So, I watched/listed to the whole hearing the other day on January 6 and the one republican congressman Andrew Clyde said, “Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes taking videos and pictures,” Clyde said. “You know, if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”
Now, he was right. If you JUST look at a specific few minutes of video from Statuary Hall, the people that entered the capital are just walking between the ropes and stanchions. However, if you JUST look at a few minutes of video from one place and only at a specific time, that is not a reflection of the day as a whole and is a profound mischaracterization of the day.
What the hell is he playing at? Is he just playing to the Trump base while still, technically, telling the truth?
I feel like, if I were a Republican or a Trump supporter, I would be too offended to continue being so. They must think their supporters are just total idiots. But, yes, he’s playing to his base by telling a sort-of plausible lie.
The primary driver of the GOP right now appears to be The Big Lie (the election was stolen, and thus the insurrection was justified, but it wasn’t an insurrection at all anyway) – and they’re willing to lie and lie and lie again to keep it going.
I have to admit that that was the first live video I saw, and the first impression I formed. I may have even said so here on the Dope. But unlike Rep Clyde, I didn’t shut off my brain and my senses at that point.
When my daughter was a teenager, she had a VERY casual relationship with truth. Nearly everything that came out of her mouth was a lie. Everything. She would lie about important things and totally trivial things.
The remarkable thing about her lying was that she would stick with the lie through thick and thin. The evidence of her lie could be irrefutable and obvious to everyone and she would still insist that her fabrication was the whole truth. It was the most frustrating thing I have ever experienced in my life. Fortunately, as an adult, she has mostly outgrown it.
I never expected to witness this trait in major public officials. Some people like to say that all politicians lie. Given that all politicians are humans, that is certainly true. But Trump’s lying is a whole different level. Like my daughter, Trump and his followers will stick to the lie even when the evidence of the truth is obvious and irrefutable.
It is stunning. And frustrating. For four years, our country was being led by a teenaged girl. Some want to go back to that.
Yes, he’s lying. But his base, Trumpists, know he’s lying. They’re well aware of it. They admire him for it.
What he’s doing is shoving his lie down the throats of the Communists/socialists/liberals/Antifa/BLM/whatever. And there’s nothing they can do about it. The people in his district will think Clyde owned you. And me. And the rest of us big-city socialists.
Dont’ forget, he’s from Georgia, the same state that gave us Marjorie Taylor Greene.
He’s like one of those assholes openly carrying a gun in WalMart (not surprising, since he apparently owns a huge gun retailing business). What he’s doing is saying “yeah, I’m lying. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to make me stop?” That’s all it is. His supporters are in on it.
Did something happen at the Empire State Building on 9/11? Is that where all the Mooslims cheered and danced on the roof that Trump saw with his own eyes?
Only that it’s another tall building in New York City. If Andrew Clyde wants to ignore terrorism by looking in the wrong place, I thought he might want to apply that thinking to 9/11, too.
This, this, this. They love the torrent of lies from Trump and his minions, because it clearly drives everyone else (read: everyone not in the Trump cult) completely crazy. That’s it. That’s all. That’s their sole objective. If the Dems hate it, then by definition, ipso facto, it’s good. The Republican base is now a mob of sneering trolls, full stop.
Except that they have absolutely no awareness that they are the true targets of the con. As long as their political enemies are complaining, they’re happy, and are blinded to the fact that it’s not those enemies’ pockets being picked, it’s their own.
It sounds like someone totally detached from reality and it is amazing the influence that Trump (or any such person such as a religious cult leader) has over the minds of many. It is a form of spiritual slavery as I know it where one has submitted to the will of the other and that person has the intent to control that other person and limit their ability to actually see things the way they are, causing spiritual blindness.
I’m sure in some cases a rape caught on camera could look like a tender moment of making love if you just take a brief section of the clip. And that’s what we seem to have here, seeing only what one want’s to see and disregarding the rest that doesn’t fit. Unable to see the rest.