{"id":26446,"date":"2025-12-05T17:31:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T01:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=26446"},"modified":"2025-12-08T14:00:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T22:00:06","slug":"strategies-of-reality-denial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2025\/12\/05\/strategies-of-reality-denial\/","title":{"rendered":"Strategies of Reality Denial"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Trump&#8217;s basic strategy is &#8220;deny deny deny&#8221;;<\/li>\n<li>Why young men turn to Nick Fuentes&#8217; neo-Nazi movement;<\/li>\n<li>How Trump is dragging the White House press corps, and perhaps all modern civilization, down into his gutter;<\/li>\n<li>How Trump is reviving rules about immigration based on nationality;<\/li>\n<li>Short takes on Dan Bongino admitting he has lied for money; and a religious zealot claiming Democrats are full of the devil.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>All Trump news can be filtered through one basic strategy, that he admits to.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/app\/uploads\/2025\/12\/trump-hegseth-cabinet-meeting.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Salon, Sophia Tesfaye, 4 Dec 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2025\/12\/04\/boat-strikes-war-crime-or-fake-news-hoax\/\">Boat strikes: War crime or \u201cfake news\u201d hoax?<\/a>, subtitle &#8220;Even as some Republicans turn on the ghastly Pete Hegseth, right-wing media can&#8217;t handle the truth&#8221;<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Bob Woodward reported in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/bob-woodward-book-trump-me-too-women-advice-2018-9\">Fear<\/a>\u201d that Donald Trump once offered a friend accused of sexual harassment a simple strategy: \u201cYou\u2019ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back\u2026 if you admit to anything, you\u2019re dead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That has since become the ethos of his MAGA movement. Today, anything that threatens Trump\u2019s power, reputation or fragile ego is instantly alchemized into a hoax. \u201cEvery scandal you hear about Trump is a media hoax designed to destroy him,\u201d Charlie Kirk told his MAGA audience. Right-wing media simply refuses to tolerate any and all facts that disrupt the narrative ecosystem they\u2019ve built around Trump. And now this machinery of denial is being used to excuse war crimes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Which, incidentally, impugns Charlie Kirk, too.) As I said two days ago, everything that counters Trump&#8217;s whims is dismissed as a scam or a hoax or a fraud or fake news. A previously admitted strategy (I wrote principle at first but that&#8217;s the wrong word): never admit you were wrong, never apologize. As it says now, deny deny deny. And that works for so many people!<\/p>\n<p>The article here goes on to give examples of the many things Trump dismisses as hoaxes. Up to the current issue with Pete Hegseth and the supposed drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela. The piece concludes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But as his coalition continues to crumble, right-wing media is sticking to the core message: If Trump or his allies do it, it\u2019s good. If the media reports it, it\u2019s fake. If critics object, it\u2019s a hoax.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Theirs is a fantasy world that cannot survive contact with reality forever.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>More on that struggle.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/871932fd-0a6c-4314-b67a-45a82f9f5456.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=1280\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Slate, Molly Olmstead, 5 Dec 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2025\/12\/neo-nazi-groypers-young-men-nick-fuentes-prevention.html\">Can You Save a Groyper From Himself?<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Too many young men are turning to Nick Fuentes\u2019 neo-Nazi movement. Their loved ones are fighting to bring them back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As I&#8217;ve said many times, there are elements of human nature that will always be with us. And as Pinker said, in the notes I just posted today: &#8220;Yet these intuitions of community, authority, sacredness, and taboo are part of human nature and will always be with us.&#8221; Our modern world has been built by forces that tried to counteract these intuitive, tribal intuitions, else the modern global world would not have become possible. But base human nature is never going away.<\/p>\n<p>The article is about two brothers, one of whom began sending<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Instagram memes with medieval Crusader imagery: <i>Reject modernity, embrace tradition.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;ve noted before that while conservatives claim they want to preserve the best traditions of the past, when you look closely it seems they want to preserve per-Enlightenment values. Base human nature.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Same theme. He wants to drag all of modern civilization down into his swamp.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/app\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Donald-Trump-2230146187.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Salon, Brian Karem, 5 Dec 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2025\/12\/05\/trump-is-dragging-the-white-house-press-corps-into-the-gutter\/\">Trump is dragging the White House press corps into the gutter<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;I guess the barrage of lies and insults aren&#8217;t enough. Now Trump wants the media&#8217;s complete submission&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Never forget: Each and every week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Donald Trump<\/a> gets worse.<\/p>\n<p>His regime is a ladder into a bottomless pit, a place that, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/hunter-s-thompson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hunter S. Thompson<\/a> once said of journalism, is \u201ca cruel and shallow money trench \u2026 a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the latest round of professional malfeasance, the president\u2019s sycophants in the communications office have launched a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/mediabias\/\">Media Bias Portal\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 on the official White House website. They are encouraging people to give them \u201ctips\u201d when the public believes a member of the press has produced \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/fake-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fake News<\/a>.\u201d Naturally, I took the opportunity to fill out the page and offered the White House a tip that its own communication staff is publishing \u201cfake news.\u201d I wonder how long I\u2019ll be waiting for a response.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>The big issue, perhaps, is that the US is retreating from its once global leadership in human rights and science. We are becoming no better than any other nation.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/12\/07\/multimedia\/05frost-klpf\/05frost-klpf-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>NY Times, guest essay by Amanda Frost<\/strong> (a law professor at the University of Virginia who specializes in immigration law), <strong>5 Dec 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/12\/05\/opinion\/immigration-restrictions-dc-shooting.html\">We Rejected This Practice 60 Years Ago. We Must Do So Again Today.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">Sixty years ago, the United States abolished immigration restrictions based on nationality alone. By 1965, such discrimination had become an embarrassment. In an emotional ceremony by the Statue of Liberty, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared that the legislation he was signing \u201ccorrects a cruel and enduring wrong\u201d and makes Americans \u201ctruer to ourselves both as a country and as a people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">Now the Trump administration is reviving nationality-based discrimination. After an Afghan refugee was arrested in the Nov. 26 shooting of two National Guard members, the Trump administration \u201cindefinitely\u201d stopped processing immigration-related applications for all Afghans \u2014 even those who have lived legally in the United States for years. The administration extended that suspension to immigrants from 18 other countries, including those on the verge of receiving green cards or citizenship. President Trump <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/12\/02\/us\/politics\/trump-somalia.html\">declared<\/a> that Somalis are \u201cgarbage\u201d on Tuesday, adding that they should \u201cgo back to where they came from,\u201d and has threatened to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/reel\/856601150178778\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">denaturalize<\/a> citizens. Meanwhile, his administration claims it can classify undocumented 14-year-old Venezuelans as \u201calien enemies\u201d and deport them without judicial review.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The piece goes on with history, e.g. about the Chinese Exclusion Act, which relied on stereotypes. As Trump does about Somalis. Again, it exhibit a base human nature which is hard to overcome.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Short takes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>JMG, 5 Dec 2025<\/strong> (from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/bongino-makes-jaw-dropping-admission-about-his-unhinged-conspiracies\/\">Daily Beast<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2025\/12\/bongino-i-was-paid-to-spread-pipe-bomber-lies\/\">Bongino: \u201cI Was Paid\u201d To Spread Pipe Bomber Lies<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI was paid in the past for my opinions, that\u2019s clear, and one day I\u2019ll be back in that space,\u201d Bongino declared. \u201cBut that\u2019s not what I\u2019m paid for now. I\u2019m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>He admits that he lied.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Right Wing Watch, Kyle Mantyla, 4 Dec 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peoplefor.org\/rightwingwatch\/mario-murillo-says-you-are-full-devil-if-you-vote-any-democrat\">Mario Murillo Says &#8216;You Are Full Of The Devil If You Vote For Any Democrat&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li>What are the words here? Insane? Religion-addled? There must be some clinical term for someone living in a fantasy world of their own, divorced from reality. It would apply to so many.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump&#8217;s basic strategy is &#8220;deny deny deny&#8221;; Why young men turn to Nick Fuentes&#8217; neo-Nazi movement; How Trump is dragging the White House press corps, and perhaps all modern civilization, down into his gutter; How Trump is reviving rules about &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2025\/12\/05\/strategies-of-reality-denial\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,90,7,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservative-resistance","category-conservatives","category-philosophy","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26446"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26498,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26446\/revisions\/26498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}