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Notes -
As much as I’d personally like to believe that, but I doubt it. I’m on record several times advocating for people to actually assume that the “other side” probably believes what they say they do, and I think that’s the case here as well- while, as an admitted partisan, I think right-wing influencers are full of shit, I’m sure they genuinely believe that shit; after all, after decades of the conservative media ecosystem being increasingly divorced from reality (at an alarmingly accelerated rate in the last few years), it’s probably never been easier to buy into ‘your side’s’ narrative than it’s ever been before.
The ‘smart’ people on the right don’t necessarily have to be any better-informed than ‘the idiots’ that make up the rank-and-file. Possibly even the opposite; greater reasoning can easily turn into greater capacity for rationalization.
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