A strange phenomenon is occurring among conservatives right now. They will literally convince themselves of absolutely anything in the face of obvious reality just to believe in the person or theory they want to believe.
Perhaps I'm overstating how recent this phenomenon is, given that many of these same people have been convinced for decades that “trickle-down” economics work and that guns don't kill people. Maybe it is. But we've recently reached a whole new level of delusion that has completely altered the average conservative's ability to experience reality and perceive facts that don't fit into their narrow personal beliefs. Ta.
It also makes the average conservative as susceptible to coercion and disinformation as a small child. In extreme cases, where reality is clear and misinformation is barely concealed, they may be more easily misunderstood than children.
Last week, as I scrolled through various social media posts made on January 6, 2021 and the days immediately following that embarrassing coup attempt, and compared their reactions to the statements in real time, I realized that this extreme I noticed a change. Some of the same people today.
A simple, graphic video of a yes-man chosen by the president and his group seeking to undermine a valid and legitimate American election, without the benefit of right-wing propaganda machines, and the resulting riot in real time. When they were forced to deal with the coup attempt, the overwhelming majority of Americans from both sides of the aisle, from both sides of the political spectrum, felt that Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress and that day He broadly and categorically condemned the actions of the drug gang that stormed the Capitol. .
The condemnation was broad and severe. Lawmakers who supported Trump at the time quickly distanced themselves from all of these issues. In the weeks that followed, those who participated in the planning and execution of the Trump rally, those who tried to stop the certification of the election, and those who broke into the Capitol building fled interviews, denied involvement, apologized repeatedly, and received their due… I lived in shame. Something they brought upon themselves. At the time, even most conservatives were furious and wanted all of them to be exposed to justice.
And then…the whitewashing began.
Much like the Civil War's rebranding as the “Lost Cause,” the “just a tourist” theory of the January 6th attack was born and promoted. And for a group of easily misunderstood people, it was a hit. It remains one today.
Indeed, that's a completely stupid idea. The attack was not a genuine coup, and the people who stormed the Capitol, beating police officers along the way, were not violent or dangerous, but simply curious citizens who were a little disillusioned with the government. .
They'll look at videos of people literally breaking windows, breaking down doors, shoving police officers, and they'll say they didn't break in.
Most of the videos show people not doing too much, whether it's attacking police officers, threatening members of Congress, breaking into legislative chambers, ransacking offices, or putting themselves in very real danger. They say it's as if they're trying to somehow alleviate or explain away the hours of video they show. That day, everyone in the Capitol faced the gallows that had been set up outside to hang the vice president.
Last Sunday, on national television, one of the most senior Republicans in Congress called those arrested for that day's actions, literal police brutality, “hostages.”
hostage.
The former president continues to insist that the election, which he lost by 7 million votes, was “rigged.” There is no evidence of this at all, and even Republican-led efforts to investigate various claims of election fraud have found none. In fact, in most cases, all that was found was fraud by Republicans.
But that doesn't seem to matter.
Propaganda drives have been as successful as post-Reconstruction efforts to rebrand the Civil War cause. All we need to complete the rewriting of history is a statue of President Trump and the strange shaman man who stole the podium from the Capitol.
But what I want to be absolutely clear about here is “Let's meet.”
I know what happened. We all saw it. We all know the facts. And we all knew that day that we had come so close to letting go of over 200 years of democracy and peaceful transitions of power because we had been deceived by children who were too grown up to accept defeat. I am. And you are still being deceived.
The man and his cronies concocted an entire plan to stop the counting of electoral votes, use the military to seize control of the country, and keep a would-be dictator in power. The plan was written on a third-grade level PowerPoint. And those bastards who stormed the Capitol were, knowingly or unknowingly, helping him with his plan.
The fact that several key figures had become callous or had remorseful consciences, and the fact that for the first time in American history, a U.S. president refused to step down and did everything in his power to undermine one of them, It's not something to change. Tenets of American democracy – free elections and peaceful transition of power.
And somehow, despite loving this country and claiming to be the most patriotic American ever born, a slew of conservatives want that man re-elected. They certainly seem destined to re-nominate him. (That's fine with me, given that Joe Biden is probably the only Republican candidate in the top 6 or 7 that he absolutely crushes.)
It's embarrassing. The rest of us are an embarrassment to you and to you. And if you all don't wake up and stop falling for this scam and grow up, the people who profess to love this place the most will be the ones who destroy it. You will suffer the irony of witnessing this.
