Thread by @SamRochadotcom

...are also incapable of seeing live footage and widespread reporting, including photos and videos *from the insurrectionists themselves,* and admit that MAGA #StoptheSteal Trump supporters are responsible for yesterday's madness and treason...

...which is itself caused by another ignorant conspiracy theory: the inability to accept the widespread and well-documented and throughout audited 2020 federal election results.

This is a form of public insanity, it is a failure of civic and public reason, and if evidence and reality won't convict you, then the proper and just use of the law may well be the conviction that eventually wakes some people up to reality.

I take no pleasure in seeing this rampant rot in people's minds; it pains me greatly.

I left out a number of other things these same people refuse to believe or accept or even entertain as a possible or even plausible reality (like systemic racism or climate change, for instance).

There is, of course, the danger of sliding into overconfidence when one's most basic positions seem secure. The biggest danger here is mistaking the certainty of basic external facts with total moral certainty.

I think it is a mistake to think that having the simplest grasp on reality entails that knows how best to live or how one ought to understand that reality in full context.

For example, I see these fooled and foolish folks as victims who have been played by interests that are not their own and whose lack of defences to absurdity and nuttery, which leads them to be abusive and violent, is an abuse and violence all its own.

Those people in the Capitol behaved like children, not adults; it is hard for me to even see them as insurrectionists since they were more like drunken vandals having a wild time.

This doesn't excuse them, but it makes me morally cautious and also measures out my criticism as a form of medicine for the sick.

Sure, this is all very patronizing, I realize this; but these lost souls need a real patron right now, one who will disabuse them of their errors and evils while not assuming that treatment will give them the moral high ground.

So, if you fall into the category of a fool, please seek help. And if you have some command of the facts, do not assume that you are not a different kind of fool. In fact, do not assume that I am not somewhat foolish to type this out.

The greatest weapon against ignorance is the ability to accept some degree of it without losing the small gains one makes in the fight against it.

Doubt drives out doubt so long as it doesn't fall into cynicism and despair.

In fact, the right dose of doubt which blossoms into intellectual humility can, with care and attention, produce a beautiful and powerful belief that doesn't need to run from everything that seems to challenge it.

finis