About 'believing' Trump's lies

[ClusterFreak]

Not for one second do I believe - if you'll excuse the expression - that Trump's followers 'believe' his lies. Because to do so would be to suggest one thing: they listened to him, thoughtfully considered what he said, critically analyzed his comments, and came to the unavoidable conclusion that he was speaking the truth. As in the election was stolen from him.

This is his Big Lie, which he buttressed with a certain number of smaller lies (such as thousands of dead people voted in Georgia, which Georgia's Republican Secretary of State in fact said only numbered two) in order to keep the faithful whipped up and ready to pounce into action on his cue. You gotta "fight like hell" he said. That line, and others in his January 6th call-to-arms speech, was delivered in code but the faithful understood exactly what he meant.

My point here is that Trump's followers don't believe his lies, they don't need to, because they DON'T CARE if they are true, they just want to hear them.

Let that sink in: They just want to hear them.

They DON'T CARE if he has no proof that the election was rigged. They just want to hear that it is.

They DON'T CARE about truth, about facts, about reality... because they blame others for why they are aggrieved. And if you have positioned yourself on the extreme far right, anyone, ANYONE who is even a hair to the left of you... is the enemy.

That means you Mike Pence by a hair and AOC by the whole shaggy head.

If you wan't to believe anything, believe that.

[kentuck]

1. And they were angry....

....that he lost.

And it gave them justification for expressing their anger in a mob.

[ClusterFreak]

3. Exactly!

[mobeau69]

2. ...

[mnmoderatedem]

4. you have to consider the audience

these are people who don't believe trump had an affair with Stormy Daniels, but DO believe that Hillary Clinton ran a child prostitution ring out of a pizzeria in Washington DC.

They will believe what they want to believe, aided by republican scumbags in Congress who keep hammering the Big Lie ad nauseum, as well as irresponsible individuals in the right wing media who have a long reach. And they KNOW it's a lie, but keep hammering it home time and again, to it their on political ends.

Yes I DO believe that they believe The Big Lie. They have been conditioned to believe anything that reflects negatively on trump is "fake news" no matter what.

[Dirty Socialist]

5. I took an International Politics Class in College

We did a unit on Third World dictators. The dictators’ appeal is quite similar to what you described. The dictators’ followers didn’t care if what was said was true. They admired the dick for saying it.

[genxlib]

6. Back in the Obama Administration

I had a client who would circulate bullshit right wing emails. I tried to ignore them for a long time because he was a client and it wasn't my place to play politics in a presumably professional environment.

Finally, he sent one so obviously a lie, I thought I would do him a favor by pointing out that it wasn't true. I did privately rather than 'reply all' so as not to embarrass him. I thought I was doing him a favor.

It really set him off and he came after me saying people like me were the problem. In the end, he finally said it didn't matter whether it was true or not because...reasons.

The only client I have ever run off in 30 years of practice. Best thing to ever happen. Would not surprise me in the least if that jackass was in DC last week. He was exactly the kind of brainwashed and belligerent assholes that made up the bulk of that crowd.

[ClusterFreak]

9. I hear exactly what you're saying...

Truth doesn't matter to people like this, assigning blame to others for what aggrieves them, is all that matters.

[JI7]

7. They agree with him that black people shouldn't vote

so they go along with whatever bs he spews.

[Mr. Ected]

8. His supporters have always admired Trump for "saying what was on his mind"

Nevermind that he belched out non-sequitur hate bombs. Nevermind the fact that none of it was true. Nevermind that it was delivered with a 4th grade vocabulary. Nevermind that he harbors disdain for his audience.

The SOB speaks his mind and that's good enough for a MAGAT.

[Dirty Socialist]

10. Again, the Third World dictator model

I’m glad I took that class.

[Wounded Bear]

13. All authoritarians follow pretty much the same playbook...

been the same since people invented politics. The only thing that changes, really, is the tools they use.

[ClusterFreak]

11. All of the above!!

[Chainfire]

12. This is certainly correct but there are other issues

Even if they realize that it is all hogwash, they have so much invested in supporting the lies over the last four year, that to admit they had been wrong, for so long, that they had been made fools of, that they would rather lose the country than admit that they were victims. It is much like the old person, swindled out of their life savings, that don't want it to become pubic knowledge, so they suffer in silence.

The other issue is that many of them do not believe that it is "over" yet. I just had a conversation with a fellow on a gun forum that promised me that I would be eating crow next week. I invited him to elaborate what he was thinking so that I could throw it back in his face on Wed. No reply.

This is what that I believe is the fantasy that they are holding on to. Of course the details will vary, but this is the general line:

The Guard is there to protect Trump and the White House, that they will link hands with the modern Minutemen militias outside the gates. Biden will be arrested, and perhaps dealt with summarily. Democrat lawmakers will be rounded up, along with the Republican traitors. They will be replaced with "patriotic" lawmakers, Trump will be installed as "leader until further notice" and that the radical right will assume full power over the nation.

They will then will be free to deal properly with all of the "Socialist" and people of color. One of their favorite themes is, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants." By the way, they mean for it to be YOUR blood.

When this does not happen on the 20th, they will simply kick the date down the road, because it is what has to happen.....

[ClusterFreak]

14. A page taken right out of the end-of-days playbook.

Ok, so we got the date wrong...

Trump has SO much to answer for. His inflammatory rhetoric and lies for the last 4 plus years has emboldened the most extreme elements of the far right to the point where we are today.