This dual narrative of factual reality that we have going in this country is not going to end well. It can’t. You can’t have members of the same culture proceeding on completely different premises about life and expect anything good to come of it. As long as we’re all in agreement that the sky is blue and that’s because of the way sunlight hits it and diffuses, we’re okay. But you get a group of people who believe the sky is really pink but there’s a vast conspiracy to make you believe it is blue, including microchips in your brain and broadcasts from 5G towers to those chips and then things start to get batty. We are there.
Right-wing media and the Republican party have decided that the pussy grabbing, adjudicated rapist and now convicted felon is a victim and a martyr. The narrative goes from there that Joe Biden is an autocrat manipulating the levers of power in Washington, and causing things to happen in courtrooms which are clearly impossible. But they don’t care. The point is not logic, the point is fear and the GOP is so desperate, in its death throes, that they’ll say and do anything at this point to legitimize Trump.
I think that’s their fatal error. Like a Greek tragedy or a Shakespearean play, you realize that the protagonist’s fatal error, his character flaw, is what made all the difference in how things turned out. The GOP has decided to lie its way back into power. This is a novel approach, never before tried. We’re going to find out how well it works as things go completely Orwellian now. Forget about the evidence of your eyes and ears, let alone the evidence that a jury of Donald Trump’s peers unanimously convicted him on, the GOP is going to tell you what’s real. This is their final, essential command. The Guardian:
The posts are ominous.
“Pick a side, or YOU are next,” wrote conservative talkshow host Dan Bongino on the Truth Social media platform in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions.
The replies were even more so.
“Dan, seriously now,” one user wrote in response to Bongino. “I see no way out of all this mess without bloodshed. When you can rig an election, then weaponize the government and the courts against a former President, what other alternative is there? I’m almost 70 and would rather die than live in tyranny.”
That’s a common version of how many people on the US right reacted to the ex-president’s verdict, drawing on a “mirror world” where Trump is seen as the selfless martyr to powerful state forces and Joe Biden is the dangerous autocrat wielding the justice system as his own personal plaything and a threat to US democracy.
Calls for revenge, retribution and violence littered the rightwing internet as soon as Trump’s guilty verdict came down, all predicated on the idea that the trial had been a sham designed to interfere with the 2024 election. Some posted online explicitly saying it was time for hangings, executions and civil wars.
In this case, Trump was charged with falsifying documents related to a hush-money payment made to an adult film actor to keep an alleged affair out of the spotlight during the 2016 election – a form of election interference from a man whose platform lately consists largely of blaming others for election interference. The verdict has been followed by a backlash from his followers, those who for years chanted to lock up Trump’s political opponents, like Hillary Clinton.
And you remember how Tucker Carlson waxed apocalyptic: “Import the third world, become the third world. That’s what we just saw. This won’t stop Trump. He’ll win the election if he’s not killed first. But it does mark the end of the fairest justice system in the world. Anyone who defends this verdict is a danger to you and your family.”
And then Don Junior picked it up, “they’re going to assassinate my father.” This is in response to Trump finally getting nailed for some of the criming he’s been doing his entire life. If Trump wasn’t as good a friends as he was with Robert Morgenthau, who was the Manhattan D.A. for many years, Morgenthau might well have indicted him. It’s never been a secret in New York what a crook Trump is. The only news is that now finally he’s being held accountable.
Who knows where this is going? I suppose it’s possible that the MAGAs will try something stupid. Maybe January 6 wasn’t an instructive enough lesson. But the point of all of this is that we would not be having these issues at all if it wasn’t for the fact that there are two separate information ecosystems.
Reality doesn’t work that way. There isn’t my version of gravity and your version of gravity. There is gravity, period. And there isn’t my version of the Trump trial and your version. There is one version, documented in the transcript — and then there is the lying right-wing media spin, taking it all out of context and using it for fear mongering and profit. I have no idea how this will end but I cannot think that it will end well.
WTH does ‘Pick a side, or you are next’ even mean? You are next to what? If you pick a side, then you are not next regardless of the side you pick? Just exactly which side is next and again, what does next mean?
You can’t even read a few little words these fools say and not have your brain scrambled.
I cannot see the American people fighting in a civil war. They are too wrapped up in themselves and pursuing money to physically fight in a domestic war.
Instru…I agree. That being said…sometimes reality FORCES you into a decision you never thought you’d have to make, one that lies WAY BEYOND what you ever thought would happen. I know that from personal experience. Nothing like being sent to prison without any prior record, for an unjustified law put in place by a criminal president, without real evidence, no money for a defense, having to face violence daily for months, only to be told by the parole board I shouldn’t have been arrested, and having them support me for a pardon. Oh, and get an advanced degree at the same time. Hitler’s official decree for arrest, listed practically EVERYONE who wasn’t a goose stepping nazi. Our culture is ripe for Trump and his death cult to steal power once again, as he ALREADY DID in 2016. The bodies piled up then, and WILL AGAIN. My dad, a wild mountain boy from Appalachia, was a violent drunk. I was trained early to face possible injury and death. It helped me in the joint but most people ARE NOT PREPARED for irrational violence. I suspect most will go along with the evil toddler if a gun is pushed in their face. I WILL NOT! Dying doesn’t scare me. Having my children living under tyranny DOES. I pray enough people get their goddamn minds in sync with the reality of what is happening and VOTE, already paid for by the blood of past heroes. If not, here’s my message for you stupid evil maggots, the same message I had to stand by in the penitentiary: you come to hurt me or my family and I GUARANTEE you it will cost you. Now, cue up the criticism from the comfortable typists that I’m spewing violent fantasies. You damn right. Lucky for you, the boys thrust into WW2 to stop this shit, did your killing for you. The nice people in Germany went about murdering 11 million innocent people in the camps, then pretended not to know what was happening. PURE EVIL LOVES PASSIVITY! That’s a law you can count on. The predators love the bleating of the innocent as they brutalize them. They fear the roar of the lion.
keep drinking the Kool aide, using your money and time on Draft Dodging Donald, the rapist, the felon,the divider,just like those who support him ,the ones that don’t support him are Americans too,and will not go quietly into the night just because we don’t share your opinions,most sane Americans would not wish war upon itself, especially over a orange dictator,but know this,the half you come for Americans as well and will have that same mentality as you do when you come for us,