You don’t need to be a fan of Donald Trump to concede that this weekend’s meltdown over the word “bloodbath” was cynical and dishonest. And you don’t have to be Nostradamus to predict that we’re going to be inundated with a string of similar fabricated meltdowns this cycle.
It’s not just the obvious hackery or unseriousness from the media that’s the problem. No one trusts journalists anymore, anyway. Rather, like in 2020, it is also surely the case that we’re not going to see anything approaching a genuine presidential contest or debate. It’s going to be one insufferably stupid ginned-up controversy after the next. We’re living in an idiocracy.
And these events go down basically the same way every time: Trump throws some off-the-cuff populist red meat to a crowd. Sometimes his comments are worth criticizing. Sometimes they are misconstrued. Sometimes they are hyperbole. Most of the time, they’re predictable campaign fodder.
But some mendacious Ruparian social-media type will dishonestly clip a quote, and that quote will go viral. The media, rather than keeping the mob honest, run with it because reporters are largely incurious or propagandists or both, and they know well that Trump-is-a-Nazis content sells. If the Russia-collusion hoax taught us anything, it’s that there is no repercussion for being wrong about Republicans.
Then pundits sit on media panels incredulously “wow”-ing the quote and pondering when the MAGA Sturmabteilung will finally mass at the Mason Dixon.
“Trump says country faces ‘bloodbath’ if Biden wins in November,” reads
