Cognitive dissonance is often regarded as the condition associated with the mind not being able to reconcile what it perceives vs what is real. As previously mentioned on this blog, we believe the Russian collusion story is at best, a story. Donald Trump is know for being many different things to different people, but to committed leftists he is something else entirely. In order to explore what can only be described as their toxic blend of fascination and loathing, a quick overview.
For much of his adult life, Donald Trump has been all over the political map. Once as a guest on Oprah's daytime talk show in the late 80's, he gave kudos to the campaigns of Bush, Dukakis and Jackson during the 1988 campaign. His political affiliations have ranged across the political spectrum. In the first decade of the new millenium, he was a Democrat. During the years of Obama, he flipped back to Republican, engaging in the birther issue among other criticisms of the Obama administration. Throughout all this time, he was also known as a real estate developer, the funny / successful boss who fired people on his own reality television show, while simultaneously lending his name and likeness to products ranging from Oreo's to Visa credit cards (these ads are still available on youtube). Criticisms of Trump typically ranged from misogynist to blowhard (mostly from his feud with Rosie O'Donnell), but they never included Russian puppet, white supremacist, Nazi, etc.
Typically speaking, the latter two ad hominem attacks can be ascribed to any Republican by the modern left, given the current state and level of their discourse. As George W Bush is now considered a proper statesman, it was a very short 10 years ago he was all but labeled a Nazi war criminal who needed to be tried at the Hague for his crimes against humanity. Now that a Republican is back in the White House, it is no surprise those allegations are once again being levied.
If that is the case, how and why did the Russian puppet / Manchurian candidate issue start, and how has it possibly become an actual issue worthy of federal government resources and scrutiny? A few short election cycles ago, this situation would have been unfathomable. As usual, Trump's verbose tendencies haven't done him any favors. During the campaign, while speaking in front of the press and reading off a recent batch of DNC emails revealed by Wikileaks, Donald said "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you find the 30,000 emails" in a reference to the Clinton's missing emails from her own server scandal. It probably was not the smartest thing to say, however given the man's previous history of saying and doing plenty for publicity, it shouldn't have been shocking. However, to the left, this was their irrefutable smoking gun that the man was in fact taking marching orders from the Russian Federation and Vladimir Putin. Despite having no contact with the man, or very few dealings in Russian, the left and their complicit media was convinced. As self proclaimed experts gave him a .001% chance of winning, the issue was never pressed. Then came election day, and their collective minds and world were turned upside down. Since then, it has been the non stop story on various left leaning outlets, although CNN seems to focus on his Diet Coke, cheesebuger and ice cream intake.
This takes us to the current mental condition of committed left wing thought and activity. It isn't good. Barack Obama checked so many of the left's racial and minority based boxes, however there was one remaining, that of female, and Hillary was their candidate. Despite the fact she was deeply flawed, disliked both personally and ideologically since the early 90's, and had a shady background running up to her campaign, she was the left's champion because she wasn't a white man and had a D next to her name on the news. Ultimately, that box was left unchecked by an old white male with an R next to his name who had a habit of making politically incorrect statements, and we began to see the "tick" of instability grow on the left's collective faces. Since then, any and all committed liberals, leftists, democrats, and standard anti establishment individuals have done everything in their power to delegitimize the man, and remove him from office. The Russia collusion story has gone from a conspiracy theory peddled on MSNBC to an actual investigation involving federal resources. Depending on who you talk to, the evidence ranges from non existent to undeniable, despite the fact no charges have been filed. When that story goes cold, Joe Scarborough and Mika peddle the 25th amendment idea every time the president misspeaks as indicative of his fragile mental state.
Donald Trump has made mistakes along the way. In retrospect, he should not have fired James Comey the way he did, despite the fact Democrats had previously called for Comey's job when he re-opened the Hillary Clinton email scandal days before the election. Trump's initial National Security Adviser Michael Flynn did attend a gala in Moscow and sat next to Putin. Later, he admitted he lied to Vice President Pence about his dealings with the government of Turkey, and was forced to resign. Jeff Sessions was not able to recount what was said at a certain meeting with the Russian ambassador. Donald Trump's eldest son held a meeting with a Russian attorney who claimed to have "dirt" on Hillary. It turned out to be nothing. Yes, Russian trolls were all over the internet mocking Hillary, and they continue to operate on any website dedicated to the conflict in Syria. None of these scenarios look good by any means, however, when it comes to firm evidence against the Trump campaign and administration engaging in criminal activity with the Russian government, they are putty at best.
Why therefore does this "story" continue to persist on left wing outlets and social media? As mentioned before, they currently exhibit a sincere inability to reconcile the fact the Donald Trump is in fact the 45th president of the United States. In an effort to substantiate these beliefs, committed anti-Trumpers cling to the Russia conspiracy theory, most likely as the fact it is the most "tangible" of theories, and because it can play to their concept of patriotism. Forgetting the fact these people ridiculed Mitt Romney in 2011 for accurately depicting Russia as the foremost challenger and threat to America and her interests, they now act as if they are the vanguard of truth, justice, and the American way against a megalomaniac who's true allegiance is to the Russian government and strongman, Vladimir Putin (we're looking at you, Steven Colbert), despite all evidence to the contrary. In order to feed this concept, we see these people continue to engage in their virtual reality on MSNBC, Facebook, Huffpo, and any other outlet willing to perpetuate the myth. As these die hard believers continue to delve into their alternate realities, they become further and further isolated from actual reality, and that is a dangerous proposition, given their already loose loyalties to due process and factual analysis when politics is involved. Soon the federal investigation will be over and the nation will carry on, it will be fascinating to see if reality can be reconciled.
For much of his adult life, Donald Trump has been all over the political map. Once as a guest on Oprah's daytime talk show in the late 80's, he gave kudos to the campaigns of Bush, Dukakis and Jackson during the 1988 campaign. His political affiliations have ranged across the political spectrum. In the first decade of the new millenium, he was a Democrat. During the years of Obama, he flipped back to Republican, engaging in the birther issue among other criticisms of the Obama administration. Throughout all this time, he was also known as a real estate developer, the funny / successful boss who fired people on his own reality television show, while simultaneously lending his name and likeness to products ranging from Oreo's to Visa credit cards (these ads are still available on youtube). Criticisms of Trump typically ranged from misogynist to blowhard (mostly from his feud with Rosie O'Donnell), but they never included Russian puppet, white supremacist, Nazi, etc.
Typically speaking, the latter two ad hominem attacks can be ascribed to any Republican by the modern left, given the current state and level of their discourse. As George W Bush is now considered a proper statesman, it was a very short 10 years ago he was all but labeled a Nazi war criminal who needed to be tried at the Hague for his crimes against humanity. Now that a Republican is back in the White House, it is no surprise those allegations are once again being levied.
If that is the case, how and why did the Russian puppet / Manchurian candidate issue start, and how has it possibly become an actual issue worthy of federal government resources and scrutiny? A few short election cycles ago, this situation would have been unfathomable. As usual, Trump's verbose tendencies haven't done him any favors. During the campaign, while speaking in front of the press and reading off a recent batch of DNC emails revealed by Wikileaks, Donald said "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you find the 30,000 emails" in a reference to the Clinton's missing emails from her own server scandal. It probably was not the smartest thing to say, however given the man's previous history of saying and doing plenty for publicity, it shouldn't have been shocking. However, to the left, this was their irrefutable smoking gun that the man was in fact taking marching orders from the Russian Federation and Vladimir Putin. Despite having no contact with the man, or very few dealings in Russian, the left and their complicit media was convinced. As self proclaimed experts gave him a .001% chance of winning, the issue was never pressed. Then came election day, and their collective minds and world were turned upside down. Since then, it has been the non stop story on various left leaning outlets, although CNN seems to focus on his Diet Coke, cheesebuger and ice cream intake.
This takes us to the current mental condition of committed left wing thought and activity. It isn't good. Barack Obama checked so many of the left's racial and minority based boxes, however there was one remaining, that of female, and Hillary was their candidate. Despite the fact she was deeply flawed, disliked both personally and ideologically since the early 90's, and had a shady background running up to her campaign, she was the left's champion because she wasn't a white man and had a D next to her name on the news. Ultimately, that box was left unchecked by an old white male with an R next to his name who had a habit of making politically incorrect statements, and we began to see the "tick" of instability grow on the left's collective faces. Since then, any and all committed liberals, leftists, democrats, and standard anti establishment individuals have done everything in their power to delegitimize the man, and remove him from office. The Russia collusion story has gone from a conspiracy theory peddled on MSNBC to an actual investigation involving federal resources. Depending on who you talk to, the evidence ranges from non existent to undeniable, despite the fact no charges have been filed. When that story goes cold, Joe Scarborough and Mika peddle the 25th amendment idea every time the president misspeaks as indicative of his fragile mental state.
Donald Trump has made mistakes along the way. In retrospect, he should not have fired James Comey the way he did, despite the fact Democrats had previously called for Comey's job when he re-opened the Hillary Clinton email scandal days before the election. Trump's initial National Security Adviser Michael Flynn did attend a gala in Moscow and sat next to Putin. Later, he admitted he lied to Vice President Pence about his dealings with the government of Turkey, and was forced to resign. Jeff Sessions was not able to recount what was said at a certain meeting with the Russian ambassador. Donald Trump's eldest son held a meeting with a Russian attorney who claimed to have "dirt" on Hillary. It turned out to be nothing. Yes, Russian trolls were all over the internet mocking Hillary, and they continue to operate on any website dedicated to the conflict in Syria. None of these scenarios look good by any means, however, when it comes to firm evidence against the Trump campaign and administration engaging in criminal activity with the Russian government, they are putty at best.
Why therefore does this "story" continue to persist on left wing outlets and social media? As mentioned before, they currently exhibit a sincere inability to reconcile the fact the Donald Trump is in fact the 45th president of the United States. In an effort to substantiate these beliefs, committed anti-Trumpers cling to the Russia conspiracy theory, most likely as the fact it is the most "tangible" of theories, and because it can play to their concept of patriotism. Forgetting the fact these people ridiculed Mitt Romney in 2011 for accurately depicting Russia as the foremost challenger and threat to America and her interests, they now act as if they are the vanguard of truth, justice, and the American way against a megalomaniac who's true allegiance is to the Russian government and strongman, Vladimir Putin (we're looking at you, Steven Colbert), despite all evidence to the contrary. In order to feed this concept, we see these people continue to engage in their virtual reality on MSNBC, Facebook, Huffpo, and any other outlet willing to perpetuate the myth. As these die hard believers continue to delve into their alternate realities, they become further and further isolated from actual reality, and that is a dangerous proposition, given their already loose loyalties to due process and factual analysis when politics is involved. Soon the federal investigation will be over and the nation will carry on, it will be fascinating to see if reality can be reconciled.
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