American Politics from 2019 on

[pErvinalia]

'Alternative facts,' all growed up now. A comprehensive denial of reality. Absence of evidence only demonstrates the depth that the demonic opposition will stoop to.

'Why MAGA can’t hear the Trump boos'

The most revealing moment of Donald Trump’s week was not the boos that rained down on him at Madison Square Garden on Monday night. It was the almost instantaneous insistence, by him and his media ecosystem, that the boos never happened. What we witnessed this week — the feverish, almost liturgical insistence that a crowd loudly booing the president of the United States was actually chanting “USA!” — is something more disturbing and dangerous than ordinary propaganda. It’s now clear that the crisis we face is not a lack of information; it is a profound detachment from reality, cultivated by right-wing media and anchored by a president who demands that his followers reject the evidence of their eyes and ears.

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The moment the boos rang out, MAGA influencers and accounts on social media spun the boos into cheers with a speed that should terrify anyone who still believes in the existence of a shared factual reality. White House communications aide Margo Martin posted a clip on X claiming, “Chants of ‘USA’ in Madison Square Garden!” The official White House account posted a photo of Trump saluting, captioned, with absolute, unironic authoritarian flair, “King of New York.” Fox News’ official social media account blasted: “‘USA! USA! USA!’ Chants erupted throughout Madison Square Garden during Game 3 of the NBA Finals with President Trump in attendance.”

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This is not spin in the traditional sense. Spin acknowledges reality and tries to tilt it. This is something more extreme: the construction of an entirely separate reality in real time, one that rejects the evidence of the senses. This is what the great media critic and cultural analyst Jay Rosen has long called “the post-truth” condition. For MAGA, contrary evidence is not something that prompts reconsideration. It is something that triggers the construction of an alternative explanation.

Selective hearing on this scale is wild, but it is also terrifyingly deliberate. It renders conversation entirely pointless. When confronted with an undeniable fact — in this case, thousands of people booing a sitting president — the healthy human mind adjusts its understanding of reality. The conspiracy brain, however, views the correction itself as evidence of a conspiracy. That reflexive rejection of observable reality is what now defines Trumpism.

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Look at the recent fallout from the Los Angeles mayoral race. Right-wing media has spent the last week promoting baseless narratives that the election is being “stolen” by progressives. People who absolutely should know better are allowing their motivated reasoning to override basic math, stoking a dangerous fire.

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It is a profound display of performative stupidity. In California, mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day are legally counted as they arrive in the days following. Progressive voters, younger voters and working-class voters historically vote later or via mail. It is not a conspiracy; it is basic civics. Yet, because the initial election night tallies shifted against the conservative candidate, it is automatically branded as “rigged.”

When House Speaker Mike Johnson was asked by CNN’s Manu Raju to provide a shred of proof for these explosive claims of election fraud, his response exposed the entire intellectual rot of the conservative movement: “Some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it is impossible to prove. But I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here.”

There it is. Instinctively. This is the core of the MAGA epistemic crisis. Evidence either no longer matters or the lack of evidence becomes proof of how sophisticated the conspiracy must be. The feeling of illegitimacy is enough. And because that feeling is rooted in identity and grievance rather than facts, it cannot be disproven.

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Fact-checking assumes that people care about accuracy. Debunking assumes that false beliefs are held in good faith. But conspiracy thinking is not a knowledge problem; it is an identity defense mechanism.

Maybe it's like one of those optical illusions. Is the dress blue and white or blue and black?

[Tero]

"The solution can start with Congress establishing a national deadline of Election Day for the arrival of mail-in ballots, as 35 states already require. If that sounds strict, remember that a deadline is unavoidable. The only question is when it should be — Election Day or days later. The variety of state approaches over the past decade makes clear that a later deadline does not increase turnout or eliminate late ballots. Regardless of when the deadline is, a small fraction of people will miss it."

"The Supreme Court may act on this issue before Congress has a chance. In March, the justices heard arguments in a case challenging a Mississippi law that allows ballots to arrive five business days after Election Day. The plaintiffs challenging the law argue that old federal statutes require Election Day to be the deadline."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/08/us/c ... w-why.html