Thread by @mcjulie

Interesting thread here.
I have a few theories about what happened/what's going on, starting with a pop-culture disconnect between "what Trump DID" (crimes, collusion, etc.) and "what Trump will be PUNISHED for" (not a goddamn thing)

https://twitter.com/adamdavidson/status/1391090474081992708

Trump absorbed two lessons early in his career:

1. People have a tendency to assume that if a person *isn't* punished significantly, whatever they did couldn't have been that bad.

2. The US does not significantly punish rich white men -- for ANYTHING.

“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters" -- 100% true

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I would never go to jail" -- also 100% true

Now, add to that, perversely bad reporting on the topic from major news outlets, notably, the New York Times, which has been infamously on the wrong side of everything from "how dangerous is Hitler?" to "WMDs, does Iraq have them & does it justify an invasion?"

Honestly, with their track record, you'd think people would know by now that the front page of the NYT is a REVERSE indicator for what's really going on "oh, the NYT thinks her e-mails is the worst scandal ever? Must be a nothingburger then."

Why is the New York Times so bad? That's the thing I'm still not entirely sure of. I suspect it's got something to do with their pro-millionaire bias, but who knows really?

Now, add to that, the grifters, weirdos, professional liars, and the same shady troll farm psy-ops that were the topic under discussion, who were out there trying to shape the "Russia controversy" into a false binary.

EITHER Trump's Russia collusion was 100% actionable treason and he was DEFINITELY going to jail ANY MINUTE NOW --

OR it was all completely fake, invented to... hurt Bernie's chances somehow? Cover up Hillary's involvement in underage pizza-related crimes? Be a big meanie to Trump for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON? Deny Maga racism? Distract from. Trumps REAL crimes, which were [x]?

The supposed reasons for the "Russiagate Hoax" were incredibly varied & appeared to come from both left and right perspectives, a pattern that reminded me of nothing so much as all the many justifications for why we should invade Iraq.

FYI, the best perspective on the Maga-Russia connection comes from @C_Stroop who really does know what she's talking about on this topic.

https://twitter.com/C_Stroop/status/1305123139299340293

Until the Trump-Russia connection made the news, I didn't realize there was such a strong connection between post-Soviet Russia & US white nationalists & conservative evangelicals, but there's a whole thing there, a history, it's not just Trump.