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.
WE DON’T WANT GENOCIDE.
If that is what is wrong with us, than what the fuck is wrong with you?
If Trump is an existential threat (Not disagreeing that he is, bear with me.) then why isn’t the Democratic party acting like he is?
The only time they do is when they want to shame people into voting for majority unpopular things, LIKE FUCKING GENOCIDE.
What the fuck is wrong with your brain?
You imagine things will be better under trump, or just don’t care as long as you get to cosplay the moral person here?
I’d rather the people responsible take responsibility.
Biden has made himself unelectable due to his actions.
If only we had a democrat process to choose who the Democratic party would field for president.
Oh, wait, we do. Oh wait, the Democratic party has banned 5 states from having anyone else as a candidate for the democratic nomination and told New Hampshire that their delegates won’t count because they are having other candidates?
Do you enjoy cosplaying as a ‘pragmatist’ when being a good puppet for people that would rather lose to Trump, than give up control of the Democratic party?
They don’t think he’s an existential threat for the US(Though, I think they are wrong on this as they are on pretty much everything else.), so why are carrying their water for them?
