ABSTRACT
A myth that perpetuates an intense polarization amidst hatred occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Friday August 11 and Saturday, August 12, 2017. The myth of white superiority is based on the mental mechanisms of splitting and projection. The early mode of would-be protection, then, entraps one in a survival mentality characterized by tribal states and entrenched polarized positions. Subsequent violence including that which would reinstate white supremacy was nearly always considered to be patriotic. Myths, such as the myth of white supremacy, may be elaborated to bolster the attributions of goodness to the self and badness to the other. Historian Wyatt-Brown describes the Lost Cause myth in the following way: Out of the weakness that military and racial overthrow had created in 1865; Southern whites gradually constructed a fabric of nostalgia for the Lost Cause. Historical and social psychology studies illuminate the universality and consequences of splitting and projection.
