1/10. The claim that Trump won the election is a big lie.
2/10. A big lie changes reality. To believe it, people must disbelieve their senses, distrust their fellow citizens, and live in a world of faith.
3/10. A big lie demands conspiracy thinking, since all who doubt it are seen as traitors.
4/10. A big lie undoes a society, since it divides citizens into believers and unbelievers.
5/10. A big lie destroys democracy, since people who are convinced that nothing is true but the utterances of their leader ignore voting and its results.
6/10. A big lie must bring violence, as it has.
7/10. A big lie can never be told just by one person. Trump is the originator of this big lie, but it could never have flourished without his allies on Capitol Hill.
8/10. Political futures now depend on this big lie. Senators Hawley and Cruz are running for president on the basis of this big lie.
9/10. There is a cure for the big lie. Our elected representatives should tell the truth, without dissimulation, about the results of the 2020 election.
10/10. Politicians who do not tell the simple truth perpetuate the big lie, further an alternative reality, support conspiracy theories, weaken democracy, and foment violence far worse than that of January 6, 2021.
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3/6. Russian propagandists say they expect Johnson's visit to Trump this weekend to kill Ukraine aid once again. We shall see. There's a new nervous vibe here.
1/5. Predictably Putin has blamed Ukraine (see my thread from yesterday) for the terror attack in Moscow (for which ISIS claimed responsibility).
2/5. Putin's argument that the suspects were heading to Russian-Ukrainian border makes no sense – Russia has 20,000 km of borders, why would they head to the one place where Russian army and security forces are most concentrated?
3/5. Putin's claim is that suspects were stopped in Bryansk. Assuming this is true: from Moscow that's rather the route to Belarus.
1/7. US warns that Russia will invade Ukraine. General disbelief, daily Russian mockery. (December 3, 2021-February 24, 2022)
2/7. Russia invades Ukraine, kills tens of thousands of people, kidnaps tens of thousands of children, commits other ongoing war crimes (February 24, 2022-present)
3/7. Russia blames US for Russia's invasion of Ukraine (March 2022-present)