandemic (with a 98 percent survival rate) was fervently embraced by one group of people. Politicians on one side of the political spectrum insisted on lockdowns, censorship, useless face masks, and toxic vaccines while the other side just kept quiet, as usual. Our overlords went drunk with power, handing out special dispensations to those who could keep their businesses open (there was no kickback, of course). They would often appear in public and in front of cameras wearing face masks, oozing righteousness, only to remove them in private. They insisted on lockdowns while they went on vacations or to expensive businesses that opened up just for them.

Anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of science knew that a virus, which can only be seen through an electron microscope, would not be stopped by a face mask made of cotton fibers. Nonetheless, institutions ordered masks to be worn. Trying to reason with enforcers—who kept repeating the order to wear a mask—was a waste of time. I know. I tried on numerous occasions.

This from a group of people that likes to posture as being pro-science.

The rank and file of Covidians embraced the pandemic with even greater fervor (this fervor became known as “pandemic porn”). They would shriek at anyone who did not conform or who went to parties or a deserted beach, and even ask for disobedient folks’ deaths. People who did not obey, who did not conform, were even physically assaulted by Covidian jihadists or were arrested.

Medical treatments of Covid which were, at best, dubious (such as using remdesivir) were mandatory while others that proved efficacious and saved lives (such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine) were ignored—on orders from the CDC and the FDA. Herd immunity was ridiculed. Ivermectin was ridiculed as a “horse dewormer.” The media hivemind pushed the propaganda.

Medical advice and anecdotes by doctors and nurses that contradicted the official orthodoxy were censored and labeled as “misinformation” and “disinformation,” by politicians, journalists, and other Covidians. Same for prescribing ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to save patients’ lives. These health professionals withstood tremendous pressure and refused to stay silent and do nothing, refusing to kill their patients. They were demonized. They were fired. Their licenses were threatened or revoked. They were jailed. I have documented a handful of these brave souls. Their stories are heartbreaking. Yet, they bravely stood by their Hippocratic oath.

And then, the vaccines were rolled out. Instinctively, a number of people were suspicious because the usual trials were skipped. Sure enough, before too long, people were collapsing and a number of maladies suddenly appeared, especially affecting the cardiovascular system. As one wag put it, “You do know anti-vaxxers are not the ones giving you blood clots and cardiac arrests. You know that, right?”

Nevertheless, the public was told that the vaccines would prevent infection.

Or a second one.

Or a third one.

Or a fourth one.

In fact, it was eventually found that those who received the vaccines had a greater probability of becoming infected.

Certain people refused to submit to being injected with the toxic substance, regardless of the threats or the consequences.

As one wag put it, “Imagine a vaccine so safe that you have to be threatened to take it—for a disease so deadly you have to be tested to know if you have it.”

Also, it was known from the beginning that children were immune to the virus. Yet, it became mandatory to make children get the vaccine. And parents complied. And now the children are paying the price.

It gets worse. Persons needing an organ transplant were denied treatment by several hospitals if the patient did not submit and acquiesce to be injected with the toxic chemical. Many refused.

The Covidians could have simply accessed the (samizdat) internet and become educated as to the adverse effects of the toxic injections and the beneficial results of the forbidden medications. They refused to do so.

But the irony is lost on the actors: To encourage “vaccination,” someone in Germany arranged his sheep in the outline of a syringe.

And a YouTuber who posted a message on his site that it was the people who stood firm against the face masks and the toxic injections who were the ones who got it right, the people who are brave and courageous and defend civilization, well, his YouTube account was terminated by the YouTube censors.

Ve Vere Just Following Orders (the English version: “We’re just doing our job.”)

“Ve vere just following orders,” was an excuse by SS officers during WWII to excuse their atrocities and were rightfully mocked by British and American servicemen who incinerated tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Dresden and Hamburg.

During the Covid fiasco, we saw police violating the basic rights of citizens in America, Canada, Australia, Britain, Holland, Italy, and Germany. Citizens were arrested for being in church, in friends’ homes, or demonstrating against the lockdown tyranny. In Australia and Canada, the police were particularly brutal against their citizens, who were doing nothing more than marching down the street (Canada’s Justin Trudeau, incidentally, is on record as being an admirer of Communist China’s dictatorship).

And what did the opposition parties do? Nothing. Proving once more that the different political parties in all those countries are actually the Uniparty.

In none of those countries, to my knowledge, was there a refusal by the constabulary to deprive citizens of their rights (actually, there was one brief exception, in Italy). Not too surprising when one considers that the rank and file come from the military, trained to carry out orders from their “superiors” without question, no matter what.

Which is why indoctrination is now taking place within the military without meeting any resistance.

This is particularly worrisome because it is apparent that whoever controls the police bureaucracy is certain to have no opposition from the rank and file, even if those countries are supposed to be democracies.

The media

Nowhere is conformity and obedience more evident than in the media, whether it is television, or print media—which is why I call it the media hivemind. There, one must have the same opinion, think the same thoughts, voice the same words.

Obedience to authority is mandatory.

Fake news (propaganda) has become routine in all of the major media outlets, as is news blackout (censorship). In the past five years I have compiled hundreds of instances of fake news—not mistakes or silly goofs, but deliberate mendacity. Journalism as a respectable profession is practically dead, journalists having transformed into propaganda peddlers. Poll after poll show that Americans don’t trust the media hivemind.

It must be due to white supremacy.

Nonetheless, a handful of journalists with principles have revolted. As a result, some of them have been fired while others have walked away from the stench. Either way, it took guts.

Conclusion

As a psychologist, I am at times surprised that the findings within my field, such as Milgram’s experiment, are not being utilized to make sense of today’s world. As can be seen from the above instances, there is a basic principle running throughout each of the specific occurrences of either courage or cowardice.

Regardless, one does not have to be acquainted with Milgram’s work to recognize the underlying principle. It has been stated before. By John Dewey: “Nonresistance to evil which takes the form of paying no attention to it is a way or promoting it.” By Maya Angelou: “I think that the courage to confront evil and turn it by dint of will into something applicable to the development of our evolution, individually and collectively is exciting, honorable.” And by, of course, Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Whether in America, Australia, Ireland, Germany, or Italy, Western Civilization is under the onslaught by totalitarians on a number of different fronts, and to date they are winning hands down. Having lived in a totalitarian regime, I (and others) recognize all the signs. Frankly, the future is bleak.

The “heroes” (if I may use that word) cited above are outnumbered by the cowards.

First published in Brownstone Institute.