I think when it comes to right-wingers, the line between “true believer” and “grifter” is a lot more blurry than with left-wingers because they’re not beholden to truth. Their only true belief is that some people are inherently better and more deserving than others, every other “belief” is flexible and interchangeable, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that in the moment they’re fully aware that their beliefs are bullshit. This might sound incoherent but from everything I’ve seen, I really don’t think it’s that simple.
I think the line is deffinitely blurry but there’s some exceptions.
Like Trump groping a flag while saying “you dumb fucks love this shit huh” is pretty obvious and I think it’s funny trumps the most obviously aware of the grift and he’s their literal messiah.
Shapiro and some of his ilk over at turning points seem to actually believe they’re intelligent but this seems like more of a reflex to maintain their own sense of superiority.
Maybe you should sort them into three categories. True believers, people who are willingly lying to themselves, and people who are willingly lying to everybody else.
I think when it comes to right-wingers, the line between “true believer” and “grifter” is a lot more blurry than with left-wingers because they’re not beholden to truth. Their only true belief is that some people are inherently better and more deserving than others, every other “belief” is flexible and interchangeable, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that in the moment they’re fully aware that their beliefs are bullshit. This might sound incoherent but from everything I’ve seen, I really don’t think it’s that simple.
I think the line is deffinitely blurry but there’s some exceptions.
Like Trump groping a flag while saying “you dumb fucks love this shit huh” is pretty obvious and I think it’s funny trumps the most obviously aware of the grift and he’s their literal messiah.
Shapiro and some of his ilk over at turning points seem to actually believe they’re intelligent but this seems like more of a reflex to maintain their own sense of superiority.
Maybe you should sort them into three categories. True believers, people who are willingly lying to themselves, and people who are willingly lying to everybody else.