In Part One of this TL;DR we took a little trip down Memory Lane to remind ourselves who Orly Taitz was and what happened to her. In this second part we try to answer the question, "Why the hell is driftglass writing about Orly Taitz in the first place?"
Also, a reminder: Orly Taitz is not dead. The title of these posts are poetic license. If that bothers you, take it up with the poetic licensing bureau.
So why am I writing about Orly Taitz and not something important like the Gulf of Murrica, or all the transients Don Jr. hired to make it look like he had a supportive crowd in Greenland? From Politico:
Donald Trump Jr.’s visit was ‘staged,’ says Greenland lawmaker
“We know how they treat the Inuit in Alaska. Make that great before trying to invade us,” Pipaluk Lynge tells Politico.
The subject is Orly Taitz ... and Laura Loomer ... and Mike Lindell ... and the entire Conservative media infrastructure because of what they represent, what they have done to this country, and why it is no longer possible for us to communicate meaningfully with Republicans. And by “communicate” I don’t mean anything as lofty as “debate” or “persuade”. We’re way beyond that now. We now speak two entirely different languages with two entirely different contexts.
For you Star Trek nerds, think of it as the “Darmok” episode, except in that episode the Tamarians -- who spoke only in metaphors -- wanted to make a peaceful first contact with humans. Their captain was willing to risk his life to try to make himself understood.
Our situation is very different. Republicans are threatened the very language and context we use to communicate. They take it as an assault on their values, so the more we try to find common ground with them, the more threatened they feel and the harder they lash out.
This is so completely alien to the way we think that we just keep trying it and we just keep failing. So today we’re going to discuss why this approach not only fails, but just keeps making things worse.
And to do that, I'm going to need to talk for a minute about an ancient battle tactic, so bear with me.
If you don’t know what a kite-shield is, you may have seen one in a sword-and-sandal epic, and I’m not an ancient weapons expert so please forgive me if I get some of this wrong.
A kite-shield was a long shield, sometimes shaped like a tear-drop. And the front lines of the Byzantine infantry were required to have such shields that were smaller than 6 spans high. A span is the width of your spread hand, so a pretty substantial shield.
These shields, when used side-by-side, could protect the formation from hails of arrows while they advanced or retreated.
During a battle, their job was to stay at the front lines of the battle as they attacked with a long lance and maybe a crossbow and protect the rest of the infantry. Or, if they were retreating, to man the outer perimeter of the army. If you've seen the movie Gladiator, you'll remember a similar tactic which the gladiators used in the Colosseum when they were being attacked by chariot and arrow fire. By locking their shield together, the gladiators could keep themselves safe from crossbow fire and by pivoting at a strategic moment, cause an attacking chariot to crash and flip over.
Not sure shields were ever used to flip chariots in real life, but you get the idea.
Next, we need to understand how emotional investment work and how information works. Not factual information or false information. Not truth and lies. Just...information.
Let's say you're a good-hearted Liberal and you’re motivated by a desire to feed the hungry or heal the sick or welcome the stranger. You know, all that good Jesus stuff. Well, by and large you will accept information that helps you achieve that goal and you will lock-your-shields against information that attacks your goal to feed the hungry.
You will accept information about school lunch programs, healthy eating initiatives, food deserts, and very detailed policy proposals to help you achieve your goal. On the other hand, you will lock your shields against Libertarian Darwinism that says, let 'em starve. Or gimmicks that let the government off the hook by redefining "condiments" or "napkins" as food. Or assholes who just don't give a shit about hungry kids.
From Wikipedia about the "ketchup as a vegetable" thing:
The ketchup as a vegetable controversy stemmed from proposed regulations of school lunches by the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in 1981, early in the presidency of Ronald Reagan. The regulations were intended to provide meal planning flexibility to local school lunch administrators coping with cuts to the National School Lunch Program enacted by the Omnibus Reconciliation Acts of 1980 and 1981. The proposed changes allowed administrators to meet nutritional requirements by crediting food items not explicitly listed. While ketchup was not mentioned in the original regulations, pickle relish was used as an example of an item that could count as a vegetable.
In the Reagan administration’s attempt to slash $1.5 billion from children’s nutrition funding, school lunch program requirements were worded (whether deliberately or not) so as to conceivably allow for designating ketchup as a vegetable, allowing the USDA to eliminate one of the two vegetables required to meet minimum food and nutrition standards, and thus shrink costs.
This from Stateline talks about the consequences of red states refusing to expand Medicaid:
In the 10 states that didn’t expand Medicaid, 1.6M can’t afford health insurance
The majority of residents in this coverage gap are people of color, an analysis found.
Nearly 1 of every 5 uninsured working-age adults across the 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act are, according to a new analysis, stuck in a health care limbo known as a “coverage gap.” That means they earn too much money to receive Medicaid but not enough to qualify for financial help to purchase their own plan on the marketplace.
In Alabama and Mississippi, more than a quarter of uninsured working-age adults are left with no affordable pathways to health coverage, according to the analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank that researches federal and state budget policies. Overall, 1.6 million adults between the ages of 19 and 64 face the situation in the non-expansion states.
Mississippi state Rep. Robert Johnson, a Democrat, said the lack of insurance coverage contributes to other problems — such as the closures of hospitals that have to cover the cost of treating uninsured patients — in all types of communities.
“This is not a conservative or liberal issue. This is about the people that we represent in the state of Mississippi, whether they be Black or white,” Johnson said in an interview. “This is a life-or-death issue for not just individuals, but the whole communities.”...
So, how can these people -- these Republicans -- turn their backs on hungry kids or sick Americans? How the hell can they sleep at night? And the bigger question: How can the meatheads who keep voting these scumbags into office be so fucking smug about it?
Well, as a good-hearted Liberal you are emotionally invested in feeding the hungry or caring for the infirm or protecting the Earth or whatever, right? Probably all of the above and more. These are what you will lock your shields to protect from racism, ignorance and greed. You'll keep raising money and raising awareness and protesting and calling your representatives and speaking up at community meetings to try to advance your cause, because this is your emotional investment, and you are dumbfounded that anyone could possibly be against feeding hungry children or replacing lead pipes or, y'know, holding insurrectionists accountable, or electing a competent, capable, honorable public servant instead of a corrupt, racist, serial liar and convicted felon?
Maybe if these mopes just had more information? After all, you have so much data to back up what you believe – a mountain of studies and white papers -- if they would just fucking listen for one minute to the facts.
But they don't, do they? No matter what you do. They never do. And they don't just ignore you. They mock your earnestness. They are happiest when they are metaphorically capering around burning bonfires of your fancy studies and white papers, or cheering on some has-been garbage person shooting up a case of Bud Light because you care about the fate of trans people.
From Rolling Stone:
Conservatives Heartbroken That Kid Rock Gave Up Bud Light Boycott
Months after an outrage over the beer brand, one of the ringleaders says it's time to forgive and forget — and some are calling him a sellout
It seems like only yesterday that Kid Rock was firing an assault rifle at cases of Bud Light in protest of their brand partnership with trans entertainer Dylan Mulvaney. But time flies, and it’s already been eight months since that week in April when Rock helped kick off a right-wing boycott of the beverage — one that caused a drop in brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev’s stock price and enshrined the culture war slogan “get woke, go broke.”
A lot has happened since then. In October, AB InBev struck a deal worth more than $100 million to make Bud Light the exclusive beer sponsor of Ultimate Fighting Championship, a mixed martial arts franchise that counts Kid Rock as one of its celebrity fans. Weeks later, Rock gave an interview to Sean Hannity of Fox News, claiming he had never called for a boycott of the beer (indeed, he continued to drink it in public and serve it at his Nashville bar) and that he and Donald Trump had enjoyed a “great conversation” with Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth at a UFC event about why the Mulvaney promotion had set them off.
So why don't appeals to reason work? Why do they believe such ridiculous lies? And why are they so happy being this pig-ignorant? Delighted when they stun you with their cruelty? Why do they brag about drinking your Liberal tears?
Because they have shields too. Shields they use to protect what they value most highly. And what do they value most highly? The belief that they are always right about everything and are smarter than everyone. That you and I are monsters and/or Deep State dupes. And that if it ever turns out that they were actually wrong about something...it was never their fault: it was all part of some vast, evil Liberal Deep State conspiracy that you and I are part of. This unshakable belief is the core of who they are and what they are emotionally invested in.
And all of your mountains of facts -- including the things that these mopes themselves said just days or weeks ago which contradict what they are saying today? All of those are just ... a hail of potentially fatal crossbow bolts against which their shields need to be locked together tighter and tighter.
And what are their interlocking shields? Those are the lies they "believe". Those endless, endless lies. Decades upon decades of lies. Lies about Bill Clinton. About Vince Foster. About the Mena airport. About Iraq. About deficits. About "soul cooking". About tan suits and Death Panels and birth certificates. About immigrants eating pets and hurricanes being faked and the "Biden crime family". Lies about the 2020 election and January 6th.
OK, (you ask as a good-hearted Liberal) but what about when a big lie just falls apart? To extend the analogy, why can't the truth get through and help them see reason when a shield collapses?
Well (my imaginary good-hearted Liberal) I have to ask you right back, haven't you been listening? To you, things like whether or not Barack Obama was born in the United States are a matter of truth or falsity. Fact or fiction. And when we get something wrong, generally we say "oops!" and we correct ourselves (sometimes painfully) and then we get back to pursuing our good-hearted Liberal goals.
But to MAGA mopes, the endless lies they tell are not about truth or falsehood at all. Those lies are just bits of kit designed to protect what these mopes are most deeply emotionally invested in. That they are never wrong, that they're smarter than everyone else, and anything bad that happens is the fault of us Liberal devils
From the Rolling Stone just yesterday:
Right-Wingers Are Blaming the L.A. Fires on Diversity
Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and commentators across conservative media are blaming the blazes on everything but the climate crisis
From Le Monde, just yesterday:
Trump slams Democrats, blames Governor 'Newscum,' for deadly fires in Los Angeles
From Vanity Fair just yesterday:
Right-Wing Pundits Blame DEI and Democrats in Predictable Deluge of Wildfire Misinformation
“They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes,” Elon Musk claimed, falsely, in one indicative post.
You think they're grateful for all that truth that slips in when one of their shields breaks? That they'll respect you for it?
Are you nuts? They'll hate you even more for it.
All of your facts are nothing but volleys of painfully stabby arrows that need to be blocked immediately. And in that moment they'll settle for any lie, no matter how ridiculous, to shut you up.
Do you remember the series of rapid-fire lies Republicans ran through after January 6th?
At first, most elected Republicans were outraged, or at least pretended they were.
Because the case was open and shut. It was obvious what had happened and who was to blame and they were in a hurry to get on what they assumed would be the right side of history.
But even after four years of Trump and 40 years of escalating Conservative dumbing-down and riling-up propaganda, they fundamentally never understood the base of their party. Because to the base, the failure of the J6 coup was not a cause for sober reflection -- it was a massive failure of their shield system. They were in imminent danger of being exposed to a fatal dose of reality! Something had to be done!
So, suddenly ... maybe it wasn't Trump supporters who did this terrible thing at all.
In rapid fire succession, a variety of different and contradictory lies were cobbled together.
It was ... Antifa. While at the same time it was somehow also all the fault of Sekrit Deep State FBI infiltrators who tricked those poor, patriotic Republicans into doing the deed.
From The Independent, January 6, 2024:
Trump falsely claims FBI and Antifa were ‘leading the charge’ in Capitol attack
Mr. Trump maintained that January 6 rioters ‘went there to protest a rigged election’
Ahead of the third anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot, former president Donald Trump baselessly cast blame on Antifa and the FBI as the main proponents of the attack.
“By the way, there was Antifa, there was FBI, there were a lot of other people there too leading the charge,” Mr Trump said at a rally in Sioux, Center Iowa on Friday, 5 January. “You saw the same people that I did.”...
He then turned to “the hostages,” seemingly referring to those arrested and charged for their actions on January 6. “The J6 hostages, I call them. Nobody’s been treated ever in history so badly as those people,” he said.
Then it was Nancy Pelosi's fault. From NBC News, September 10, 2024
Trump defends Jan. 6 rioters, blames Nancy Pelosi for chaos
Then it was the fault of the capitol police who let those peaceful protesters in the building. From ABC News, February 19, 2021 :
In new defense, dozens of Capitol rioters say law enforcement 'let us in' to building
At least 29 accused rioters say they thought it was OK to enter the Capitol.
For the record, and any future generations who might wondering, from PolitiFact:
Did Capitol Police let mob of Trump supporters in?
We didn’t find evidence of that. Instead, we discovered that some online video is getting misinterpreted. Many officers had to abandon their posts and barricades because they were far outnumbered and overwhelmed.
And just this week, the word “Hezbollah” entered the chat. From MSNBC:
Trump’s rhetoric about Jan. 6 rioters takes a weird and unexpected turn
The president-elect has lied about Jan. 6 before, but his latest comments about the rioters broke new ground — including a bizarre claim about Hezbollah.
What breaks many Liberal's brain is that while fascist scumbags on the right were flinging wild lies about who was to blame for J6 against the wall like ketchup at Mar-a-Lago during an orange toddler temper tantrum...they were also claiming that, hey, maybe J6 was a good thing!
Yeah! A noble undertaking!
Because maybe those rascally Deep State liberals really did steal the 2020 election! Maybe J6 was justified!
And, suddenly, there was no "maybe" about it any more. Those cunning Deep State commie liberals definitely stole the 2020 election and the freedom fighters of January 6th were martyrs and political prisoners!
Watching this all from the outside, it felt like watching a moron going insane. The lies were so stupid and obvious, and they shed them so fast and scampered off to the next lie so awkwardly that, c'mon, this is ridiculous. This is so dumb. This isn't fooling anyone.
Then came the J6 committee, and the dozens and dozens of hours of testimony by eyewitnesses.
Surely this would all make a difference. Tip the scales. But, once again, to believe that is to fundamentally misunderstand the Republican brain.
They do not care about true or false. They do not care about fact or fiction. All they care about is protecting the core of their identity: the belief that they are always right about everything and are smarter than everyone. That you and I are monsters and/or Deep State dupes. And that if it ever turns out that they were actually wrong about something...it was never their fault: it was all part of some vast, evil Liberal Deep State conspiracy which you and I are part of.
Just like the lies they told as the Bush administration they had all so passionately supported collapsed, the early lies the were throwing around about J6 were sloppy and stupid because they were grabbing for any scraps of anything they could throw together to create a temporary defense. It didn't have to hold long: just until the Republican party and Conservative media came up with more permanent lies behind which their racist grievances and preening self-regard would be safe.
This is why they love Trump. He and Fox News and Hate Radio are their Hephaestus. Their Vulcan. The tireless manufacturers of an endless supply of shiny new lies -- shiny new shields -- to replace ones that reality shatters and need to be discarded.
Orly Taitz and her lies were useful until they weren’t.
Once those lies had outlived their usefulness they were dropped and forgotten and new liars telling new lies took their place.
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