There's something more dangerous than the 'Big Lie'

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

In a recent Jan. 6 hearing, Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling revealed the most important insight into our current democratic challenges. He was describing how he painstakingly went through each false election claim put forward by one of his family members. When the list was exhausted, the family member acknowledged the evidence presented but declared that it didn’t matter. He knew “in his heart” the election was stolen.

We need to understand and address this mindset to find our way forward as a democracy and a society. It’s not about the lie, but what lies beneath.

In winning hearts and minds, we cannot neglect hearts.

Many of us concerned about democracy fret endlessly about information integrity. We discuss regulations on social media and other channels to stop the flow of dis/mal/mis information. We invest in debunking false information. We worry about our inability to penetrate certain information bubbles with the truth. Many articles were written about Fox News not airing the first Jan. 6 hearing or Tucker Carlson’s show never cutting to commercial. All because we believe somehow if people could just see and hear the truth — if we reach their minds — it will be better.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/there-s-something-more-dangerous-than-the-big-lie/ar-AAZ9bin

[kacekwl]

1. Unfortunately this person as you know

will never be swayed no matter how much you try.

[secondwind]

2. K&R

[CrispyQ]

3. I've tried the rational approach with three "moderate" repubs I know.

1. Why didn't we also steal a solid majority in the senate, much less let it get down to a nail-bitter runoff?
2. What about all the republican senators & reps who won their races on the very same ballots you're claiming were fraudulent for the presidential election?
3. Have you ever worked an election as either an election judge or a poll watcher?

It left me wondering if there are any moderate repubs left. While none of them are rabid trumpers & didn't want to come outright & say they thought the election was stolen, they all felt there were election "irregularities" or "shenanigans" that tilted the win for Biden.

Lou Dobbs Complains ‘Actual Proof’ of Election Fraud Is Too Hard to Find

https://www.thedailybeast.com/lou-dobbs-complains-actual-proof-of-election-fraud-is-too-hard-to-find

During his Fox Business broadcast Monday evening, Trump loyalist Lou Dobbs inadvertently told on himself when he asked why there is still no concrete evidence that proves the 2020 election was stolen from the outgoing president.

“Eight weeks from the election, and we still don’t have verifiable, tangible support for the crimes that everyone knows were committed,” Dobbs said. “That is, defrauding other citizens who voted with fraudulent votes. We know that’s the case in Nevada, we know it’s the case in Pennsylvania and a number of other states, but we have had a devil of a time finding actual proof. Why?”

Why, you moron? BECAUSE THERE WASN'T ANY!!!

[lees1975]

4. I've walked through that same "list" with several Republicans I know

and it was a circular conversation in most cases.

I pointed out to one guy that the guy who appeared on one of the extremist right wing channels claiming that he drove a truck with thousands of ballots from New York into Pennsylvania under the instructions of an election official came out and said he was paid to say that, and that he hadn't done it. Not much progress with that, so I also pointed out that New York ballots would have different bar codes and different candidate names and the voters whose information was on the bar code on the ballot wouldn't match Pennsylvania's registration database and would be thrown out of the machines. That got a little bit of thinking going. And if you look at Pennsylvania's vote totals across the board, there were actually fewer votes cast for President than there were for other offices, meaning that there were some people, not a huge number that would have made a difference, but some, who decided to leave that blank. If there had been fraud, wouldn't the number of presidential votes be distorted? Still not an acknowledgement, but some thinking.

I also pointed out that there are always irregularities, mistakes, miscounts, in every election, but they generally don't favor one side or the other, which was the case with virtually every such incident reported by auditors of this election everywhere. And I pointed out, from my previous experience having served as an election judge, and as an observer when ballots were counted in a Pennsylvania county during the 2016 election. It would take having every Republican who judges or counts in every single county being in on the "conspiracy" to make that happen, because every discrepancy is examined, every complaint is looked at and every ballot is reconciled. Unless Republicans were "in on" the conspiracy to steal the election, it could not happen.

I don't know where they are now, but it has never come up in a conversation again.