Just because Republicans choose unreality doesn’t mean the media should ignore the facts of January 6.
On January 6, 2021, I watched CNN as thousands of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. As someone well-versed in watching tragedy on television, I was struck by just how indisputable the facts were at the time: violent, red-hat-clad MAGA rioters, followed by Republicans in Congress, tried to stop democracy in its tracks. Trump had told his followers that the protest in Washington, DC, “will be wild,” and in the assault that followed his speech, some rioters smeared feces on the walls of the Capitol. Hundreds of them have since been convicted on charges ranging from assault on federal officers to seditious conspiracy. These are stubborn facts, the kind that do not care about your feelings. These facts include the inalienable truth that Trump is the first president in American history to reject the peaceful transfer of power.
It never occurred to me that these facts could somehow be perverted by partisanship. But three years later, we are seeing just that, as Republicans cling to the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” by Joe Biden and are poised to make Trump their 2024 nominee. And perhaps even more dangerous than the GOP ditching reality is the news media’s inability to cover Trumpism as the threat to democracy that it very much is.
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But the problem is, when all you have is conventional political framing, everything looks like politics as usual. One candidate makes a claim; the other disputes it. Two sides are divided, etc. This framing only works if both parties operate within the frameworks of a shared reality. But Trumpism doesn’t allow for the reality the rest of us inhabit. Trump’s supporters believe their leader’s reality and not, say, the reality the rest of us see with our eyes. As Trump once told a crowd: “Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”
Journalists may be well-intentioned in trying to be “objective,” or they’re simply afraid of being labeled partisan. Either way, coverage of January 6 that gives equal weight to both sides—one based in reality, one not—is helping pave the road for authoritarianism.
Try telling this to the “gEnOciDE jOe” clowns, because they are the ones that need to understand this- not the trumpers. Trumpers are too far gone. They won’t listen to reason.
But these ‘single issue’ kids that are grassrooting the ideology that not voting is better than a vote for “genocide” are going to fuck around and find out the hard way when they get Trump installed as a permanent fixture in the White House.
Ok, let me preface this by OF COURSE Biden is by far the lesser evil compared to Trump, OF COURSE single issue voting is some Republican style bullshit and OF COURSE Trump would be even more supportive of a fascist government committing genocide, being a fascist war crime fanboy himself.
That being said, people who are outraged by Biden's continued support of and thus enabling of genocide DO have a point. He's supposed to represent the interests of every American who's not a fascist, not those of a fascist apartheid regime currently committing the worst genocide since the Balkan wars in the 90s.
Just because the other guy is a much greater evil doesn't mean that you can't hold your own guy accountable for supporting evil. With Trump the only alternative, voting for him is a given, but giving him a free pass shouldn't be.
Uh, what we are talking about is people who are already saying they won't vote for Biden. I run into this a lot. It's terrifying to know a significant part of the electorate are so myopic they would install Trump forever to "make a point".
It truly doesn't matter if they have a point, if the only end result is not voting or throwing their vote away on a third party. If Trump wins, they will be a big part of how.
"voting is the only way to create change" is the mentality that got us here.
You know why George Floyd's murderer was the only one who got the sentence he deserved? Because the people demanded it by threatening capital.
So what are you suggesting?
That people need to start by stopping this "only voting matters" narrative that so many push. I know people try to counter that by saying that people are overworked and don't have time for protests or any other direct action, but the Labor Movement was done by people working 70ish hour weeks.
More people need to be willing to protest. Until they are, things aren't going to meaningfully get better.
Right now, the message I get from a lot of these conversations here is that the President is allowed to have a little genocide as a treat because otherwise there could be more genocide. It's completely insane.
No you don't
Anyone insisting that the only way to move forward is to vote for someone who is promoting genocide is effectively saying that, yes.
These guys all want violent revolution, right up until it's their time to pick up a rifle.
As long as we are drawing the line in the sand as "reality" the truth is much more stark. We already live in a nation controlled by oligarchs and the vote has already been robbed of what little power it ever had. In a sense accelerationism isn't so much accelerating the decline of US democracy but accelerating its suspended funeral.
Criticizing Biden's handling of the war is not just allowed, but encouraged. His handling of it is dog shit.
What's naive and stupid to do is refuse to vote for him because of it, when the threat is a person who bragged about becoming a dictator and retaliating against anyone he dislikes.
All well and good, but these idiot kids are actually refusing to vote for him over this single issue. I agree that It’s fine to be bothered how he’s handling things- even if they’re a bit misunderstood on how things actually work- I mean, sure…it’s bothering.
But this is the biggest “I’m cutting off my nose to spite my face” America will EVER see.
Single issue lmao. "Yeah Hitler did genocide but that's just a single issue"
OK dude.
If we want to win, we need to appeal to people who disagree with your support for genocide, no matter how much you hate them.
Nobody hates you, we're just sick of idealists in a time when we need pragmatists.
Those pesky idealists... being opposed to checks notes literal fucking genocide.
I'm voting for Biden and you don't care. You just want unquestioning support for the genocide you support.
I'm sick of genocide
Do you think any person elected to the presidency wouldn't continue supporting Israel? To cut off funding and weapons to Israel would be absolute political suicide in this country. Don't care if it's Biden, Trump, Desantis, doesn't matter. Israel will continue to get $Billions and weapons. It's just the way it is.
Well said.
So your solution is to make it easier for Trump to win? You know that would make things even worse?
The only thing that is making it easier for Trump to win is Biden's unwavering support for the genocide centrists have evidently always wanted.
Do you realize that the war won't stop with the orangeoutan right?
Right, how could someone not want to vote for someone because they support genocide? How ludicrous.
I'll still vote for Biden because I'll already be in the booth, but sitting back and acting like this is our only option is nonsense.
Voting alone does not create change. Labor Movement, Women's Suffrage, Civil Rights, all were accomplished by active resistance and here you are spouting nonsense about how we should all just participate in the system that's circling the drain instead of disrupting it.
The longer you all take to come around the worse it will get, no matter which major party is in the Oval Office.
The people who can find a way to excuse, minimize or ignore Biden's military and political support for genocide could probably find a way to excuse, minimize or ignore just about anything. There is no bottom, only partisanship and convenience.
Sure, but if you're planning on sticking around in America, or care about its influence worldwide, shouldn't you at least try to steer it towards the least worst option?
The only people who have influence around here are the wealthy and corporations. I don't think two choices between two old genocidal men is the best example of saving democracy, as you can tell people still suffered and died under the "harm reduction" guy.
So just do nothing then. That’ll show em both!
Well get to pushing Biden left. I'm sure it will work out this time.
no one calls me a kid any more, and this single issue is the straw that broke the camel's back.
Okay kid. I’m sure your vote for Trump is appreciated.
i'm probably gonna be voting for cornel west, actually.
Like I said, I’m sure your vote for Trump is greatly appreciated.
I'm voting against Trump, actually
If you hadn't prefixed your comment with this, centrists who can't defend their enthusiastic support for genocide for its own sake would be calling you a trumpist.
Yeah, I know from vast experience 😮💨
You'll notice that you have to disclaim for a whole paragraph about how Biden is better than Trump, which of course he is, but no centrist has to similarly disclaim that they even dislike genocide at all.
Because none of them do.
Nothing about understanding the danger Trump poses makes you a "centrist" or "enthusiastic support" for genocide. Please grow up.
Nothing about questioning Biden's support for genocide means I want Trump to win. But you'll ignore that I'm voting for Biden as long as you never have to examine your love for genocide for its own sake.
Well put. But right now, folks who agree are missing the nuance and going to stay home. So not the time for intellectualizing to the choir. Let's just stop saying the quiet part aloud already. We all fucking know what the DNC is. Enough is enough. Can we have a fucking conversation about Trump and autocracy and Nazis without a fucking comment about Biden? You're just regurgitating the both sides bullshit with an asterisk that you'll vote, but the people reading are just doubling down not voting. Stop giving this oxygen. It's enough.
Yep. If donnie gets back in there, do these purity ponies think unquestioning support of Israel will stop?
I would rather not vote than vote for someone whose first response to a genocide is rushing as many American military assets and weapons as possible to enable it.
You do realize that not everyone in your country has fully assimilated to your extremely chauvinist worldview right?
The "gEnOcIDe JoE" clowns see a Republican fascist and a Democrat skirting our political system to fund fascists, backed by a party doing nothing to stop fascists from taking over every system in the country cause all the broken shit being used is broken shit the dems use too.
As long as dems tell anyone left of Biden to eat shit regardless of what their "voters" say, voting blue "no matter who" doesn't stop the march to fascism, it just delays it by 4 years.
I’m sure conservatives will appreciate their help in November.
As a trans person, another four years is probably another four years of being allowed to be alive. I fucking hate dems but I love being not being murdered. It sucks that my options are vote for the folks who will let brown kids die, or vote for the folks who will let brown kids die AND kill me. My vote doesn’t actually matter because my state will be redder than Zhang Yufang’s tampons, admittedly.