Woes of Blind Allegiance
To the Editor:
I read an outstanding article this week in regard to the “post-Trump identity crisis at FoxNews.” While it focused on their changing viewer demographics and slippage in viewership compared to CNN/MSNBC, one line hit: “[FoxNews viewers] want their ‘news’ to affirm them rather than inform them.” Yes. Exactly. This exactly embodies today’s Republican party, “conservative” mouthpieces, and those who propagate their beliefs. You can present them with irrefutable facts and they will reject them in lieu of some unproven, unsubstantiated conspiracy theory. How can this be? How can someone be so far removed from reality to reject something so absolutely verifiable? Because it doesn’t affirm them.
Well ahead of his time, Isaac Asimov (an American biochemist) in 1980 wrote:
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”
We are now seeing the fruits of this strain of intellectualism in the US. We now see one of the major American parties stooping to embrace a QAnonbeliever/school-shooting-denier while also attempting to oust one of their own leaders because she voted her conscience and in line with the facts. It shows that it isn’t truth nor justice nor the Constitution nor tradition nor decency that today’s Republican Party want ... nor is it America that it loves. It’s blind allegiance to the party and any dissent will be dealt with harshly. They claim to be big-tent yet the only people they’re making room for are conspiracy theorists, white nationalists, and right-wing extremists while attempting to oust someone who just couldn’t deny the facts.
Republican policy has been rejected by Democrats, turned off independents, and isolated centrists. I suppose when you’re in this position, the only thing left to do is start seeking to court the extremists to your right. According to a piece by NPR, states which require party declaration have seen a massive number of defections from the Republican party (significantly higher than in past elections) since the attempted capital insurrection on Jan 6. Colorado 4,600 defections, NC 6,000, 10,000 in PA, 5K in AZ and the numbers go on and on and up and up. People are finally waking to the reality that the GOP is no longer a political party but a cult.
There’s an old saying that you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make them drink. Despite the readily available information to ascertain fact from fiction, we can’t seem to get some people to put down the FoxNews personalities and seek out factual sources. They’d rather be affirmed by misinformation and mistruths than informed by facts.
Eric Green
La Grange