CNN asked Republican voters in Georgia to react to a key piece of evidence in the investigation of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overthrow the 2020 election.
CNN asked Republican voters in Georgia to react to a key piece of evidence in the investigation of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overthrow the 2020 election.
I wouldn’t discount the effect that an abusive relationship can have on someone’s perception of reality. That’s basically how conservative media functions. Their “reality” has become so warped that they think the only one that can be trusted is their abuser and everyone else is out to get them. They are very much brainwashed to not trust anything they hear which is not from a conservative source. They have been conditioned to think everyone is out to get them.
“Abusive relationship,” sure, that applies where a victim has some dependency on a perpetrator, where that dependency constitutes a kind of “bondage” of the victim by the perpetrator.
Where is the dependency? What is conservative media providing to these people that they cannot do without, and cannot acquire elsewhere?
The only thing I can think of is acceptance of them as they are, where “as they are” pretty much means “unjustifiably prejudiced in a variety of ways.” If they can in any way be described as “being in an abusive relationship,” it is predicated on their being shitty people already. If they want “acceptance of them as they are,” it is wholly available outside of conservative media, and conservatism altogether - all they need to do is stop being bigots.
If you’ve got other ideas about what constitutes the dependency, I would love to hear them.
Like many abusive relationships, the dependency is emotional rather than material. They think only conservative media is telling them the truth and everyone else is lying. It’s of course the opposite of reality, but they have been tricked into only believing their abuser. I absolutely agree that some are shitty people looking for an excuse, but not all can be written off in this way and it’s a mistake to do so.
I cited an emotional dependency above: “acceptance.” Your statement that “They think only conservative media is telling them the truth and everyone else is lying” is the outcome of the abusive relationship (if it can be said one exists). It is not the thing which people were initially dependent on separate from being inside an abusive relationship.
I’m entirely open to other notions of why such people could be relieved of responsibility for their own behaviors and thoughts. I haven’t heard anything that would make me believe they should.