Honestly, I would be relieved to think that that was the case.
I hate the thought of millions of Americans being willing to knowingly violate the principles of democracy and illegally nullify the votes of their fellow Americans because they want power for their faction at all costs and know they can’t obtain it legitimately. But what appalls me even more than that is the idea that millions of Americans are sincerely, truly so ignorant and incapable of critical thought that they genuinely believe the 2020 election was “stolen” and that a violent attempt to ignite an honest-to-God civil war was an appropriate response in defense of their freedom.
But yeah, I could see the possibility of a lot of Trump supporters being somewhere in the middle between those two states of mind: they might kind of know that Trump is a bullshitter and enjoy seeing the libs get all upset about his bullshit, but they’re also just credulous and uninformed enough to think it might be true that there was massive electoral fraud so taking over the process by violent insurrection is worth a shot.
Food for thought in the post that I believe Crane was referring to.