The MAGA phenomenon has been remarkably successful at brainwashing and “grooming” its adherents for political purposes, primarily using a “witches brew” of the following 4 rhetorical devices:
1. Confirmation Bias -- Cherry-picking evidence that supports your idea while ignoring contradicting evidence.
2. False Dilemma -- Presenting two opposing options as the only two options while hiding alternatives.
3. Lying -- An outright untruth repeated knowingly as a fact.
4. Unfalsifiability -- Offering a claim that cannot be proven false, because there is no way to check if it is false or not.
I think it’s vital for liberal democratic politicians and/or thought leaders to immediately analyze and/or “look under the hood” whenever any MAGA-affiliated politician or thought leader makes ANY claim or statement, and determine what percentage of each of these 4 devices is being used to make their specious and/or disingenuous (at best) argument.
And THEN deliver that analysis as quickly as possible in order to rob any MAGA-inspired claim/statement/argument of any socio-political and/or intellectual legitimacy in real-time.
The tree of the American Experiment is currently being choked to death by the poisonous vine of incessant, bad-faith and sociopathic (yet extremely powerful and effective) MAGA rhetoric, and the only way to kill off that vine is to meet it head-on with rhetoric that is equally powerful and effective, but based in intellectual honesty and mental health rather than bad-faith gaslighting raised to the nth degree.