1) A sunday morning thought experiment for you all to partake in. The topic: Russian spies, a hidden army of White Nationalists, and other such fairy tales.
2) There are two forces people attribute to changes in their lives: internal and external. An internal locus of control means people credit/blame themselves, external means they credit/blame an outside factor.
3) The MSM for decades has fostered an audience based who have an external locus of control. School shootings happen because society, gang violence happens because society, they suffer because society. The MSM provides the definitions for various aspects of society to blame.
4) It is no coincidence that the political left also fosters an external locus of control. This is how the media and the Democrats have been in such lockstep for so long; all they have to do is reach an accord on what the external cause is.
5) With the rise of Obama, the external locus kicked into high gear; everything good in someone's life could be attributed to the federal government, and everything bad could be attributed to obstructing Republicans.
6) With me so far? If so, imagine having your worldview being a box that played the same messages to you over and over. Democrat Federal government good. Obama is the ideal executive. Anyone in opposition is an obstructionist.
7) 1984 level shit right there. Fucking terrifying. Half of the country fell for it.
8) Now think about what happens when Republicans won in 2016 and there was a clear difference between what the box was saying and what reality was.
9) Now think about the internal vs external locus of control. What would a population who has an external locus of control and the MSM who feeds them those external causes for their life have to do when obstructionists won?
10) Why, they'd have to find an external cause. The Republicans alone won't suffice, because they're obstructionists, and obstructionists ALONE can't beat Obama! They couldnt beat Obama for 8 years!
11) So what does a MSM do? They have to put SOMETHING in the box for their audience! They need something to blame for why reality doesn't fit with what was in the box for 8 years.
12) Let's step out of the thought experiment for a moment. Russian trolls shitposted on social media, didnt effect the election, and spent the most money on ads and rallies AFTER Trump won to spur controversy and chaos.
13) The AP was SO FAST to jump on the bait that the school shooter was a white supremacist they did zero fact checking and didnt realize it was a 4chan joke.
14) Back into the thought experiment. An army of White Nationalists emerged from flyover states to support Trump in mass! Russian spies were directly colluding sith Trump's campaign! Trump is a Russian puppet! Republicans are still bad obstructionists to the progressive agenda!
15) When someone's perception of reality is opposed by reality itself, human nature dictates that they either find fault with themself, or an outside force.
16) If there is no easily attributable outside force, someone looking for one will find whatever pieces they can and build it up in their minds until they have created a sufficient threat to explain the discrepancy between their view and reality.
17) Long story short? Don't be surprised to see liberals double down again and again. Its just in their nature. /end
