Can white evangelicals be deprogrammed from Trumpism? Amid a rise in conspiracy theories, pastors are finding themselves on the front lines of the misinformation battle. Referring to Democrats, liberals, and socialists as “evil” is now considered acceptable in certain Christian churches. Fears that “they” are trying to close our churches and take our guns has become a rallying cry for Christians who claim that America is “God’s chosen country.” Sojourners examines this troubling trend in “When Conspiracy Theories Come to Church.” Subscribe to Sojourners now to read this in-depth feature article in the June issue.[1]
This is just scratching the surface. Republicans passionately believe all manner of scathing claims against Democrats. The mildest issue is that the 2020 election was stolen,
Jen Kirby tells us, "Trump’s own officials say 2020 was America’s most secure election in history.Homeland Security put out a statement with state and local officials that countered the president’s fraud claims....The 2020 US election was the most secure in American history, according to US elections officials"
The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double-checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result,” the coordinating bodies on election infrastructure and security said in a joint statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
The statement directly contradicts President Donald Trump, who has made unfounded allegations of widespread voting irregularities and fraud. The president is using these claims to challenge the vote counts in several key states that delivered President-elect Joe Biden his apparent Electoral College victory.
Trump’s rhetoric undermines faith in the democratic process, but it also obscures the hard work done by election officials, ballot counters, and poll workers across the country in 2020. Beyond the logistical hurdles of Covid-19, the threat of foreign interference loomed over this election. So did fears of potential voter intimidation and violence at the polls. But with the exception of a few isolated incidents, the elections were largely safe and peaceful.[2]
According to the Associated Press:
It’s hard to put it any more bluntly: “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised.[3]
Rejecting President Donald Trump’s persistent claims and complaints, a broad coalition of top government and industry officials is declaring that the Nov. 3 voting and the following count unfolded smoothly with no more than the usual minor hiccups.It was, they declare, resorting to Trump’s sort of dramatic language, “the most secure in American history.”The statement late Thursday by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency amounted to the most direct repudiation to date of Trump’s efforts to undermine the integrity of the contest, and echoed repeated assertions by election experts and state officials.
In Addition the Brennan Center for Justice finds:
"These government officials, judges, and elected leaders, overwhelmingly Republican, have publicly acknowledged confidence in the November election."
Election officials and election security experts have long been clear: voter fraud is extraordinarily rare and our system has strong checks in place to protect the integrity of our voting process. These are the facts. But the facts have not stopped bad actors from trotting out baseless claims of “systemic voter fraud” to suppress votes and undermine trust in our democracy for political gain.and Politifact:
By all measures, the 2020 general election was one of the most secure elections in our history. Voters turned out in record numbers to cast their ballots by mail and in person, and the votes were counted in a timely manner. This success, however, did not dissuade President Trump and his enablers from loudly claiming fraud when the race did not go his way. In a brazen attempt to overturn the results, he unleashed an onslaught of outlandish claims about widespread fraud in the election, shamelessly targeting the votes of Black and Latino citizens in several cities. The severity of the allegations by the president and his allies, however false, has elicited a resounding rebuke of the myth of widespread voter fraud from officials at every level of government. And today, the Supreme Court all but ended the legal fight to overturn the election when it rejected Texas’s lawsuit to throw out the presidential election results in four battleground states that President Trump lost.[4]
"Two cybersecurity committees within the federal Department of Homeland Security released a statement that called the Nov. 3 presidential election “the most secure in American history.”
The statement notably debunks claims from President Donald Trump and others that have alleged massive fraud."[5]
No evidence of voter fraud
According to:Reuter's
Fact check: Courts have dismissed multiple lawsuits of alleged electoral fraud presented by Trump campaign
Following President Joe Biden’s swearing in on Jan. 20, a Facebook post shared over 6,140 times has said: “Not one court has looked at the evidence and said that Biden legally won. Not one”. This is a false statement and federal judges dismissed more than 50 lawsuits presented by then President Donald Trump and his allies challenging the election or its outcome.[6]while Savannah Behrmann writes in USA Today:
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and his legal team have insisted they have proof of widespread voter fraud and they would be successful in court, but those claims have been shot down at the state level and by the highest court in the land.On Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court refused to stop Pennsylvania from finalizing President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the state, despite allegations from allies of Trump that the expansion of mail-in voting was illegal
The action by the Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority and includes three justices named by Trump, came as states across the country are locking in the results that will lead to next week's Electoral College vote. Chief Justice Robert Brutinel agreed, saying Ward's challenge had failed to "present any evidence of 'misconduct,' 'illegal votes' or that the Biden Electors 'did not in fact receive the highest number of votes for office,'" he wrote — "let alone establish any degree of fraud or a sufficient error rate that would undermine the certainty of the election results."[7]
States examined in the articel: Arazona, Nevada, Michigan, Pynslvania, and Wisconsin.
Despite this deluge of facts (and we have not yet scratched the surface) most republicans still believe the election was stolen.
More Than Half Of Republicans Believe Voter Fraud Claims, Alison Durkee,Forbes:
A majority of Republicans still believe the baseless claim that the presidential election was “stolen” from President Donald Trump and approximately half believe his spin on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found, showing Trump’s continued influence on the party and how the ex-president’s falsehoods about the election and its aftermath have taken hold among his supporters.[8]Yet these are nothing copared to the idiotic fantasies to which some will sink.Witness the Qanon nonsese:
The QAnon conspiracy theory is vast, complicated and ever changing, and its adherents are constantly folding new events and personalities into its master narrative. But the gist of it is that national Democrats, aided by Hollywood and a group of “global elites”, are running a massive ring devoted to the abduction, trafficking, torture, sexual abuse and cannibalization of children, all with the purpose of fulfilling the rituals of their Satanic faith. Donald Trump, according to this fantasy, is the only person willing and able to mount an attack against them.[9]
Notice: not enogh the Dems shoud assault the children they have to eat them too. I as you who is the suck one?
Republicans are still spreading baseless rumors about leftists pulling off the capital riot to make Trump look bad.
"Three months after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to try to overturn his November election loss, about half of Republicans believe the siege was largely a non-violent protest or was the handiwork of left-wing activists “trying to make Trump look bad,” a new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found."[10]
Of course the golden oldie that the Democrats are all socialists; they put extra spin on that one to make it sound more urgent than usual:
"A viewer watching the Republican National Convention on Monday night could be forgiven for thinking that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were not the Democratic Party's presidential and vice presidential nominees but were leading a different ticket altogether."[11]
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, asserted that Biden would be taking orders from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and the four congresswomen known as the "Squad."
"Their vision for America is socialism," Haley said. "And we know that socialism has failed everywhere."
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said, "Democrats have chosen to go down the road to socialism."[Ibid]
Of course we all know unless there is a structural change in ownership of the means of production there is no socialsm.No Democratic candidate advocates workers owning the means of production, Just taxing the rich is not socialism it;s liberalism in a capitalist framework.The allegations of child molestation are so absurd as to be self refuting. How could anyone with a brain self identify politically with such nonsense?
NOTES
[1] From an ad sent to my personal emial [2]Jen Kirby, "Trump’s own officials say 2020 was America’s most secure election in history,"Vox," (Nov 13, 2020),https://www.vox.com/2020/11/13/21563825/2020-elections-most-secure-dhs-cisa-krebs [3] Eric Tucker and Frank Bajak, "Repudiating Trump, officials say election ‘most secure’" Assocoated Press, (November 13, 2020) https://apnews.com/article/top-officials-elections-most-secure-66f9361084ccbc461e3bbf42861057a5 [4]Staff writer,"It’s Official: The Election Was Secure," Brennan Center for Jutice, (December 11, 2020) https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/its-official-election-was-secure [5]Madeline Heim,"Security declared Nov. 3 election most secure in American history,"Politifact,(November 17,2020)
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/nov/17/tammy-baldwin/yes-department-homeland-security-declared-nov-3-el/
See the sources for this fact-check
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Top Republican says an investigation of Wisconsin's election is unlikely to take away Biden's win in the state," Nov. 12, 2020
WISN-TV, "UPFRONT recap: Sen. Tammy Baldwin says lack of transition hurts country," Nov. 15, 2020
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, "Joint statement from Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council & The Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees," Nov. 12, 2020
Axios, "Department of Homeland Security calls election ‘the most secure in American history,’" Nov. 12, 2020
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Trump campaign would have to pay nearly $8 million for Wisconsin recount," Nov. 16, 2020
[6]Reuter's Staff,"Fact check: Courts have dismissed multiple lawsuits of alleged electoral fraud presented by Trump campaign." Reuter's,(FEBRUARY 15, 20219:41 AM) https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-courts-election/fact-check-courts-have-dismissed-multiple-lawsuits-of-alleged-electoral-fraud-presented-by-trump-campaign-idUSKBN2AF1G1
[7]Savannah Behrmann, "A look at what several state supreme courts said about rejecting attempts to overturn Biden's election win,"USA TODAY, (Dec 11,2020), https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/11/supreme-courts-arizona-michigan-nevada-rejected-claims-voter-fraud/3869239001/
[8]Alison Durkee,"More Than Half Of Republicans Believe Voter Fraud Claims And Most Still Support Trump, Poll Finds," Forbes, (Apr 5, 2021,) https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/04/05/more-than-half-of-republicans-believe-voter-fraud-claims-and-most-still-support-trump-poll-finds/?sh=59eb5b721b3f Firbes
[9]Moira Donegan,"QAnon conspiracists believe in a vast pedophile ring. The truth is sadder," The Guardian, (Sep 2020) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/20/qanon-conspiracy-child-abuse-truth-trump
[10]James Oliphant, Chris Kahn,"Half of Republicans believe false accounts of deadly U.S. Capitol riot-Reuters/Ipsos poll," Reuters, (april 6,2021), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-disinformation/half-of-republicans-believe-false-accounts-of-deadly-u-s-capitol-riot-reuters-ipsos-poll-idUSKBN2BS0RZ
[11]Brian Naylor, "Republicans Blast Democrats As Socialists. Here's What Socialism Is," NPR, (August 25, 2020) https://www.npr.org/2020/08/25/905895428/republicans-blast-democrats-as-socialists-heres-what-socialism-is
It's very worrisome when the people who believe this are living in an echo chamber. Facts won't reach them. All we can do is try to get them to consider the self-contradictions within the belief system.
ReplyDeleteHello metacrock
ReplyDeleteI would be very thankfull if you could help me respond to two objection to the PSR and to the Onological belief in God
http://exapologist.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-quick-inductive-argument-against.html
http://exapologist.blogspot.com/2012/05/psr-without-necessary-beings-of-any.html
Hello metacrock
ReplyDeleteI would be very thankfull if you could help me respond to two objection to the PSR and to the Onological belief in God
http://exapologist.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-quick-inductive-argument-against.html
http://exapologist.blogspot.com/2012/05/psr-without-necessary-beings-of-any.html
Go see the Society/Ethics/Politics forum on CARM to see how true this is. This is a select of thread titles - all are from the first page of threads; I did not have to hunt around for this, these are common topics
ReplyDelete- HUNTER BIDEN Admits on Audio He Smoked Crack With DC Mayor Marion Barry – Intel Agencies Covered This Up
- Now 20 US states liquefy vaccine-murdered people and spread their flesh goo on food crops as “fertilizer”
- How similar do you think it is between the indoctrination and brainwashing of the American people by bad liberals verses the indoctrination and brainw
- If there is a Civil war between bad leftist and everyone else, are you willing to fight the bad leftist for our children and our country?
- Pervert in Chief...
- What do you know more voter fraud.
I think it is worth pointing out that these are people who have been trained to deny reality for years. The same people (broadly) who deny the election results also deny climate change, are anti-vaxxers and are creationists.
Pix
ReplyDeleteI think it is worth pointing out that these are people who have been trained to deny reality for years. The same people (broadly) who deny the election results also deny climate change, are anti-vaxxers and are creationists.
Pix
Well said. they have checked out.
"I would be very thankfull if you could help me respond to two objection to the PSR and to the Onological belief in God"
ReplyDeleteok his no 1
The argument is simple: We've observed a huge quantity of an extremely wide variety of concrete objects, and all of the concrete objects we've observed are contingent; so, probably, all concrete objects whatsoever are contingent. But no Anselmian being is contingent. So, probably, there are no Anselmian beings.
This ignores what cotangent means. Contingency requires a necessity upon which its existence depends. What he's calling an "Anselmian being" is God, meaning necessary being so by definition it is not contingent. IS THAT THE SAME AS WHAT HE CALLS "a concrete precut?" Does it follow that only concrete beings exist? Essentially he argues that only things we know about can exist. Obviously BS.
no 2
An abductive version of the argument can be constructed as well: our extensive experience of an extremely wide variety of concrete objects is such that we find them all to be contingent. What explains this? The simplest, most conservative explanation of the data with the widest explanatory scope is the hypothesis that all concrete objects are contingent beings. It is thus the best explanation of the data. But no Anselmian being is a contingent being. Therefore, probably, there are no Anselmian beings.
Here he assumes that only thing we now about can exist. Contingent things must have a necessity which guarantees or causes their existence.
he assumes only things we know about can exist: what it should say.
ReplyDelete"Abductive reasoning is to abduce (or take away) a logical assumption, explanation, inference, conclusion, hypothesis, or best guess from an observation or set of observations. Because the conclusion is merely a best guess, the conclusion that is drawn may or may not be true. Let's look at some examples to gain a better understanding of this reasoning process.
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Examples of Abductive Reasoning
Jury duty decisions are one example of abductive reasoning. Let's say you're a juror and the defendant looks like the image of the man on the security camera robbing the bank. He stutters and pauses, like he is guilty, when answering questions posed by the prosecutor. You conclude, as a juror on your first day as a member of the jury, that he is guilty, but you are not certain. Here, you have made a decision based on your observations, but you are not certain it is the right decision.
Daily decision-making is also an example of abductive reasoning. Let's say you're stuck in traffic on the interstate and see ambulance and police lights about a half mile ahead. There is an exit coming up and you could take some backroads and then get back on the interstate after the accident. You listen to the traffic report on the radio. You look and see if the exit looks congested. Taking all the information at hand, you make the decision to stay on the interstate and wait for the accident to clear. You made the best decision you could given all of the observations.
Deductive & Inductive Reasoning
"So, abductive reasoning is really taking an incomplete or partial list of observations about a situation and drawing an inference from these observations. It is an informal process. We use it in daily decision-making.
Deductive reasoning, on the other hand, is a precise conclusion based on a general rule that is known to be true. This reasoning moves from the general to the specific. The conclusion that you draw in deductive reasoning is always accurate and true. Here is an example:"
https://study.com/academy/lesson/abductive-reasoning-definition-examples.html
the second url too long to deal with at this time.
ReplyDeleteI am not really fan of Biden's policies and avoid political discussions because of how divisive they tend to be. But talking of "deprogramming republicans" sounds a bit creepy to me. How would we accomplish that?
ReplyDeletethat's just a commentary on their lack of thought in following Trump. They are brainwashed.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs you sink further into the abyss Joe. A large amount of bollocks is the best description .
ReplyDeleteyou have exposed the know nothing you are. No one takes you seriously.
ReplyDelete