Truth or Consequences

At the CPAC convention in Orlando, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem received loud cheers when she contradicted Anthony’s Fauci. Fauci had said the state had l0,000 hospitalizations on the "worst day." She claimed on the state's "worst day" they had a little over 600. This falls in line with the QAnon supported allegation that the coronavirus was a conspiracy and the Trump allegation in the face of all evidence to the contrary that the election was rigged and stolen. Of course, the closest thing to this kind of bald-faced repudiation of truth derives from Holocaust deniers like the British “historian” David Irving. In l996 Irving’s suit against the historian Deborah Lipstadt for libel was overturned by a British court. Sounds a little like Trump who has tried unsuccessfully to use to the courts as his proxy in the denial of the election—a tact which failed even after he had loaded the Supreme Court with 3 appointees. Having one’s reality denied is a form of human rights abuse in and of itself. To tell a coronavirus sufferer that the ailment is a conspiracy qualifies as a form of torture. The latest form of denial has come from Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson who claimed at the hearing on the Insurrection the rioters who tore through the halls of congress were left wing Antifa members posing as Trump supporters. What about the detained members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who claimed they were following the direction of the President? Rather than denial, many Americans may actually find themselves unable to willingly suspend disbelief in the face of realities, which increasingly, have all the attributes of fiction.

Read "As I Lay Down" by Francis Levy, Noise