Thread by @RachelBitecofer

1. I've always been stopped from looking at Truman bc of the bombs. Its always been highly disputed that the bombs were needed to force the Japanese to surrender & what is indisputable is that the U.S. worked very, very hard to shield the American public from the truth of what it

2. had just done, bc as it came to realize what it had done, it was horrifying. Far worse than they had even suspected/expected it to be. Press couldn't access the area, so they had to rely on gov't statements until months after. Then, when the reality of what happened began to

3. to take shape, the effort to paint the operations as necessary, not optional, began in earnest. This frame is prevelant in American textbooks. Keep in mind, people clutch those frames tightly as it allows them to sleep at night. Similar to how Rs and R members of Congress are

4. allowing themselves to be persuaded there was fraud in the election despite no evidence & the shoddiest effort ever put forth (Guiliani's presser, for example!) bc they NEED to believe in the fraud allegations to support Trump's extra-legal moves with the Electoral College.

5. That belief allows them to justify something that is not justifiable UNLESS, of course, the Republic is already collapsing bc Democrats have perpetuated a massive fraud & stolen the election from its rightful winner- Donald Trump. So, you allow yourself to be persuaded by

6. weak evidence so that you can use it to rationalize immoral or even illegal behavior- which some argue was done not only to get to the decision of using the bomb to end WWII, but also, by the mass public to leave that action fairly well supported.

I'll say, on this topic,

7. the historical record is difficult to suss out of this question, particularly because the people who spend time pondering it, usually come into the investigation with a preferred position they're seeking to justify. I'm not sure if @JoeNBC's book touches on this topic much.

8. Again, really looking forward to reading this.