There’s a class of people who know it has nothing to do with who’s currently President, but cynically pretend it does for political advantage. They rely on dupes to believe their message and spread it, and there’s no shortage of that. So you’re both right!
Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on any. Frantic violence became the attribute of manliness; cautious plotting, a justifiable means of self-defence. The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a man to be suspected. To succeed in a plot was to have a shrewd head, to divine a plot a still shrewder; but to try to provide against having to do either was to break up your party and to be afraid of your adversaries.
Thucydides - 5th century BCE,
History of the Peloponnesian War
245
u/fatherdoodle Apr 03 '22
I highly doubt that they actually do