MAGA's war on facts forces gullible followers to fall for ridiculous pranks

MAGA's war on facts forces gullible followers to fall for ridiculous pranks
Million MAGA March Rally at US Capitol East on sidewalk, across from US Supreme Court, along First Street at Maryland Avenue, NE, Washington DC on Saturday afternoon, 14 November 2020 by Elvert Barnes Photography
Million MAGA March Rally at US Capitol East on sidewalk, across from US Supreme Court, along First Street at Maryland Avenue, NE, Washington DC on Saturday afternoon, 14 November 2020 by Elvert Barnes Photography
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MAGA podcaster and self-described paleoconservative John Doyle says the colossal MAGA movement to expose “truth” to disenchanted young men has gone wrong — terribly wrong.

In addition to widespread racism, misogyny and its far-reaching use of insult, the overarching argument driving the MAGA effort is its claim to expose people to discomforting truth, no matter how much it hurts.

But truth doesn’t appear to be sinking in, said Doyle. Instead, he argues that genuine truth-seeking has “been replaced with outrage, conspiracy theories, and endless online complaining.”

“The decline of mainstream media was supposed to create a better-informed public. Instead, the ‘red-pilling’ of the masses — which BlazeTV host John Doyle calls ‘normies’ — have caused them to trade one media bubble for another,” reports Blaze Media.

“It hasn’t made them better informed. It hasn’t made them better at critical thinking,” complained Doyle. “They are looking at the reflexive impulse some people have to believe everything, and they have the same reflexive impulse to disbelieve everything, but they are not actually seeking truth independently.”

“Red-pilled” is a slang term derived from the movie “Matrix,” meaning someone has acknowledged a hidden and harsh "truth" about society, politics, or relationships, after getting their previous beliefs toppled. But Doyle said MAGA’s audience has become so doubtful of what’s real — thanks to MAGA’s relentless attacks on information — that they are incapable of building information connections.

And despite their robust sense of suspicion, MAGA adherents often find themselves buying into some of the most ridiculous fabrications. Recently a MAGA GOP leader found himself roped into a humiliating prank by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen that he thought was an immigration documentary. In truth, El Paso County Republican Party Chairman Michael Aboud and other gullible participants got recruited for a spoof mission to “prevent a South American drug kingpin's child from being born” in the United States — complete with a prosthetic baby.

Doyle compared the resulting cultural pessimism of red-pilled recruits to people lost in a “labyrinth.”

“I’m in the labyrinth. ... I’m seeking the truth. What happens if a bunch of red-pilled people are now in the labyrinth with me? Do you think they’re going to be better able to navigate?” Doyle said. “Do you think that they’re going to be able to arrive at the truth? No. They’re going to freak out and be anxious all the time and spur out, and they’re going to summon the Minotaur with their screaming and their crying and their complaining. This is not actually good.”

MAGA’s muddled victims would be better off sticking with mainstream media, he said.

“People want the mythology. They want to be entertained. They want to think that guy that they trusted actually freaking betrayed them,” he said. “When you’re arguing with a normie, when you are arguing with an Instagram-Reels American, guess what you’re arguing with? You’re arguing with Instagram Reels, and the reels cannot hear you.”

The distrust and subsequent despair of these “red-pilled normies,” said Doyle, results in them believing “they don’t have agency in their own lives.”

“And so the solution is just to keep [whining] on the internet and do nothing and wait for some kind of collapse,” he said.

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