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The right isn't stupid. They use a stupid message to maintain control of the conversation as a diversion tactic that is very effective. The whole point of this is to ensure no legitimate reforms and legislation are put in place. We fall for it every time we get enraged by the bullshit. That is the joke, we are the joke, and there is no way around the fact we will spend the next 2 weeks pushing back before the next prescribed side show drops into the circus. The outcome is fixed and calculated well in advance. This entire thing is planned out. I doubt they expected this one to have quite this big of an impact, but it will disappear just like all the rest. If a supreme court justices can be openly corrupt, there is no question the oligarchic prince will walk away completely free. We have entire states like Georgia fighting against justice for the biggest coup attempt in this country's history. The perpetrator at the center is still free years later. King Musk is invincible because of Republican Russian Red team and their oligarchy.
While I generally agree with you...
Some of them absolutely are. Just like the Russians used r/the_donald to attract real, grassroots Americans to their cause. The ones who are using the stupidity as a strategy attract the true believers. I can't tell you how many, but I guarantee the was at least one or two true believers in Congress. (Maybe they've been set straight by now.)
Marjorie Taylor Greene is probably the craziest of the bunch. She is following the Russian/Putin playbook to mobilize convenient idiots just like Trump. Lauren Boebert was a call girl, and is still turning tricks just for a higher end client. All of these people are acting their prescribed roles. They are all just actors playing roles. It has been reported that they all act completely different behind closed doors. Mobilization of convenient idiots is how Putin gained so much power. This is exactly what Republicans are doing. Most are being advised directly by Russia.
I suspect at least one, if not both, started out as true believers. And then this stuff became their job while they were being briefed on classified intelligence. Because, you know, the "deep state" does in fact try to give the legislature the information they need in order to do their jobs well.
r/the_donald I believe started as a psyop, but the strategy they used of getting people in on a joke and then making it real kind of applies here too. I think at the start they were true believers, spouting the idiotic bullshit while fully believing it. They found they were rewarded by that behavior and intentionally escalated it and kept it up. At some point they believe most of it, but still use all of it. Now, even if they no longer believe because they've spent the last several years getting educated for the first time in their lives, they absolutely have to keep the act up.
They're following the playbook because they were recruited by the playbook. Every time they touched the MAGA button they got a treat. Now they're millionaires. A fucking rat can do that.
As an aside, I don't think Trump's much different in many ways in playing to a crowd. One difference is that I do think he was directed by Putin early. But he's not a political rally savant. He just goes to these rallies and likes when people cheer for him. So he pushes the "cheer for me" button. Evidence of that is when he got booed for promoting the vaccine. He's not a genius at controlling the narrative. He just uses the narrative that works (even if much of that narrative was handed to him). He's not the first person who can identify what people want to hear. And he has help. He, like any politician, has advisors doing polls and telling him what his people want to hear.
There exist smart Republicans who have been acting the entire time for grift and were never true believers. Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen, Jim Jordan. The problem with acting in bad faith and using stupid bullshit is that you do attract those true believers, and those true believers eventually advance. I bet a good chunk of the Republican caucus actually believes in trickle down economics. Because the people they see are the ones that benefit from it, and they're heavily incentivized to rationalize their bullshit however they can.
I'm open to being wrong. It's just a hypothesis.