02/09/2021 18:34:55

Like most of the sane people who read this blog, I have spent the past few weeks experiencing the joy of Donald Trump not being our president. Biden's greatest promise has already been fulfilled, as a sense of normalcy is beginning to return to our political process. Of course today will mark a radical departure from that as the first reunion special, in what I'm sure is going to be a long series of them, is scheduled to begin today for the Trump cast and crew. To be clear, I am referring to Trump's second impeachment trial. May he be convicted and barred from holding office for the rest of his days.

UPDATE 2021/2/13: Well that's that. Trump is acquitted. At least we got seven Republicans to do the right thing and vote guilty, which is honestly more than I expected. Nonetheless this is a sad fucking day for this country. Congratulations Donald Trump supporters on managing to find one last way to disgrace this country in the twilight of your false idol's heinous and disgusting regime.

UPDATE 2021/2/11: My preferred outcome seems less likely by the day as I see more and more of the overt corruption Trump and the Republicans are known for rear it's ugly head. It boggles my mind to know that there are many people in America who believe that the Clintons are corrupt and simultaneously believe that the Trumps are not.

Now if you don't share my political persuasion or at least my burning hatred for everything that is Donald Trump, then you were probably pretty insulted by that previous paragraph. You know what? You have my sympathy. The Conservative establishment has spent decades waging a war of disinformation on the populace of this country. It began in 1996 with the creation of Fox News and has been slowly escalating ever since. That trend remained relatively consistent until Donald Trump came on the political scene. Starting with birtherism, Trump immediately made it clear that his ambitions would not be hindered by pithy principles like truth, facts and honor. He put the pedal to the metal Thelma and Louise style and effectively drove the bus of the Conservative Establishment right off a cliff.

So yeah if the first paragraph of this post really pissed you off or just rubbed you the wrong way, then I regret to inform you that you are a victim of the Conservative Establishments disinformation war. The first rule of this war is that the people it is being waged upon can never know of its existence. While you may think this war was being waged on socially liberal (or communist depending upon which of my relatives you ask) blowhards like myself, the reality is that it was actually being waged on the rank and file conservatives in America. You all are being targeted and you all are being slaughtered. Not us.

That having been said, it pains me to tell that things are getting worse. You see at some point this escalated from cutesy shit that was easy to ignore like pretending that Barack Obama was a secret Kenyan Muslim or idiotic rumors that Hillary Clinton had a pedophile dungeon squirreled away in the basement of a pizza parlor that provably doesn't even have a basement. It became something far worse. What could be worse than all of that? Well it evolved into a call for action. That call for action was the "Stop the Steal" campaign waged by Donald Trump and his craven so-called Conservative enablers throughout America. It effectively broke the base. That's because it created a situation in which all of the Trumpers have banded together based on a communal fever dream. That dream of course revolves around the deluded fantasy in which the 2020 election was stolen by the ghost of Hugo Chavez, China and Hunter Biden. The resulting frenzy eventually culminated in a horde of rabid and angry Trumpers storming the Capitol Building on January 6th in a traitorous and futile attempt to stop Biden's victory from being certified.

At the behest of both my liberal friends and my conservative acquaintances I recently watched a two hour long video in which Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, claims to present absolute proof that the election was stolen. He even goes so far as to call the video, "Absolute Proof". While it has been removed from mainstream reputable platforms, it is still available for viewing on decentralized platforms like LBRY / Odysee. If you are going to keep reading, I highly encourage you to watch this video. You cannot truly understand the damage inflicted upon us by this war in terms of mental prowess until you experience firsthand what it's like to be one of the victims. You can do that by watching this video with the realization that 24% of the country (70% of Republicans) are treating every claim made therein as if it was gospel.

My summary of this video is simple. It's fucking insane. It doesn't present a single shred of actual proof. It's full of figures and graphics and provides absolutely no supporting information or references to back any of it up. But nevertheless, the Trumpers have bought into it, hook, line and sinker. They claim that it's been removed from reputable platforms because it absolutely proves that the election was stolen by Dominion, Smartmatic, China (and presumably Biden by extension). In a conversation with a conservative on this very topic when I asked why the video didn't provide supporting information, she informed me that "a video isn't the right medium for that. They don't have time." It's two hours fucking long. There is plenty of time.

Despite an unlimited amount of time Lindell provides absolutely nothing in the way of supporting evidence. Which to be fair, is exactly what the Trump Administration has done as well. Nearly the entirety of their public election theft case is built upon a foundation of half-assed affidavits from people who simply weren't in a position to know what the hell was actually going on. In addition they claim to have evidence that China hacked into internet exposed election systems across a variety of close states and yet they offer nothing in the form of system logs or technically specific information that describes or codifies that activity in any way, shape or form. As a technical professional with a reputation to uphold that kind of blatant omission carries a stench that cannot be ignored.

If you watched the "Absolute Proof" video and believe it proves anything beyond the fact that Mike Lindell has rekindled his close relationship with crack, then I have some bad news for you: You are officially a victim in the disinformation war that has been waged on the rank and file Conservatives for the last 25 years. You have become a casualty. If you believe that COVID is a hoax, you have become a casualty. If you believe that the COVID vaccine will alter your DNA or render you sterile, you have become a casualty. If you believe that there is no legitimate way one of the worst and most devisive presidents in our history could legitimately lose re-election, you have become a casualty. If you believe that Antifa stormed the capital on January 6th, you have become a casualty. If you believe that Q was real or anything published by Q was true, you have become a casualty. To put it bluntly: the cancerous rot spawned by the remnants of this disinformation war have begun to unravel the very foundation of our public discourse as well as society in general. It is vital that we address this problem as soon as possible.

So how do we fix this? I have no earthly idea. I try not to publish posts about problems for which I can't present some sort of viable path forward towards a solution. In this case I honestly just don't know what the solution is but I still feel compelled to speak on this topic. I'm losing friends and family members to this war and I think it's vital that I speak on it before it's too late.

I can only offer one bit of advice: Keep these people close. Don't blow them off or write them off regardless of how tempting it becomes. The reality is that you may actually be the only source of truth and rationality in their lives and it's vital that to keep that channel open, otherwise they may be lost forever.