The big news lately is that a Republican staffer defected to the Democratic party, then revealed a shocking, mind-boggling fact: Republican politicians lie to conservative voters.

I know. Wild, right?

Well, it might have been shocking and mind-boggling to any space aliens who’ve only just entered Earth’s orbit. Non-Republicans already knew that. They’ve known it for many years. Republican politicians twist reality and obfuscate every fact they can get in their mitts. After all, it gets them votes.

Ammon Bundy, an aspiring evangelical Republican with starry-eyed visions of grandeur in his head, understands that point well. His antics this summer have demonstrated it without a single doubt.

Let’s explore the history of the right-wing news landscape, and then see how Ammon Bundy has drawn upon its power to enthrall conservative Christian voters.

Rejecting reality and substituting their own

We’ve known for years that right-wing media outlets and social media bubbles have created a very strange new political and cultural landscape for everyone. Using evangelical Christian leaders’ strategies, Republican politicians have trained their target audiences to perceive reality itself through a fact-free filter. Nothing can get past that filter except what this audience’s leaders want the flocks to believe.

Most of the time, contradictory or challenging information doesn’t even reach that audience’s awareness. If critical thinkers can engage with and process new information to arrive at conclusions about it, this audience draws upon dozens of manipulation tools to negate that information before it even rises to the level of engagement, much less to a level where processing may occur at all. In other words, they engage in antiprocess. To convince such an audience of anything, all a claim needs to do is slot into its existing beliefs. To get their best attention, the claim pushes the boundaries of that belief a little bit further outward.

And researchers have noted conservatives’ alternate reality for years now. In 2016, William Davies blamed the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote on post-truth politics. The next year, Molly Worthen argued that white American evangelicals were largely to blame for this new post-truth normal. Also in 2017, the Columbia Journalism Review found that the Breitbart media site had cultivated “a distinct and insulated media system, using social media as a backbone to transmit a hyper-partisan perspective to the world.”

That world led to a Pew Research survey that found that “[m]isinformation and competing views of reality abounded throughout 2020.”

Life in a well-curated bubble of antiprocess

Most critics of that alternate reality focus on Fox News, though. Scathing indictments of Fox’s various shows can be found aplenty. Most of it focuses on its viewers’ alternate-reality bubble.

In 2019, Bobby Lewis wrote in The Guardian about the network’s show Fox & Friends as “shamelessly” dishonest and “sloppy.” Two completely separate editorials separated by six years could deal with the pain of “losing” one’s own father to the Fox News alternate-reality vortex, with a documentary on the topic about a third lost father.

A few years later, in 2022, a study indicated that Fox News viewers who switched to CNN for four weeks experienced a large shift in their political opinions. They didn’t become liberal or anything, but they did at least accept reality on a few key points. Alas, almost all of the participants returned to their steady diet of Fox News after the study ended. They also returned to their previous political opinions regarding those points.

Knowing all that, it’s not surprising that even when a Republican idol gets caught red-handed acting against the target audience’s beliefs and morals, we can count on Fox News and other right-wing media sites to leap to those idols’ defense. Earlier this year, when the New York Times reported that George Santos’ lies were fairly common knowledge among big-name Republicans, Tucker Carlson defended him.

Of note, Carlson’s impassioned defense came only a couple of months before Fox News fired him in April 2023. The Los Angeles Times wondered if his firing was related to his egregiously-dishonest coverage of the January 6th insurrection attempt.

Right-wing media presents this alternate reality for a reason: It works grandly

Evangelical church leaders might be having a hard time persuading the flocks to plant their butts in the pews more often. But Republican politicians have far simpler needs. All they need is loyalty to the Republican Party and votes for Republican candidates and causes.

To get both of those things, Republicans task their audience’s media sites to push hard on viewers’ fear and outrage buttons. They dehumanize their viewers’ main outgroups and offer a steady drumbeat of shows and stories affirming and validating their self-image as the true rulers of America, temporarily-embarrassed billionaires, a put-upon and shrinking persecuted minority group, and America’s Designated Adults—preferably all at once.

More legitimate news sites have reported aplenty on Republican dishonesty. Right-wing Americans never found any evidence of election fraud, but Fox News viewers still believe the 2020 election was somehow stolen from Donald Trump. They’re also still fanatically loyal to him. I doubt they were troubled at all by Lynne Cheney’s admission in March that her Republican colleagues wanted her to lie in support of Donald Trump’s various false claims. Or by that former Republican staffer’s admission of corruption and dishonesty in the self-appointed Jesus Party.

It’s all out there for the finding. But if right-wing voters even detect the existence of these stories at all, they have an array of antiprocess negation tools at their disposal to avoid engaging even superficially with the material presented.

Let’s be thankful that evangelical leaders lack the resources and marketing acumen to put that kind of manipulation in front of Americans. Even their massive and massively-funded He Gets Us campaign hasn’t accomplished anything measurable.

(Related: A possible covert motivation for the campaign.)

How Ammon Bundy’s ambitions grew from a seed

Ammon Bundy has come a long way since his 2014 standoff with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Whatever his motivations in starting that fight might have been, Bundy certainly catapulted himself into near-instant celebrity among right-wing Americans—and just as the right-wing reality-free bubble began to form in earnest.

By getting into that scuffle with the authorities that day, he threw down a gauntlet between right-wing Americans and their hated government. He also defied a force far more powerful than himself. Aggrieved, fearful dysfunctional authoritarians thrilled to his victory and snarled over government agents tasering their new hero. Amazingly, none of the Bundy men got convicted in court for their crimes.

Of course Ammon’s father, Cliven Bundy, was the real and ultimate wrongdoer in that 2014 standoff. At first, Daddy Bundy enthralled right-wing Americans, but he was nowhere near as appealing a folk hero as Ammon was. For one, he’s an unrepentant, out-loud racist with no real internal filter. Then, when a journalist saucily called him “a welfare queen in a cowboy hat,” that spot-on and succinct trash talk attached itself permanently to Daddy Bundy.

The year after the standoff, Ammon Bundy heard about a pair of ranchers getting sent back to prison for their earlier arson convictions. (They had been prematurely released.) He decided he just had to help make the situation worse by occupying Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge surrounded the ranchers’ land. Even when the ranchers specifically refused Bundy’s assistance, Bundy acted anyway. This standoff lasted 41 days. Also amazingly, Bundy escaped conviction and prison time in this case as well.

He clearly came out of both of these situations with a new ambition.

Ammon Bundy was fairly quiet for a few years after all that excitement. But when the pandemic lockdowns reached America in 2020, he found his true calling: Rousing restive Republican rabble to wreak ructions with reality-wrecked ruses.

He wanted right-wing Americans’ attention.

And thanks to right-wing media and politics, he knew exactly how to get it.

Ammon Bundy, budding political martyr for Republican ideals

In April 2020, Ammon appeared in a video taken of an anti-shutdown protest. During this protest, authorities arrested local anti-vaxxer activist, Sara Walton Brady. Wikipedia claims that after the protest, Bundy and about 40 sympathizers stood outside the home of the arresting officer for a half hour. (I’m totally sure they were only there in case the officer needed to provoke them into turning the other cheek.) However, the link citation for that claim appears to have been edited. It doesn’t even mention Bundy’s presence now.

Then, in August 2020, Bundy led a protest in front of the Idaho Capitol building. During this protest, he and his followers broke property and disrupted lawmakers’ business. Bundy also barged into a legislative meeting, refusing to leave when asked. For these antics and more, the authorities arrested Bundy twice in 24 hours. He got off incredibly lightly: three days in jail and a relatively low fine.

In 2021, he trespassed at the Capitol Building again. For this, he was convicted of trespassing and delaying an officer, given a year’s probation, and fined $3,315. Even the judge knew he was utterly beyond listening or changing. She probably knew that even before he complained that his trial consisted of the legal system “marching me to the gallows.”

It’s like we’d trained Ammon Bundy to seek attention by trespassing in Boise. (I’ve wondered over recent years if he chose this particular method of attention-seeking because it didn’t carry super-high fines or super-long mandatory prison sentences. He wants to be a martyr, but not a Big Gulp martyr!)

In 2022, he found the best way yet to get attention yet: Interrupting the work of a big hospital.

How Ammon Bundy skewed right-wing Americans’ perceptions of his grandstanding

In March 2022, Ammon Bundy heard that one of his followers had a very sick grandbaby. This grandchild’s illness may have been the result of parental neglect. Numerous welfare checks had found him in an increasingly bad state, but his parents refused to bring him to any doctors. They also skipped doctors’ appointments. When they thought police were coming to take him, they did a runner. And when the police finally figured out where the parents were, they took custody of the poor mite and got him to a local St. Luke’s Hospital for much-needed care.

Ammon Bundy clearly sensed an opportunity here. He and a bunch of followers descended upon the hospital. They shouted, milled around, and harassed medical staff. They also made some shocking allegations against the hospital, including accusing the hospital of selling similarly-kidnapped children to LGBTQ couples to sexually abuse. At one especially-fraught point, the protestors’ behavior prompted hospital administrators to go into lockdown.

Finally, police arrived to break up their fun and arrest Bundy—again.

And here is how Bundy described the situation to his Twitter/X followers:

Please read. Last night my very good friend Diego’s grandson was medically kidnapped because a medical practitioner called CPS for a missed doctor appointment. If this happened to them, it could happen to you. We must stand against this medical tyranny.

You heard that right. No mention of repeated welfare checks at all, or of the baby’s deteriorating condition. He made it sound like one little missed appointment and LOOK WHAT THE EBIL GUBMINT HAS DONE TO INNOCENT AMERICANS!!!! THEY’RE KIDNAPPING MY BESTIE’S GRANDSON!

I’d expect critical thinkers to assume there’s a lot more to the story than Bundy has presented in that Xeet. But his audience left that skill behind long, long ago—if ever they possessed it at all. 

(If you’re wondering, the baby is apparently fine now. After a week in hospital, he recovered. His parents got him back after agreeing to reasonable state oversight.)

Escalating grandstanding stunts attract Republican attention

By 2022 at least, Bundy had decided to enter politics on a formal level rather than just trespassing there. He wanted to run for the office of Idaho Governor.

Of course, when he and his campaign people planned a rally at a little park in a residential area in Boise in August, it got cancelled by the city. You can bet that Bundy did not present his followers with any of the city’s stated reasons for the cancellation. Namely, the city’s spokesperson said that Bundy or his campaign office had vastly misrepresented attendance figures, planned features and activities, and the rally’s entire purpose.

And just as he’d done with his hospital stunt, Bundy somehow forgot to mention all of that to his followers. Instead, he positioned the cancellation as a liberal-engineered attack against him as a candidate. Then, he compared the way the city’s leaders were treating him to Martin Luther King, Jr’s experiences in Birmingham in the 1960s. Yes, really.

His followers ate up all of this wrasslin’-style performance art with a spoon.

The feast wasn’t over yet, however.

Even losing the governor’s race that November didn’t end it.

The Hospital Strikes Back (Against Ammon Bundy)

After that 2022 stunt at St. Luke’s Hospital, the hospital system sued Ammon Bundy for defamation. Bundy decided to turn the situation into a complete media circus.

He repeatedly ignored court dates and status meetings regarding the lawsuits. On April 19th, a judge in Boise issued a warrant for his arrest. But by May 7th, he was still “holed up at home.” Alarmingly, he told his followers that he’d rather die than return to jail—even though the warrant was for contempt of court, which carries a maximum penalty of five days in jail.

Even in June, law enforcement officers from city, county, and state-level organizations were pleading with Bundy to participate meaningfully in this lawsuit. By July, a judge added a warrant for witness intimidation and harassment.

In late July 2023, St. Luke’s Hospital won. The court ordered Ammon Bundy, the once-sick baby’s grandfather, and three of his groups to pay St. Luke’s Hospital over $50M.

In response, Ammon Bundy complained to a radio show that “the establishment” just didn’t like him, so were using this judgment as “their mechanism to try to destroy me.” It was clear that he had no intention of complying with that order for payment. I mean really, though, why should he start now?

On Friday, August 11th, law enforcement finally arrested Bundy at his son’s football fundraiser banquet.

The party don’t start till Ammon Bundy walks in

At that point, a judge set Bundy’s bond at $10k. He could have paid it and then walked out of that jail to enjoy a weekend of freedom.

But he didn’t. He needed to become a martyr, and this whole arrest thing had to suddenly look like pennies from Heaven.

As Daily Beast reports, Bundy or one of his group leaders used his Xitter account to urge his followers to gather at the jail holding him:

Ammon was arrested this evening at his son’s football banquet.
Gather at Gem County Sheriff’s office in Emmett if you can!
We believe he is at the Gem County Jail. Please, if you can’t make it, start making calls complaining about this continued harassment of such a wonderful man. Thank you. [Xitter link]

They obeyed. As instructed, they also made numerous phone calls to the jail itself to ask about his arrest. They entirely lacked any knowledge of why he’d been arrested. All they knew was what their leaders had told them: This “wonderful man” was being “harassed!” Those mean ole cops had arrested him while he was at a family event! The nerve! And now, he needed their help!

One of those followers recorded a video threatening the sheriff’s office with the wrath of Jesus (backed up, of course, by Real True Christians’ violence):

”Let him out now,” Garth Gaylord said into a phone. “The wrath of God is upon the people if we let you do this. You better stop, or the people are coming after you.”

What would Jesus do? Well, in fairness, I suppose he did threaten people as well.

(Related: Attack of the Mini-Jesuses!)

Republican strategies are paying off bigly for Ammon Bundy

By distorting reality and mischaracterizing events, Ammon Bundy’s ambitions are starting to be realized. He’s gone from flagging interest and dwindling crowds at his stunts to becoming the leader of “Ammon’s Army” —a loose conglomeration of anti-vaxxers, QAnon cultists, militia types, pandemic denialists, and conspiracy theorists that is starting to alarm those watching right-wing activity in America.

To attain that notoriety, Bundy has presented a fairly consistent and stark message to his followers:

  • He is a freedom fighter
  • Everyone in power hates him for no good reason; they are making up all these charges
  • He thought this wuz aMURRikka!
  • He has never broken the law; everything he’s done has always been lawful and appropriate
  • The EBIL GUBMINT is harassing him and persecuting him
  • He is a freedom fighter
  • He only wants to make Idaho/America safe for everyone holding views like his
  • The persecution he experiences could happen to anyone on a purely arbitrary basis
  • But he is a freedom fighter, did he mention?
  • And because of his bravery and intense patriotism, he will put an end to all of this nastiness

Likewise, the way he presents his outgroup stays pretty consistent:

  • Our outgroup hates us for our freedom
  • They want to steal our children and imprison us on flimsy, made-up charges
  • The charges against Ammon Bundy are “a cover up to cover up, basically, their wickedness” (to wit: Underpants Gnomes Logic)
  • These enemies vastly outnumber us and have way more resources than we do
  • Persecution everywhere!
  • Despite all of that, Jesus is on our side, so we cannot lose!

It’s working.

Bundy’s followers are not like regular conservative Christians. These are absolute wingnuts feasting on this apparent realization of the martyrbation fantasies they’ve been nurturing since their teens. Against such strawmanning and distortion, Bundy’s flocks have no defense. For many years now, they have been coached to accept all of those claims—and more besides.

The problem with Ammon Bundy’s strategy

That exact education might have stymied Bundy earlier. He’s got two strikes against him with his “Ammon’s Army” followers.

In 2018, he disavowed militias over how they viewed and treated the “migrant caravan” that year. He felt that what the militias displayed was nationalism, which he viewed as the opposite of patriotism.

At the same time, he criticized Donald Trump (then the President, of course) for “demonizing” the people in that caravan. For good measure, he compared Trump’s behavior to that of Hitler in the 1930s in Germany.

Hey, even the Bible contains some facts. Stopped clocks and all that, right?

The people following Ammon Bundy probably didn’t care overmuch for either position. To get them completely on board, Republican strategies require that claims be consistent and fit into the target audience’s existing beliefs. In 2018, right-wing Americans loved Donald Trump and militias—and hated immigrants of all kinds, but especially any who enter the country through unauthorized channels.

For now, it looks like “Ammon’s Army” has forgotten he ever said that stuff. I’ve seen no indication, for that matter, that he’s repeated either assertion in more recent years. Hey, maybe he’s learned a bit more about the Republican playbook since 2018! If they remember those denunciations and comparisons, though, his followers’ fickle feelings toward him may chill again.

Ammon Bundy has chosen a precarious form of politicking indeed. Time will tell if he can grow this small-scale popularity into a real seat of power. Unfortunately, as right-wing Americans become more and more winnowed into extremism and more and more of them keep flocking to Idaho in particular, he just might succeed.


Captain Cassidy

Captain Cassidy is a Gen-X ex-Christian and writer. She writes about how people engage with science, religion, art, and each other. She lives in Idaho with her husband, Mr. Captain, and their squawky orange tabby cat, Princess Bother Pretty Toes. And at any given time, she is running out of bookcase space.

34 Comments

Carstonio · 08/22/2023 at 9:47 AM

The core reason Republican politicians lie to their voters? (Besides money and power, obviously.) The voters’ worldview – straight white Christians as the center of life – doesn’t jibe with reality. The world is not out to destroy straight white Christians, society and government exists for the benefit of everyone, humans caused climate change, and so forth.

    Chris Peterson · 08/22/2023 at 10:46 AM

    The Republican politicians’ views (or expressed views) don’t actually jibe with those of the majority of their voters. It’s just that their voting base is generally poorly educated, poorly informed, easily triggered and manipulated, and all too often willing to vote for anybody with an (R) after their name without giving the actual issues any thought.

      Captain Cassidy · 08/22/2023 at 4:26 PM

      They’ve been trained to see any other candidates as evil. It was really eye opening, though, to see a survey a few years ago that indicated that most Republicans are not on board with full criminalization of abortion care. Their bought and paid for politicians are pushing for full bans because that’s what their evangelical and tradcath leaders/customers want. But Republican voters have other ideas. It’s a glimmer of hope!

        Chris Peterson · 08/22/2023 at 4:48 PM

        When Republicans are asked about things with carefully worded questions that totally avoid all the trigger words, it turns out that many (very likely a majority) are actually mildly progressive on both economic and social matters. We live in a blue country, that is artificially maintained in its current state of division by states, by the Senate, and by Republican manipulation.

          Carstonio · 08/23/2023 at 2:22 PM

          Curious to know how progressive they are, or whether they believe in socialism for white people and capitalism for everyone else.

          Chris Peterson · 08/23/2023 at 2:30 PM

          They support things like basic welfare, free public education, subsidized medicine, legal abortion, environmental regulation, LGBTQ rights, progressive taxation, corporate regulations, and numerous other things generally labeled “progressive”.

          I doubt they are socialists… but neither are progressives.

    WisdomJusticeLove · 08/28/2023 at 2:46 PM

    Part of the aggrievement culture is to point out the “injustice” done. Then you can tell anyone listening what “justice” it’ll to take to make things “right”. That’s part of the immature/adolescent mind frame: “My parents won’t let me have ice cream for dinner! It’s worse than Wounded Knee! My teacher is making me turn in a book report! I’m like Mandela! We aren’t allowed to kill and mame minorities at our discretion like in the 50s! We’re just like the minorities we discriminated against! And anyone trying to teach you about it, is discriminating against us!!!”

    Notice all the people telling your their suffering is worse than the like of MLK, which anyone attempting to teach your scout is Woke! Ramaswarmy likened progressives to the “new KKK”; which Woke individual taught him about the KKK?

ericc · 08/22/2023 at 10:25 AM

𝐼𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ, ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑠’ 𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛.

You are being too rational. What will likely happen is Ammon will say that the recordings they are seeing are the liberal media setting him up and quoting him out of context. That he has always been anti-immigration and pro-Trump. And he’ll be fine.

If I were him, I’d worry more about the GOP machine putting up a candidate they prefer in whatever political race he next decides to enter. He seems to be good at rabble-rousing but it doesn’t seem like he’s making the right connections or trying to get the support of the leadership or their big donors.

    Captain Cassidy · 08/22/2023 at 12:43 PM

    Oh, for sure yes. While he was cooling his heels that weekend in the Gem County Jail, he was utterly surrounded by LEO who were all probably just like him in overall beliefs. There probably isn’t a single person in that building who isn’t a fervent Mormon or evangelical. But he painted them as an evil enemy who needed to destroy him to protect their nefarious plans. I’m sure that warmed their hearts.

    He’s doing the same to the state’s legislature and city officers, who are probably almost all like him as well. (Well, not Boise. The city has a lot of admins and elected people who are very progressive and inclusive. It’s not Austin level, but it’s markedly better than the rest of the state.)

    He’s not exactly making allies and friends this way. But he doesn’t want to join the horse race and jockey his way to the front. Nor is he at all interested in the give and take negotiations involved in politics. He just wants to conquer everything in his path and grind it underfoot, then enjoy the spoils of victory.

      ericc · 08/22/2023 at 12:56 PM

      ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑙 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑦 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑦 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑛𝑒𝑓𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑠. 𝐼’𝑚 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑠.

      Like Trump going after DoD, the Intelligence community, and the FBI.
      Also like many of the folks in those institutions, I’m sure most local Boise LEOs will nevertheless just take the abuse and vote for him anyway, if the situation arises where it’s him or somone with a (D) by their name.

        Captain Cassidy · 08/22/2023 at 4:08 PM

        Unfortunately, yes, thanks to the anti-abortion culture war (and of late, renewed anti-LGBT activity). If an experienced, competent candidate supports abortion, but the other is green, incompetent, and even malevolent and criminal — but vehemently opposes that care, then the right wing will go for the latter every time.

Chris Peterson · 08/22/2023 at 10:44 AM

The Republican leadership is catering to a steadily shrinking demographic. At some point that will collapse on them. Unless the country collapses first.

    ericc · 08/22/2023 at 3:34 PM

    The boomers are a shrinking demographic but the GOP will move with the voters to maintain a rough parity with the Dems. Both parties operate a sort of “anyone they don’t cater to, we’ll try” approach. This likely means GOP 2043 will be pro-SSM because (I expect) that will become a non-issue. But it could also send either party in wierd directions we can’t anticpate (anti-the war in Nigeria? Pro-AI?).

    The two-party balance we have has been stable for over a century *not* because the parties represent solid ideological perspectives, one of which is slowly going out of style. Rather, it’s stable because both parties flex and shift their ideology to grab as much new ideology as possible while maintaining their old base(s). The GOP has gone from anti-slavery to pro-robber baron; from pro-environmentalism to anti-. From pro-abortion to anti (…and we can already see them shifting back more towards the middle on abortion, with the national party almost completely abandoning their earlier “fetuses are people” rhetoric). The Dems have gone from strongly pro-labor to more pro-business, and from doveish foreign policy to hawkish. BOTH parties have gone from mostly anti-gay to mostly pro-gay.

    So, any liberal hoping for the demise of the GOP is going to be sadly disappointed. They may do worse than average for few election cycles in the near future as they fail to hold onto the 80-year-olds while trying to appeal to the 20-year olds. But as the boomers die out they will figure out what *other* large chunk of the electorate the dems are ignoring, and pivot their position to address those concerns.

      Chris Peterson · 08/22/2023 at 4:51 PM

      I don’t really agree with that assessment. Parties don’t really change that much. I think it is better to see it as new parties replacing old ones, that usually keep the same name. There is generally a party of the left and a party of the right, although those are defined with respect to a “center” that itself moves quite a lot. We are in a very unusual time now in that we have no party of the right. I don’t think there’s really an equivalent at any time in our country’s history.

      Gwen the Devout, patron saint of atheism · 08/26/2023 at 4:49 PM

      I’d guess they’ll find a new wedge issue to rouse the ignorant rabble, cling to gerrymanderef states and do their best to eliminate Democratic-leaning districts, push through thinly disguised hate laws to disenfranchise people they hate, etc. and continue their standard policy of electoral cheating.

      The latest big turnaround in the party system was the result of the Johnson admin’s embrace of civil rights. Although the CRA and VRA passed with bipartisan support, the Dixiecrats (white racist Southerners) were pissed and left the Democratic Party, some trying (unsuccessfully) to form a third party. Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” was the idea of winning over the “Solid South” using racism and fundamentalism. They chose abortion as their wedge issue (since by that time, re-segregation of schools was a non-starter), and fundamentalist preachers abruptly embraced the Catholic “abortion is murder” doctrine. (Ironically, this directly contradicts Biblical law (see Exodus 21:22-25), which fundies claim is the inerrant word of God.)

    WisdomJusticeLove · 08/28/2023 at 2:50 PM

    I disagree. Look at FL shooter. In his 20s. Dylan Roof? Not a Boomer, not a Gen-Xer.

    I think people are making a mistakes if they think adolescent-fueled greed and selfishness will simply pass out of fashion. It’s the default emotion of adolescent dependents. It’s what people develop in their teens and never let go; I know plenty of people that graduated HS, but never “left” HS.

      Chris Peterson · 08/28/2023 at 3:14 PM

      A sick young person (who almost certainly grew up in a dysfunctional home) does not argue against a shrinking population. I see absolutely nothing to suggest that the extremists the Republicans are catering to are doing anything but shrinking in numbers.

Positivist · 08/22/2023 at 10:57 AM

This is sooo interesting. How desperate we are to have our thoughts and feelings mirrored back to us. How desperate we are to have special knowledge. I wish I knew more about this—you’ve piqued my interest!!

BensNewLogIn · 08/22/2023 at 11:07 AM

Stephen colbert nailed it a few years ago with the concept of “truthiness”. This is what Bundy and his deplorable ilk depend on. It sounds true. It appeals to my gut and prejudices. I want it to be true. I don’t have to think if I believe it’s true. Therefore, it is true.”

    Chris Peterson · 08/22/2023 at 11:12 AM

    Sounds like religion.

    WisdomJusticeLove · 08/28/2023 at 2:37 PM

    That’s one of the beauties of “walking by ‘faith’, and not by ‘sight’.”
    You need not see/observe/examine/Witness any proof/evidence/data. All you need to “know” is how you FEEL about things.

Artor · 08/22/2023 at 12:10 PM

I see OnlySky has the new commenting platform up. We'll see if it's as bad as the previous ones. 

As for Ammon Bundy, He is a cup overflowing with 
the cream of human goodness. I have never known him 
to do anything immoral. Unless maybe you count the Preschooler's Prostitute Ring. And he has never done anything illegal. Unless you count all the times 
he sold dope disguised as a nun. He has always been a good, law-abiding citizen, a community-conscious individual. I'm sure you recognize my quote and know exactly where I am going with this.

Bundy is a Mormon, which brings up another interesting topic. Evangelicalism started as a particular branch of low Xian Protestantism. It has since metastatized, and is now a cancerous tumor infecting Catholicism and Mormonism as well. As a virus of the mind, I wonder how far it's reach could be? I can see it spreading tentacles even outside the realm of the Christ-o-sphere.

    Artor · 08/22/2023 at 12:11 PM

    Ugh. I hate the new comment platform already.

      Captain Cassidy · 08/22/2023 at 12:45 PM

      It shouldn’t be that different! We use something similar at R2D. How’d you ever get your text like that? I haven’t figured out markups yet.

      And yes, I know that quote! It fits!

smrnda · 08/22/2023 at 2:05 PM

With the hospital lawsuit, someone once told me that among the worst thing you can do with a lawsuit is not show up, because this opens you up to the risk of the ‘default judgment’ when the court just decides against you. People have had pretty strong cases of being in the right have lost that way. It looks like Bundy eventually got to court, but at some point, you don’t refuse to go in some kind of protest if the cost is going to be high.

I also wonder how many members of “Ammons Army” – people who seem to believe that the ‘authorities’ are always in the wrong about their hero, extend that same level of skepticism to charges against others? It’s like the Jan 6 rioters, who ‘back the blue’ until they’re beating cops with flagpoles.

Robert C · 08/23/2023 at 3:07 PM

I’ve said this before, but at the risk of becoming tedious, I’ll happily repeat myself: fundamentalist Christian preaching is the template for current GQP and Reich Wing political hackery. Christian apologists and preachers were advocating an alternate facts universe in the U.S. decades before Ronnie RayGun invited the Moral Majority into the revival tent.

Classifying Fux Noise as just another Christian channel explains some things: the Fux preachers are peddling the political equivalent of Armageddon slop buckets and magic spring water to the same public that watched Pat Robertson and Oral Roberts back in the day. Carlson’s “replacement theory” is basically just an iteration of the 900-foot Jesus–anything claimed by preachers on God’s Own Channel can be accepted at face value. And if the crazy on one channel isn’t the extra-crazy crazy with a side order of spicy batshit, you just change the channel which explains why some pew sitters are moving away from Fux Noise. It’s classic “belief in belief.” If you believe it, it’s true. If you believe you understand it, you do. If you believe, you can understand everything without knowing anything.

More here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-jesus-cult-robert-conner/1142060343

    WisdomJusticeLove · 08/28/2023 at 2:56 PM

    Some people would consider repetition emphasis: I Have A Dream.

    What you describe is the desire to instill Loyalty and Obedience. That’s what mashes monotheism/GOP what it is. Character? No one cares! Integrity? Get real! Virtue? We have an active disdain for it!
    Loyalty and Obedience. Like your look for in a pet.
    The beauty about pets: you can stick them on whomever you don’t like and they’ll anyways be eager to get that treat you balanced in their nose.

KeLeMi · 08/24/2023 at 7:19 AM

For Conservatives:
“Fact is a 4 letter word”.

CheepSk8 · 08/24/2023 at 5:51 PM

Note how the story starts with law enforcement not enforcing the law.

    Gwen the Devout, patron saint of atheism · 08/25/2023 at 2:00 PM

    I have a hunch that police in much of Idaho are buddies with the alt-white and will not enforce the law when a hero of Buttfucknowherica is the one breaking it, however egregiously (and self-promotingly).

    WisdomJusticeLove · 08/28/2023 at 2:58 PM

    Typical. How’s long did it take Mr. No-More-Baby-Parts to get to trial, poor fella.

Gwen the Devout, patron saint of atheism · 08/25/2023 at 2:59 PM

It is certainly possible that some of the growth in the already extremist Idaho panhandle has to do with people wanting to be around their tribemates.

Political motivation has contributed to other groups moving from (or not moving to) other states. For example, I have heard that a number of ob/gyns are leaving states that have criminalised abortion because the exceptions in these extremist laws are vague, generating a chilling effect and making it impossible for them to practise their profession ethically; this may make it even harder for women to get any care (let alone decent care) when pregnant. I think I also read that fewer med school grads are applying to ob/gyn residency programmes in reproductive slavery states, for similar reasons. Texas is already a sh¡t state, and a lot of people, especially in rural areas, don’t have adequate access to health care, but this could make it worse: people who are thinking of having kids would be advised to settle down in a state where obstetric services are available!

Families have also increasingly been avoiding/leaving red states like Florida in part because they don’t want to raise their kids in a state where bigotry and gun violence are encouraged. (This isn’t new, just more common: my own parents turned down a pretty cushy job offer in Dallas around 1980-ish because they really didn’t like the Southern, fundie, Reaganite atmosphere — shitty schools doubtless contributed to their decision too. A few years later they accepted an offer in NC, which was something of a culture shock, but my parents, still thought Texas would have been much worse.) Florida used to be the quintessential place for seniors to move when they retired, but fears of climate change and gun violence have them looking elsewhere.

Mikey · 08/27/2023 at 11:28 AM

You’re almost right. Just change every time you’ve used the word “Republican” to “Democrat” and you’re spot on!

    Chris Peterson · 08/27/2023 at 11:41 AM

    Objectively, we do not see Democratic leadership lying or creating disinformation. Objectively, it is now standard operating procedure for both Republican leadership as well as right-wing media to do exactly that.

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