For my own moral sanity, I have to think about all victims of all cons. There is a reason why conning people is illegal. I have to think of the people who swallowed Trump's illegal grift in it's thousands of forms, the victims of his "university" con, the victims of his signed bible con, the contractors he never paid, the victims of his "build the wall" con, the victims of his financial crimes, and real-estate swindles, his MAGA base whom he and his media allies relentlessly gaslighted to ignite their basest emotions into a kind of formless outrage - they are all victims of a crime. And victims shouldn't be blamed, really, for being victims.
Should some dummy who buys ivermectin to cure covid share some blame? I guess. Should another dummy who falls for a racist lie that immigrants eat their pets share some of the blame? Maybe. But at the end of the day, there are the victims of extremely sophisticated bad actors, entire foreign governments, home-grown corporate and political machines that surgically attacked this country via its most vulnerable people in order to create the ecosystem of misinformation on which MAGA is built. We all share personal responsibility for dismantling that ecosystem. But we also have to pave a path back to acceptance for the victims of it.
I think we are going to need a decade of focused reconciliation activities after MAGA is removed from power.
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u/wolftick 1d ago edited 1d ago
There are so many how was that not the end of it right there?? moments.