Thread by @RexHuppke

1/ Here's a thing we'll have to reckon with in the weeks and months to come, as Trump fades from the spotlight that comes with holding the highest office in the land: The noise.

The noise is what you heard today at Giuliani's Gettysburg Disgrace and what you're hearing...

2/ ...tonight from the Flynn Truthers and pardon-enthusiasts who exist, wholly and completely, in a world of paranoid fiction.

Trump has been a primary focus, not because he is in any way exceptional or worthy of attention but because he is the president, and he has been...

3/ ...a destroyer of norms. As much as people have cried "Just ignore him!" the truth is you can't just ignore the president of the United States.

But now that he lost, it already feels different. He's still president, but he's a lame duck and, as such, his wailings seem more...

4/ ...a sideshow, the incompetent flailing of his "legal team" a sad display of desperation to coddle the feelings of a pathetic narcissist.

It's easier to ignore, but it's still noise, and once Trump slips from lame duck to regular schmuck, he will devote himself to keeping...

5/ ...that noise roaring. His cultish devotees will sink deeper into the "stolen election" narrative and before long Hugo Chavez having a hand in vote tampering will seem a quaint conspiracy by comparison.

So the question is: What do we do about the noise?

6/ We can ignore it, up to a point. But an assembly of people this unhinged is something you need to check in on from time to time. Trump will feed their basest instincts, and we know he's perfectly comfortable fomenting violence.

So we'll be forced to confront the noise.

7/ And for those who have a friend or loved one making that noise, there will be a continuing desire to bring them back to the real world. I get that. But I also think that desire has to stop, and it stops only when we collectively acknowledge that these noisemakers are lost.

8/ They are lost to us and lost to a world where facts exist. And they are not coming back. The psychological weight of acknowledging how badly they've been conned is too much, and continuing to believe is too easy.

So they'll remain there, making noise.

9/ And we'll have to monitor the noise they're making and manage the destructiveness Trump and his various offspring will keep stirring up.

But holding out any hope of a return to sanity from this crowd is a fool's errand. Cleave them from your lives. Honestly, while I doubt...

10/ ...there's hope, isolating them may be the only thing that could drive them back.

Otherwise, just let them make noise and lurch around on Parler spouting madness.

The rest of us have work to do, and a country to repair. And Trump fading into the dark, dank closet...

11/ ...of conspiracy theories and self pity should give us the room we need to get things done.

Onward. END