Politics

What you're talking about is perfectly in keeping with the expected actions of power-hungry jackasses, and likely isn't news to much of anyone, and certainly not to me.

And it's not what I'm talking about. The "they" you're talking about here are the policy-makers and officials and their spokespeople. That's not who I'm talking about. And the set of lies you're talking about - advocating some set of legal restrictions, then changing the promised reach of those restrictions - is not the dynamic I'm talking about.

What I'm talking about are the rank and file supporters who think of themselves as pro-freedom, and who apparently sincerely believe that they're being oppressed by the government when the government is not actually involved (such as Walmart requiring masks during Covid or Starbucks implementing DEI policies), then apparently sincerely believe that they've been freed from government overreach when the government steps in and interferes (such as banning masks or banning DEI).

I don't understand what's going through their heads. Obviously they're some combination of stupid, ignorant and partisanly blinded, but even that doesn't seem sufficient to explain away such a glaring set of misconceptions. They quite seriously and apparently sincerely claim they're being oppressed by the government when the government isn't even involved, then that they've been freed from government oppression when the government steps in and interferes.

It's seriously as if they live in a fantasy world in which up is down, not just figuratively but literally. This isn't just self-serving lies and manipulation - it's more like mass schizophrenia.

And it baffles me.