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(Thread) Why Trump Supporters Willingly Embrace his Lies
Spoiler: They embrace the lies because the lies destroy, and they want to destroy.
It explains why @SenateGOP are shamelessly lying to the public and know their supporters don't care.
Scholars have done work on this. https://twitter.com/WalshFreedom/status/1222698975356170241
Spoiler: They embrace the lies because the lies destroy, and they want to destroy.
It explains why @SenateGOP are shamelessly lying to the public and know their supporters don't care.
Scholars have done work on this. https://twitter.com/WalshFreedom/status/1222698975356170241
1/ The entire point of Trump’s campaign to “Make America Great Again” is to lead us back to a time before the civil rights movement, before laws against insider trading, before the New Deal and federal agencies that regulate the commerce of plutocrats . . .
2/ . . . back to the time white men could do as they pleased and grab whatever they wanted.
On the frontier, they could grab land!
They could grab people and enslave them!
They could grab women
Those were the days https://twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield/status/1044239602477723648
On the frontier, they could grab land!
They could grab people and enslave them!
They could grab women
Those were the days https://twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield/status/1044239602477723648
3/ What is standing in the way of returning to the days of white male supremacy?
Lots of federal agencies and laws. This includes the FBI. Someone asked how the party of "law and order" turned into the anti-FBI party.
The answer is easy. . .
Lots of federal agencies and laws. This includes the FBI. Someone asked how the party of "law and order" turned into the anti-FBI party.
The answer is easy. . .
4/ The GOP was the law and order party back when the chief business of law enforcement was to put black men in jail.
But when law enforcement began looking at white collar crimes. . . watch out!
Yesterday Trump's lawyer made an astounding statement to the nation.
But when law enforcement began looking at white collar crimes. . . watch out!
Yesterday Trump's lawyer made an astounding statement to the nation.
5/ Trump's lawyer, Philbin said that Trump accepting information about a political opponent from foreign governments is fine, if it's "relevant information."
People were shocked. Don't be shocked. Trumps thinks he should be able to do whatever he wants.
People were shocked. Don't be shocked. Trumps thinks he should be able to do whatever he wants.
6/ Yes, it's autocracy.
It's also the way privileged white men lived in the U.S. before all those pesky federal agencies and laws.
Slaveowners lived like kings.
There is a direct line from the Confederacy, to Jim Crow laws and the KKK, to the Trump-Fox-GOP.
It's also the way privileged white men lived in the U.S. before all those pesky federal agencies and laws.
Slaveowners lived like kings.
There is a direct line from the Confederacy, to Jim Crow laws and the KKK, to the Trump-Fox-GOP.
7/ If you want to dismantle all the federal agencies and regulations put in place since the New Deal, the Civil Rights Movement, and the women's rights movement, you can either dismantle them slowly, or you can bring in a human wrecking ball.
Trump is a human wrecking ball.
Trump is a human wrecking ball.
8/ When Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Trump’s lies by arguing that his false statements actually point to something true, she offered an explanation for why Trump supporters embrace transparent lies.
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/936332447284899840
The lies, she said, point to an important truth.
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/936332447284899840
The lies, she said, point to an important truth.
9/ “President Obama was born in Africa,” for example, is a provable lie, but it points toward what to Trump’s supporters see as a deeper truth: President Obama is black, and therefore, isn’t "real" American, and he most certainly should not be president.
10/ Remember Sara Palin's comment about "real" Americans (small town or rural, and white). https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-oct-23-oe-brooks23-story.html
In “The Authentic Appeal of the Lying Demagogue,” Scholars Oliver Hahl, Minjae Kim, and Ezra W. Zickerman Sivan, explain. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122417749632
In “The Authentic Appeal of the Lying Demagogue,” Scholars Oliver Hahl, Minjae Kim, and Ezra W. Zickerman Sivan, explain. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122417749632
11/ They say that those who want to destroy the “political establishment” willingly embrace a liar because they understand that the lies themselves serve a destructive purpose. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122417749632
12/ They also explain that the people who want to destroy the political establishment today are those threatened by growing diversity. In other words, they're threatened by the loss of white male rule.
Trump's lies destroy.
That's why Trump's followers willingly embrace them.
Trump's lies destroy.
That's why Trump's followers willingly embrace them.
13/ I wrote about that in this Slate article a few years ago: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/trump-lies-kavanaugh-khashoggi.html
And here we are: A Senate Trial in which Trump and his lawyers shamelessly lie.
And the @SenateGOP eagerly repeat those lies.
And the Fox-Trump-GOP base eagerly embrace the lies.
And here we are: A Senate Trial in which Trump and his lawyers shamelessly lie.
And the @SenateGOP eagerly repeat those lies.
And the Fox-Trump-GOP base eagerly embrace the lies.
14/ Poor whites also supported the Confederacy and slave ownership, even though it actually hurt them by forcing them to compete with free labor.
https://twitter.com/TSandwichHead/status/1222915693890293760
They supported it, though, because there are people (lots of them, actually) who prefer hierarchy.
https://twitter.com/TSandwichHead/status/1222915693890293760
They supported it, though, because there are people (lots of them, actually) who prefer hierarchy.
15/ The idea that there is a natural hierarchy appeals to people who find disorder and chaos in democracy.
The idea of hierarchy informs fascism.
Democracy is messy business. It's chaotic and slow and frustrating. (Just for local office and try to get something done).
The idea of hierarchy informs fascism.
Democracy is messy business. It's chaotic and slow and frustrating. (Just for local office and try to get something done).
16/ It's easy for people to feel frustrated by the slow grinding work of democracy.
An autocrat can make things happen fast.
Trump is an autocrat who promises to return to a bygone [mythic] era when America was a simpler place (and white men could do as they pleased).
An autocrat can make things happen fast.
Trump is an autocrat who promises to return to a bygone [mythic] era when America was a simpler place (and white men could do as they pleased).
17/ Hannah Arendt, in the Origins of Totalitarianism, explains that the followers of someone like Trump think his lies make him clever.
(I think it was @jenmercieca who first posted this quotation)
People ask me how I stay optimistic. I have a strange explanation. . .
(I think it was @jenmercieca who first posted this quotation)
People ask me how I stay optimistic. I have a strange explanation. . .
18/ Actually, two reasons.
#1: My husband and his family experienced the Pinochet dictatorship. If you think Trump is bad, let's talk about Pinochet. The Chileans, though, got out from under that dictatorship using political means. They didn't have to resort to violence.
#1: My husband and his family experienced the Pinochet dictatorship. If you think Trump is bad, let's talk about Pinochet. The Chileans, though, got out from under that dictatorship using political means. They didn't have to resort to violence.
19/ Reason #2: I just finished writing a series of biographies spanning American history (my Making of America) series, so I know that Americans have already gotten out from under worse.
I have threads on how Susan B. Anthony and FDR taught us how to do it.
I have threads on how Susan B. Anthony and FDR taught us how to do it.
20/ History, and understanding how another country ousted an actual dictator using nonviolence means gives perspective.
It's also why I keep posting my list: https://terikanefield-blog.com/things-to-do/
It's also why I keep posting my list: https://terikanefield-blog.com/things-to-do/
