A recent survey has shown that a large minority of adults in this country continues to accept uncritically the conspiracy theories of the fascist Far Right and the Trump White House. That version of reality is still the world view of thirty or forty percent of the electorate. Although not strictly along party lines, there is still a high correlation with political affiliation.
When the Trump era is over, this divide will persist. No evidence or research will sway these people, certainly not even direct confessions from the perpetrators concerned. Staunch and respected Conservatives that do not support Trump’s policies, no matter how persuasive and articulate they may be, will simply be ignored or dismissed as the Establishment, the Swamp, the Deep State, the Crony Capitalists, or any of the other convenient categories that have been created where non-Liberal Trump critics can be conveniently lumped.
Part of this hard-core Deplorable base is the result of years of public opinion engineering on the part of the GOP and its allies. Like all tyrannical regimes, they have had to prepare labels for those of their own ideology who do not accept their program without question. Fanatics can deal with enemies, but they simply cannot tolerate apostasy. The remainder are mostly made up of those who realize what a terrible mistake they have made, how badly they have been conned, or how their ideology is fundamentally flawed. But they cannot bring themselves to admit it publicly because it would mean their bitter enemies just might have been right after all.
That’s why they don’t post here any more. We can afford to be charitable, maybe they aren’t True Believers.
- Inevitable, given universal suffrage and widespread ignorance?