GOP is still gaslighting about the Capitol riot: Trump's allies claim coup and QAnon never happened

[marmar]

GOP is still gaslighting about the Capitol riot: Trump's allies claim coup and QAnon never happened
After the riot comes the gaslighting

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
FEBRUARY 24, 2021 6:07PM


(Salon) Donald Trump's insurrection failed. While historians will likely debate for decades how close he really came to succeeding, one thing is for certain: His failure has put his most prominent defenders in a tough spot. Instead of lining up to sing the praises of President-for-Life Donald Trump, which is where they want to be, his sycophants are stuck trying to make excuses for, minimize, or deflect attention from Trump's failure.

First, they tried to minimize Trump's responsibility for the insurrection. That tactic fell apart after an impeachment trial where the prosecutors made such an airtight case for Trump's guilt that even people who voted to acquit him pretended it was on a legal technicality, rather than try to argue for his innocence. Now, some folks on the right are trying a new tactic, one you might call the "go big or go home" strategy. Trump's loudest defenders are now outright denying that the nation saw what we all clearly saw on January 6.

During a Tuesday hearing about the security failures that led to the Capitol riot, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin unleashed a bunch of conspiracy theories denying that all those people waving Trump flags while chanting "no Trump, no peace" were, in fact, there for Trump.

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The word "gaslighting" gets thrown around a lot, but this is very much the definition of the word. It comes from the psychology of abuse, and refers to the way an abuser might, for instance, beat his wife and then pretend the next day it didn't happen, calling her hysterical if she insists it did. Gaslighting isn't just lying. It's denying an obvious truth, and insisting that anyone who disagrees is crazy or is making stuff up. It was a favorite tactic of Trump's, who kicked off his presidency by gaslighting the nation about the size of his inauguration crowd. And now it's being used by his allies, to argue that the evidence of our own eyes and ears isn't real. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/02/24/gop-is-still-gaslighting-about-the-capitol-riot-trumps-allies-claim-coup-and-qanon-never-happened/

[andym]

1. Orwell's "1984": "The past was alterable...Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia."

The full quote: “The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”