THE MYPILLOW GUY REALLY COULD DESTROY DEMOCRACY

[hookaleft]

In the time I spent with Mike Lindell, I came to learn that he is affable, devout, philanthropic—and a clear threat to the nation.

By Anne Applebaum

When you contemplate the end of democracy in America, what kind of person do you think will bring it about? Maybe you picture a sinister billionaire in a bespoke suit, slipping brown envelopes to politicians. Maybe your nightmare is a rogue general, hijacking the nuclear football. Maybe you think of a jackbooted thug leading a horde of men in white sheets, all carrying burning crosses.

I met Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, in the recording studio that occupies the basement of Steve Bannon’s stately Capitol Hill townhouse, a few blocks from the Supreme Court—the same Supreme Court that will, according to Lindell, decide “9–0” in favor of reinstating Donald Trump to the presidency sometime in August, or possibly September. I made it through the entirety of the Trump presidency without once having to meet Bannon but here he was, recording his War Room podcast with Lindell. Bannon has been decomposing in front of our eyes for some years now, and I can report that this process continues to take its course. I walked in during a break and the two men immediately gestured to me to join the conversation, sit at the table with them, listen in on headphones. I demurred. “Anne Applebaum … hmm,” Bannon said. “Should’ve stuck to writing books. Gulag was a great book. How long did it take you to write it?”

In the room adjacent to the basement studio, an extra-large image of a New York Times front page hung on the wall, featuring a picture of Bannon and the headline “The Provocateur.” A bottle of Bio-Active Silver Hydrosol, whatever that is, sat on the desk. The big-screen TV was tuned to MSNBC. This wasn’t surprising: In his podcasts, Bannon carries on a kind of dialogue with Rachel Maddow, playing her sound bites and then offering his own critique. Later, Lindell told me that if it weren’t for attacks by “the left”—by which he means Politico, the Daily Beast, and, presumably, me—his message would never get out, because Fox News ignores him.


Bannon, too, lives outside the Fox bubble these days. Instead, he inhabits an alternate universe in which every minute of every day seems to be entirely devoted to the discussion and analysis of “electoral fraud,” with just a little time devoted to selling wellness products and vitamins that, despite his claims, won’t actually cure COVID-19. Bannon’s podcast, which he says has millions of listeners (it is ranked 59th on Apple Podcasts, so he might be right), is populated by full-time conspiracy theorists, some of whom you have heard of and some of whom you probably haven’t: Peter “Trump Won in a Freakin’ Landslide” Navarro, Rudy Giuliani, Garland Favorito, Willis @treekiller35, Sonny Borrelli, the Pizzagate propagator Jack Posobiec, and, of course, Lindell. Bannon calls them up one by one to report on the current status of the Trump-reinstatement campaign and related fake scandals. There are daily updates. The guests talk fast and loud. It is very exciting. On the day I was at the studio, Bannon was gloating about how President Joe Biden was now “defending his own legitimacy”: “We are going to spring the trap around you, sir!” He kept telling people to “lawyer up.”

snip>https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/mike-lindells-plot-destroy-america/619593/

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. I know guys like him, hucksters, frauds. They say they are devout followers of Jesus

and then sell you something they know is broken and laugh if you arent quick enough to figure out you are being screwed.

People are dumb, lots of them, and because of that this guy and others are going to get them to kill a bunch of us, a WHOLE bunch of us.

[Elessar Zappa]

2. Not a chance.

Most people know he’s a buffoon. The only people that listen to him are hardcore MAGAts who are only a small minority.

[lagomorph777]

3. Most people don't even know he exists, or just remember him from his ads.

I could be wrong though. Apparently enough people have heard his message, and stopped buying his pillows, to persuade me that people do know who he is. And they angrily reject his bullshit.

I can't see him having influence in the real world.

[Elessar Zappa]

5. Yes, you're right.

He’s a non-entity as far as most people are concerned.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. This

He had to lie about his net worth (by a factor of 10-12) to get the MSM to give him Tue time of day.
Now, everybody knows he's lied, & the MSM won't give him the time of day again.
His company is tanking & he's a desperate Buffon.
80% of people have never heard of him, and at least half of the 20% see him as a loon.
He's nothing.

[rsdsharp]

4. If a drug addled moron like this can destroy democracy

it deserves to go. I, for one, don’t believe he has what it takes.

[Boomerproud]

13. My thoughts exactly.

Have we crossed the tipping point? Two Ben Franklin quotes come to mind.

[Mme. Defarge]

6. The Atlantic, more and more, seems to have become

the voice of doom.

[raging moderate]

7. Yeah, but that's what I thought about Trump.

We need to be very alert and proactive, politically, from now on.

[Me.]

8. OH PLease

Last edited Thu Jul 29, 2021, 08:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Can journalists stop doing their sky is falling dance and over-rating people who are compleat frauds. It doesn't speak well for her ability to discern scammers.

[PortTack]

12. ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️

[we can do it]

18. And cut the caps lock ffs.

[JustAnotherGen]

9. How has someone

who has never heard of the Free Market been so successful?


I

t is true that there has been some organized backlash against MyPillow, which is indeed no longer stocked by Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohl’s, and other retailers. But I suspect that this reaction is every bit as red-white-and-blue as Lindell himself: Plenty of Americans oppose Lindell’s open promotion of both election and vaccine conspiracy theories, and are perfectly capable of boycotting his company without the aid of Chinese bots. Lindell’s lived experience, however, tells him otherwise, just like his lived experience tells him that COVID-19 vaccines will kill you and oleandrin won’t. Lived experience always outweighs expertise: Nobody can argue with what you feel to be true, and Lindell feels that the Chinese stole the election, sent bots to smear his company, and are seeking to impose communism on America.

I'm not a chinese 'bot' and I smeared his company. Because -

He's an asshat.

[Wounded Bear]

11. Only if we let him...nt

[kskiska]

14. The only ones keeping him going these days

are talk radio listeners. They're encouraged to purchase his products as gifts for their friends. The hosts praise him to the skies and keep hawking his products - pillows, mattress toppers, sheets, dog beds, and slippers. They're true believers and think he's a holy man, especially since he wears a huge cross around his neck. They love his story of being a former crack addict who found Jesus.

[PortTack]

15. He found Jesus, but Jesus said get the f..k outta here and don't come back

[targetpractice]

16. By depriving Americans of a good night's sleep?

Those pillows are awful... Good thing only Republicans buy them now.

[Tiger8]

17. Hitler was "misunderestimated" too.

German historian Volker Ullrich said,

"If Hitler is dismissed as a lunatic clown or a rabid monster, there is no way to comprehend how he could have exerted such an appeal over large parts of the German populace, so that so many people became accomplices to his horrendous crimes. There is no doubt that, in the wake of the unexpectedly rapid solution to Germany’s mass unemployment crisis and a series of spectacular foreign-policy triumphs in the 1930s, Hitler enjoyed greater popularity than any other political figure in German history."

We laughed at Reagan because he was simple minded AND a right wing extremist.

No way will Reagan get elected...but here we are 40 years later living under Reagan's legacy, including but not limited to....
- Worsening Climate Change
- End of The Fairness Doctrine
- Destruction of Unions and the Labor Movement
- Out of control Wealth Gap

Reagan did so much damage to the USA, and we are finally realizing the full, terrible impact he had on the USA.

Bannon and Pillow Jerk are grifters, but they are only two of many voices on the right - and they have an audience.

[ChubbyStar]

19. Fuck My Pillow Guy n/t