Imagine All the People
by tristero
Imagine, for a moment, that the only place you got your news from was the right wing echo chamber. And that you had no reason whatsoever to distrust it - after all, all your friends watch the same Fox shows and cruise Breitbart just as much as you do. Imagine how unhinged the mainstream media must appear on the subject of Trump and his gang of deplorables whenever, by accident, you encounter, say, CNN or the Washington Post, or a Colbert monologue. Imagine how bizarre and extremist the calls for impeachment from Democrats and other normals must sound.
While highly unlikely anytime soon (the politics have to be right and they're not), someday Trump may get himself impeached and removed from office. Now imagine again that the only place you get your news is from the right wing echo chamber. What y'gonna think?
You're gonna think a radical leftwing coup sabotaged the only reasonable hope this country had to stave off existential disaster. You are, to put it mildly, gonna freak out.
Imagine all the people who are going to think that way. Alot of them are not going to be reachable by any rational information, logic, or counter-arguments. A lot of them are not going to be content merely to fume.
To all those who heeded John Oliver's call to Fuck You 2016 - I'm sorry, but you ain't seen nothin' yet. I'm really sorry. And I'm starting to worry.
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Adding: In case you think this is somehow a plea to let up on Trump, just the opposite. We need to double down on the demands for accountability, and on efforts to thwart his totalitarian behavior. It is essential that we fully understand the likely consequences of this moment if we are to have a chance of effectively confronting Tump and the insane and craven Republican party. The full implications of this moment, one of the most frightening of my lifetime (which includes the Cuban Missile Crisis) are not well understood by many people.