A Republican Election Clerk vs. Trump Die-Hards in a World of Lies

You know who I don't feel bad for? The clerk flying a Trump 2024 flag after he tried to go against the will of the people, claimed a fraudulent election, and incited his supporters toward insurrection. And then for the next several years heard lie after lie about the thing that she had expertise in.

This is beyond leopards eating faces. This is still voting for the leopards eating face party after they've already been taking bites of your face.

Read the article. Fuck the bot. JFC.

She believed it only because she had experienced many similar revelations during the last few years, ever since she heeded Trump’s warnings about the “corrupt, lying mainstream media” and decided to disconnect her television. Her friends introduced her to far-right media platforms online like Mike Lindell’s Frank Speech and The Elijah List, where each day she listened to a rotation of self-proclaimed patriots, biblical prophets and also sometimes political figures like Lara Trump. They offered Zakas not only conspiratorial ideas but also the promise of a community that extended far beyond the loneliness of her house, with a grandfather clock ticking away in the living room and views out the window of an emptiness that stretched clear into California. Each day, something urgent was happening in the far corners of the internet — something big and dark and secret, and that knowledge fueled her days with both purpose and agency.

A major part of the problem is that a large portion of the population will always choose the lies that resonate with them over the truths that bother them. And while I would love to see legal consequences for fraud and defamation when possible, that can only reduce the damage being done, and force the bigger names in misinformation to stay in a gray area of half truth and innuendo while still misleading people for economic and political gain. They can still lead people to the wrong conclusion, they just need to phrase it as a question rather than a statement (Note: This is a massive oversimplification).

I don't see a good solution to the problem. Any tool strong enough to stop media that isn't just overtly committing fraud and slander is a tool that will also likely be used to silence dissent and legitimate free speech.

She came to believe, along with millions of others, that Covid was a creation of the federal government used to manipulate the public and steal elections; that two doses of the vaccine would make men infertile; that Trump had been anointed to lead a “government cleansing”; that fighting had already begun in underground military tunnels; that Trump’s election in 2024 was preordained by God; that he would return to power with loads of gold collected from other countries that had capitulated to his power; that, during his next term, Americans would have free electricity, zero income tax and “medbeds” powered by a secret technology that could harness natural energy to heal diseases and extend human life; and that the only thing standing in the way of this future was a deep state so malicious and vast that its roots extended all the way into tiny Esmeralda County.

But maybe psychiatric help would be a good place to start.

So what's the over/under on whether she votes Trump anyway?

Thanks for the article. It was a good read. I wish there was some way to combat misinformation, but it is flat Earth all over again. Ideas are welcome.

You shouldn't be able to file a recall petition without some kind of evidence.

If you come in with "well, I believe it..." the correct response should be "Well, I believe you're an idiot... go home."

Anyone else getting serious "religious nutjob from The Mist" vibes from the zakas lady? Like wow yup, nobody should be listening to you yet here we are.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

According to polls, a third of U.S. congressional representatives and more than 60 percent of all registered Republican voters continue to believe President Biden was falsely elected, and even Elgan had wondered about the potential for fraud in other swing states like Georgia or Ohio.

Zakas started sending emails to Esmeralda County commissioners about what she considered “potential vulnerabilities” for fraud heading into the 2024 election: fragile machines, faulty electronic counters, signatures that could be forged and poll workers who might be compromised.

Her friends introduced her to far-right media platforms online like Mike Lindell’s Frank Speech and The Elijah List, where each day she listened to a rotation of self-proclaimed patriots, biblical prophets and also sometimes political figures like Lara Trump.

They offered Zakas not only conspiratorial ideas but also the promise of a community that extended far beyond the loneliness of her house, with a grandfather clock ticking away in the living room and views out the window of an emptiness that stretched clear into California.

When their allegations weren’t forcing her out of bed with nausea late at night, or inducing another panic attack, or prompting her husband to search for real estate in California, Elgan sometimes found herself laughing at the sheer absurdity of the county’s transformation.

She had been working in an administrative job for the county during the 2020 election, and she listened to her family members spread conspiracy theories about Dominion machines and read a friend’s false Facebook posts about the thousands of dead people voting in Nevada.

The original article contains 3,931 words, the summary contains 255 words. Saved 94%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!