Watching Steve Moore on @donlemon tonight was a reminder that Trump loyalists are not interested in debate and do not make good faith arguments. They just blast disinformation out as fast as possible. There's a reason for this (besides basic Trumpy-ness). /1
Conservatives have long felt that their views were shut out of the mainstream media. (Mostly, they were, until Fox arrived.) It's that feeling - and I remember it too, and still feel it at times - of being a minority in a cultural landscape controlled by liberals. /2
Most conservatives, however, wanted to debate and engage in the media because we thought we had the better argument. But Trumpers have gone past that. They see the media as an alien entity - an enemy of the people! - and so they use their appearances to broadcast, not debate. /3
That's why it's pointless to keep engaging them. They don't care what others have to say. They want to grab the mic and inject as much of their own propaganda into the national bloodstream as fast as they can. That 7 or 8 minute hit on TV is their shot at it. /4
They know that *others* believe in good-faith rules of debate, and they use that to talk over them and just shout talking points, hoping that it will smother any intelligent rejoinder. This is now how they debate in person, as well: all transmit, no receive. /5
I still think that most of them are yelling to shout down the voice they fear most - their own conscience - but that's another subject for another day. /6x
