False Equivalence Fest

Trump on CNN Town Hall

Trump’s base undoubtedly employ the David and Goliath paradigm. It’s a wonderful example of false equivalence which has become the Omicron variant of hyperbolic distortion. It’s an equal opportunity employer to which particularly the right is vulnerable. For instance in Stone v. Graham (1980), the Supreme Court argued against the mandatory display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, under the First Amendment. Everyone knows that the first amendment has historically always been titrated. Yes everyone has the right to speak but that right doesn’t include crying fire in a crowded theater or practicing one or another religion in classrooms. Ditto the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms--which doesn't comprise AK-47s which have been created for battlefield use or tactical nuclear weapons or Marjorie Taylor Greene literally using her arms to stalk David Hogg on the Capitol steps. This kind of argument, which constantly turns the tables on a presumptive piece of law, is insidious since like Covid it keeps producing new variants, all having the illusion of a kind of structural, albeit often immoral integrity. The experience of hearing Trump at the CNN town hall was a false equivalence festival replete with all the fanfare of the cheering crowd.

read "An Incident of Defenestration" by Francis Levy, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

and listen to "Groove Me: by King Floyd