Perception is everything. That’s a truism. It’s also very sad because so often the way something is presented and the way that things actually are, are completely different. In today’s political climate, the way things are is ignored completely by media outlets and individuals who lie for a living and who are committed to doing so. It may have started out with Rush Limbaugh on right-wing radio and then spread to Fox News, but since Donald Trump came down the escalator we have had two separate and distinct information ecosystems. This is not the sign of a healthy society. Opinion is one thing, not knowing what is real is something else. With that in mind, take a look at two minutes of conspiracy theory and drivel. This is the MAGAverse in Spring of 2024.
If MAGA genuinely believes even half the conspiracies they’re spouting, we’ve got a bridge to sell them… pic.twitter.com/GMsGtfTzsM
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) April 2, 2024
These are all people who have found out the truism that Donald Trump figured out many years ago. People just believe what they hear on the TV set. Or elsewhere. They simply do. Once Trump realized how easy it was to lie, and gathered different like minded people like Steve Bannon into the fold, the remaking of American reality began in full.
What is truly disgraceful about this is that if deception was limited to right-wing outlets only, that would be one thing. But the normalization of the Era of Trump has been done by everybody. Meet The Press is basically an unwatchable TV show nowadays because it’s committed to both siderism and normalization of the abnormality of Trump and his ludicrous campaign.
We do not live in normal times. We live now in fear of whether lies will triumph over truth, and whether indecency will best decency this election year. Because democracy itself is on the ballot.
The GOP is a tottering, quivering mess. What’s left of the party is committed to backstabbing one another. Marge Greene is now out for Mike Johnson’s throat, as if that’s going to accomplish anything.
And didn't he just call her a "friend" the other day? He's trying very hard not to tangle with her…he's afraid of her!
— 🐕🦺DogMom 🌊 (@Dogmomresists) April 2, 2024
What’s tragic here is that Marge, Mace, Boebert and the rest may tear down Johnson or any Republican who seeks to actually compromise and get legislation passed, and then the next thing they do is go on TV and brag about the legislation (that they just voted against) bringing “x” number of dollars to their district — and they do this with impunity.
There is so much lying and so little fact checking on TV that these fifth rate legislative talents, people who rode Trump’s MAGA coattails into office, feel that they can get away with it and they do more lying the next day. And the next.
I don’t know how America can withstand two narratives of reality. I am hoping and praying that enough Americans are smart enough to figure out the ruse and know that they’ve been lied to and not believe the hype.
We cannot have another four years — or more — of Donald Trump. That’s the first order of business. What happens after that, which, as I have long suspected will be the collapse of the GOP and the rise of a new conservative post-Trump party of some sort, we’ll have to play by ear.
We have never lived through times like these. Nothing even close. A certain faction of America is brainless, enraged, and unteachable. They feast daily on conspiracy theory and hype. Those are the hardcore MAGA/QAnon folks. We can only pray that sane decent Americans outnumber them.
Hilary had it right, all those years ago.
Deplorables. All of them.
Trump is the matador? He is something to do with bull, but not a bullfighter.
Matador is derived from the word Matar, which is Spanish for “kill”.
Seems appropriate that he is trying to kill democracy with his bull.