Denouement of U.S. Empire

[cwolff]

I don't know that they'll really get to that point where they acknowledge how wrong they've been. These are people who keep going back to the right-wing media outlets that told them Obama wasn't a US citizen, that the ACA had government run "death panels", that economic success inherently "trickles down", that Clinton was going to be in prison "any day now" for using a private email server, etc.

Look at Rockstar- he's been called out for citing articles from actual fake news outlets 3 or 4 times in the last year. And he still goes back to them again and again while lambasting outlets like CNN for being fake. Even when you show him that he's reading fake news sites, he still believes them.

Or PB who has spent most of the last year and a half questioning literally everything about the Mueller probe- buying into every fake narrative and arguing against anyone who dared to say that the Russians actually had interfered in our elections, that Trump had real Russia ties, that the Trump campaign was meeting with Russian government officials, etc. etc. etc. But when you ask him about it now- he swears that he never argued those things. Even though he's fought the truth every step of the way, he still perceives himself to have been right all along.

So yes some of this is cynical political calculation, but honestly the human brain has an amazing capacity to maintain a narrative even while surrounded by information disproving that narrative.

No, they'll never acknowledge it. How can they? It'd be devastating to one's psyche. They don't have to acknowledge it either because they don't have any memory. They absorb and repeat any talking point that's being shopped around on the networks and their partisan news sources. When their current piece of fake news is debunked they just move on the next without ever taking the time to reflect on how wrong they were. Some blatant examples are Obama golfing, Obama vacations, demeaning the office of the presidency etc... They simply have no use for objectivity but can use all the outrageous fake news they can get their hands on. Hell, Tucker Carlson was out there saying he doesn't think Cohen did campaign finance violations even though the dude confessed. Truth no longer exists for trumps GOP.

[Neveragain]

I don't know that they'll really get to that point where they acknowledge how wrong they've been. These are people who keep going back to the right-wing media outlets that told them Obama wasn't a US citizen, that the ACA had government run "death panels", that economic success inherently "trickles down", that Clinton was going to be in prison "any day now" for using a private email server, etc.

Look at Rockstar- he's been called out for citing articles from actual fake news outlets 3 or 4 times in the last year. And he still goes back to them again and again while lambasting outlets like CNN for being fake. Even when you show him that he's reading fake news sites, he still believes them.

Or PB who has spent most of the last year and a half questioning literally everything about the Mueller probe- buying into every fake narrative and arguing against anyone who dared to say that the Russians actually had interfered in our elections, that Trump had real Russia ties, that the Trump campaign was meeting with Russian government officials, etc. etc. etc. But when you ask him about it now- he swears that he never argued those things. Even though he's fought the truth every step of the way, he still perceives himself to have been right all along.

So yes some of this is cynical political calculation, but honestly the human brain has an amazing capacity to maintain a narrative even while surrounded by information disproving that narrative.

Like how there's only two genders?

[cwolff]

Like how there's only two genders?

Adding you to the ignore list.

[Fortybox]

True that. I've asked before, "How do you deprogram 1/3 of the country." They freaked out of course. Pretended I was advocating for concentration/re-education camps. They react like addicts at an intervention. Anger, projection, blame, denial. At this point, they're in so deep, they'll be shattered when they realize how wrong they've been about everything and the damage they've done. It'll shake them to their foundations to have an epiphany and they'd rather take everyone down with them than have to own up to the way they've allowed themselves to be used by the powerbrokers on the right.

[Fortybox]

No, they'll never acknowledge it. How can they? It'd be devastating to one's psyche. They don't have to acknowledge it either because they don't have any memory. They absorb and repeat any talking point that's being shopped around on the networks and their partisan news sources. When their current piece of fake news is debunked they just move on the next without ever taking the time to reflect on how wrong they were. Some blatant examples are Obama golfing, Obama vacations, demeaning the office of the presidency etc... They simply have no use for objectivity but can use all the outrageous fake news they can get their hands on. Hell, Tucker Carlson was out there saying he doesn't think Cohen did campaign finance violations even though the dude confessed. Truth no longer exists for trumps GOP.

[Fortybox]

Adding you to the ignore list.

[Neveragain]

Adding you to the ignore list.

[time4fun]

Like how there's only two genders?

This is sort of like running around saying that there are only two alphabets.

I mean, you can keep saying it all you'd like, but it doesn't make it true.

[Neveragain]

This is sort of like running around saying that there are only two alphabets.

I mean, you can keep saying it all you'd like, but it doesn't make it true.

Exactly, you can run around saying that there's more than two genders but it doesn't make it true.

But I think we can both agree that there are more than 2 mental disorders.

[time4fun]

Exactly, you can run around saying that there's more than two genders but it doesn't make it true.

But I think we can both agree that there are more than 2 mental disorders.

Leaving aside the fact that this weird talking point is actually a perfect example of the phenomenon I was describing a few posts ago, you do understand that this conversation is the equivalent of someone who never got past high school telling someone with a Masters in economics that inflation doesn't mean what they think it means, right?

And, spoiler alert, in this analogy you're not the one with the Masters in Economics.