MEDIA "PROJECTION" IS OFF THE CHARTS: Trump’s very real impeachment is based on his own false beliefs — and it represents a suicidal step-change in conservative thinking
excerpt:
“It takes less emotional effort to believe in a baseless conspiracy theory … than a difficult, hard, complex truth”
I asked Travis View, a longtime observer of the QAnon conspiracy movement, why anyone would voluntarily gull themselves into such a tight corner that they might, like Giuliani, be prosecuted.
“For Pizzagate believers, it was satisfying to think that Hillary Clinton would be arrested for child sex trafficking. For Alex Jones, spreading baseless conspiracy theories gained him a large audience and wealth,” he told me.
“For Trump, believing that Ukraine was responsible for election meddling absolves Russia, and therefore removed the taint from Trump’s election victory. It takes less emotional effort to believe in a baseless conspiracy theory that uplifts your allies and condemns your enemies than a difficult, hard, complex truth.”
False ideas are no longer being pushed as a strategy of distraction. Now they are required as articles of faith.
The embrace of fictitious beliefs – regardless of the real-world consequences – is a step-change in conservative thinking. You can see it in climate science denial, QAnon, the anti-vaxx movement, and believing that the water supply is contaminated with chemicals that make frogs gay. False ideas are no longer being pushed as a strategy of distraction. Now they are required as articles of faith, facts that require belief regardless of the real-world consequences.
As Giuliani’s legal situation indicates, there are real dangers to this line of thinking. Alex Jones, too, has been successfully sued for pushing the line that the Sandy Hook shooting never occurred.
Trump, however, clearly doesn’t care.
The question is whether conservatism as a whole wants to follow him off this cliff.
https://www.businessinsider.sg/trump-impeachment-false-beliefs-step-change-conservative-thinking-2019-12/