Nurse the Hate: Hate Alternative Fact Debate

I spent yesterday afternoon wasting my time reading about Italian wine production, drinking Cremant de Loire, and gambling on football.  Then I really started to waste my time.  I got drawn into a social media argument about “alternative facts” with a couple of far right Republicans.  I knew this was a pointless exercise.  There has never been a circumstance in which someone has a political squabble, is presented a factoid and then says “You know, I never considered it from that point of view…  You might be right!”.  No one has ever had a reasonable discussion on social media.  I should only focus on posting pictures of myself in a wrestling mask for the Lucha Libre Wine Appreciation Society and photos of Leo doing poorly thought out stunts.  That’s what the internet is for.

I don’t know what it is about people that identify themselves as “hardcore Republicans” that makes them completely inflexible.  For example, I am more likely to vote Democrat than Republican, but I have voted for both parties and do split the vote on most elections.  I don’t really care for how Obama handled Isis or the Iraq deal.  He seemed to waffle in the Middle East.  I liked him three times as much as George W. though.  I liked George Sr.  I liked Obama, but will openly note that I was not 100% on board with everything.  I didn’t like Hillary very much, but at least she was qualified for the job.  That type of gray area seems absolutely impossible for the Far Right aficionado.  They will not break rank under any circumstances.  They will not betray “their team” no matter how ludicrous the circumstances.

So there I was flailing away at these guys who claimed “alternative facts” don’t matter because Hillary blah blah bah or Obamacare was done in such a way that blah blah blah.  I have no idea why those things were being linked.  “Alternative Facts” stands in a world of horseshit all of its own.  It did not matter.  They were willing to do anything to muddy the waters to avoid saying that it is reasonable for our elected officials at least pretend to tell us the truth.  I don’t understand how anyone that is even remotely functioning in their day to day life can’t look at “alternative facts” and say “Hey, that’s fucking bullshit.”.  Yet, there they were telling me I was the crazy one and it isn’t a big deal.  If it comes wrapped in a Republican wrapper, they are ALL IN.  If Kim Jong-un ran Republican, these guys would defend him.  “Oh, so he ran labor camps!  And maybe he executed some of his relatives?  Allegedly!  It’s all Fake News created by the Leftist Media Conspiracy!  And what about Benghazi?  Hmm?  What about that?  Hillary is worse than Kim Jong-un!”  There is no set of circumstances which will allow them to even entertain the thought that something “their team” did might be questionable. 

It is completely insane.

What bothers me is that denial of the truth appears to be a strategy from these clowns The People elected.  The plan appears to be to eliminate the validity of not just the media reporting the facts but the facts themselves.  If a clearly available fact like attendance of a public event is rejected, how can we possibly think that these goons will provide any truth at any point?  Trumps is not at war with the media.  He is at war with The Truth.  The Trump White House game plan is “We will tell you what the truth is, so shut up.”.  This is exactly what every cheap Third World Dictator moving up the ladder to Putin does to control the public.  It is the exact opposite of what principles this country is built around.  So why do the Republican honks refuse to confront this?  They are always the ones talking about how Patriotic they are and how much they love the Constitution and The Founding Fathers (insert colonial fife and drum corps here with tear streaming down cheek).  There is no one more “American” and yet less likely to be comfortable with allowing the freedoms which they claim to be so dedicated towards.  Instead of respecting the millions of women that marched this weekend, I saw all sorts of talk about how these demonstrating democratic citizens were being “whiny”.  What can you do with that?

I remember as a kid studying the rise of Fascism in the 1930s in Europe.  It seemed impossible that Mussolini would have been given the keys to the kingdom, much less Hitler.  I wondered how people could have let that happen.  I get it now.  It’s not overnight.  It starts and then gains momentum.  What seems impossible becomes possible.  It just slides and slides to a place no one thought possible.  The Far Right was always quick to mention how Mussolini made the trains run on time.  It’s really not so different than people today talking about how Trump will “Drain the Swamp” despite the obvious evidence to the contrary.  Years from now, do you want to answer the questions “How did you let that happen?  Why didn’t you try to stop it?”. 

I don’t.  It’s time to take the gloves off with these people.