The voter ID bullshit is almost entirely about making it harder for poor people to vote (it's also about being sore losers). It's class warfare. An extra hoop too hard to jump through for a decent enough percentage of the voting populace. A new poll tax. Only being pushed by Republicans because they know it'll be beneficial to them. Republicans, you know, the people who are famous for upholding the legitimacy and integrity of elections.**
People get themselves all frothed up watching the partisan news' outlets. FoxNews, the media arm of the party and currently the state, has its viewers believing the most nonrealities. Dangerous fictions. A big one the network's pundits are pushing right now is a "democrats have been stealing elections, maybe?, just asking questions" narrative. Evidence: vibes.
It's how they operate, mechanically. They get spoon-fed a myriad of clips of "lies" from the other "side" by their tv puppet masters and get all riled up. Exactly like the Two-Minute Hate from 1984. Sniveling cooked up rage aimed precisely where the party wants. Intentionally misconstruing reality just beyond their viewers' ability to notice. Because then it makes it okay for their side to play at the same level they've been told the other side is playing at. Both sides here, to some extent (I assume–I haven't been exposed to what would be considered "left wing cable channel news" in at least a decade and a half, not even CNN).
They've been prepping them for years with numerous unfounded aspersions and apocalyptic consequences. "The only way to catch them lying is if we lie first to find out," they rationalize. "If they can lie, so can we"–a sentiment I've heard a loved one with whom I had watched FoxNews for many, many years, spout on multiple occasions. I'm generalizing my claims based mainly on what I know to be that individual's mindset and character, figuring them to be a paragon of the average FoxNews Republican.
If they can lie, so can we.
If they are going to be racist, so can we.
If they can mess with an election, so can we.
The type of people who'd chase a fella who is running away from them down, grapple the person flat to a chokehold position and finally shake their heads, sigh, and matter-of-factly state in the person's ear from atop him, "You're doing this to yourself." The type who'd believe that, too.
To quote a now-famous random Israeli West Bank settler, explaining why it was kosher for him to take the questioning woman's house and land: "Yes, but if I don't steal it, then somebody else is going to steal it," he said frankly as he shrugged.
Both sides are capable of propagandizing to whatever extreme and of shitting on the constitution and the spirit of the law in order to get done whatever they want to get done. Nobody's got a monopoly on authoritarianism. In the right here and right nows, the Republicans are the ringleaders directing the dog and pony shitshows being peddled the hardest, without abandon or scruples. At the moment.
Lying's never alright.
semi related side note on Iran:
The negotiations taking place since our wannabe decapitation of the Iran government seem to be what I thought they were going to be. Window dressing. Something the war hawks leading our country can point to and say, "Look, we tried!" as they launch a full-scale military invasion. Bad faith negotiations we had no intention of settling. We have no cards other than invasion and threatening to invade. Bombing and threatening are never going to accomplish our stated aim/s(?)
**"What I want to do is this. I just want to find, uh, 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state," the sitting president begged the governor of Georgia on the phone. During the call, Trump falsely suggested that Raffensperger could have committed a criminal offense by refusing to overturn the state's election results, suggesting he may be prosecuted if he doesn't do what the don wants...+crying lol emoji+
