Here's a full report on why state legislatures cannot redirect their electors for Trump. h/t @NastyOldWomyn

Notice the power (and advantage) a liar has.

A liar can force us to spend days explaining why the lie isn't true.

It's a time and energy drain.

1/ https://twitter.com/JoshuaADouglas/status/1311301621125656577

The liar literally hijacks our time.
The liar hijacks the national conversation.
We're puppets and the liar pulls our strings.

This particular lie (that Trump can fix the election via state legislators who can redirect the electoral votes) served Trump in multiple ways.

2/

This particular lie transformed Trump from a loser in the polls to an untoppable strongman who can fix an election. See my Just Security piece:
https://justsecurity.org/72609/dont-believe-trumps-latest-con-the-strongman/

I say "transformed" because when people melted down and gave it credence, it lifted Trump's stature.

3/

People are still stuck on this, and still insisting that we find ways to guard ourselves against this nonexistent threat.

Meanwhile, we're not talking about his failures. We're not talking about the NYT reports about his taxes.

Win for Trump.

4/

We are able to recognize the threat Trump poses to truth and democracy, but we don't have the tools to withstand the mind control tactics.

Totalitarianism, after all, is when the government controls your mind.

Melting down with panic feeds the beast.
https://twitter.com/habimaki88/status/1311433664790761475
5/

Notice what Russian television is saying: https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1311348948116832256
Trump lost the debate but a corrupt Supreme Court will keep him in power.

@TimothyDSnyder explains exactly what Putin is up to with this kind of propaganda.

6/

Putin tells Russians: Yes, your government is corrupt but ALL governments are corrupt. He tells them that Western "democracies" pretend to be democracies, but they are not. They, too, are corrupt.

He can't make Russia like the west, so he seeks to make the west like Russia.

7/

As @selectedwisdom explains, a goal of Active Measures is to get people to lose confidence in democratic processes.

Destroying democracy with a Pinochet-style military coup is very 20th century.

21st-centurry would-be autocrats have a less bloody, and less dramatic method.

8/

You can see the interplay between Russian propaganda methods and the fear created by the state elector lie (which also relies on the idea that the Supreme Court will throw the election to Trump.)

These techniques are very, very effective.

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1311348948116832256

9/

I am now persuaded that the debate came down to this moment when Biden told the audience to vote, their votes will count, if Trump loses, he leaves.

If voters believed Biden, Trump loses and democracy wins.

10/

Here is Trump's unhinged reply implying that there will not be a peaceful transition

Any "win" that Trump squeaks out will be the extent to which he persuades people that the election will be a disaster.

11/