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.
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.
You're sure showing them by directly endorsing their Genocide policies.
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.
cornel west and jill stein would.
But neither of them will win. So they’re both irrelevant.
where did you get your crystal ball?
I admire your optimism, but I think the black socialist professor and intersectional activist might find it difficult to sway enough votes on either side. It's a shame you don't have a better voting system where you can rank your preferred candidates - would avoid much of these stupid games.
voting sucks in pretty much every system.
Well said.
If you actually believed that, and weren't an idealist centrism and genocide yourself, you would pragmatically demand a primary to choose a candidate who could win and not try and demand unearned votes through shaming.
You're as pragmatic as a college kid carrying around a dog-eared copy of 'Atlas Shrugged'
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?
You misspelled 'genocide' as 'war'
For the love of fuck, how many times do I have to tell you genocide supporters that I don't support Trump?
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.
You idiots are going to find out pretty quick why you should have voted, if Trump wins. I hope you like genocides much closer to home.
Centrists would rather lecture than listen.
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.
the least worst option is cornel west.
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
I do. I also know the candidates I'm considering are running against Trump, so a vote for them is a vote against Trump.
Tell me you don't understand power, or how to enact change without saying "Why do we keep trying to shame people into voting for us, and yet we still keep going rightward"
Seriously. Your logic is the same as the union leaders that accept shitty deals from companies with the view of "If we don't fight them here, they will be nicer to us in the future."
You'll have as much fun with that, up to supporting FUCKING GENOCIDE, as the labor union leaders did with the slow decline of the power of unions.
There is a reason that the right gets more rightwing, and the left gets more right wing, and it can be simplified into the statement "The right fears their base, while the left has contempt for theirs."