Reverse Cargo Cult (2017)
This is a neat analogy, but ultimately not quite true.<p>I believe that Trump followers believe him, for the most part.<p>The insurrection on Capital Hill was made by people who very deeply felt that the &#x27;Election Was Stolen&#x27; and therefore Democracy itself was at stake. (There were several interviews by the press that highlighted this).<p>It&#x27;s <i>rational</i> for someone to take reasonably dramatic action if they believed there were fraud at a fundamental level - so on a way - the actions of the protesters are understandable in a perverse kind of way, with the assumption that they are completely misinformed.<p>For the the &#x27;not so gullible&#x27;, the lie, repeated over and over again just has a ring of truth to it - enough that somewhere about 50% of the US believes that the &#x27;elections were unfair&#x27; in some way, when in reality, that&#x27;s not anywhere near the truth - the election was fair and free. There weren&#x27;t any systematic shenanigans.<p>This means that a ton of &#x27;regular, educated followers&#x27; buy into the BS at least partially.<p>And of course, since it&#x27;s partisan, and some people &#x27;want to believe it&#x27; - it&#x27;s easier to believe.<p>The real question then becomes: will the gullible and not-so-gullible-but-partisan accept actual, material evidence when it&#x27;s presented?<p>That&#x27;s where you possibly meet the &#x27;truly stubborn&#x27;.<p>Finally - in the efforts to get the truth out, a lot of these kinds of people have basically no faith in important institutions such as &#x27;Science&#x27;, the Judiciary, the DOJ etc..<p>Though most of the press is fairly legit, they are also biased, and so most plebes don&#x27;t want to trust them either.<p>We are in a &#x27;War for the Truth&#x27; right now it&#x27;s a big deal with Politics, COVID, issues of Freedom of Expression (which includes the right to lie) etc..