Wow. This is pretty astonishing.
Three years ago today, white supremacists descended on Charlottesville with torches in hand and hate in their hearts. Our president said they were "very fine people."
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 12, 2020
It was clear then, and it's clear now: We are in a battle for the soul of our nation, and we must win.
Click for thread.
This was a manufactured piece of fake news way back three years ago and it has been widely, repeatedly, and thoroughly debunked. The speech is recorded. The transcripts are out there. It is perfectly clear that the President did not describe Nazis as very fine people. Indeed, he explicitly excludes Nazis from the very fine people comment. See Politifact for the transcript.
The Left tried to make an issue of this at the time and were beaten back by the facts. But they have never let go of the fantasy. Biden resurrected it sometime last year at some event or another.
FactCheck.org of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, no right-leaning organization, had a good recapitulation of the debunking in February of this year as Biden kept trying to resuscitate the lie. Biden's accusation was not true, have never been true, and have been debunked multiple times even by natural Biden allies.
So why the bald-faced lying? Sure, it panders to the true-believers but you already have their votes.
From a branding perspective, how do you gain confidence and trust from the middle and the right if you are happy to tell obvious lies. Blatant lies.
I suppose this could be part of the assumed cognitive decline, but that doesn't sound right. It seems like it has to be deliberate. Biden has too many minders holding his hands for it to be an accidental articulation.
Other than the blatant dishonesty, there would seem to be the risk of being tarnished by the one who has come to be credited with this strategy. A real Nazi, Goebbels.
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.
The truth is that Goebbel's never said this as documented in Wikipedia. But he said something close to it. More critically, why, as a politician, would you want to possibly be seen to be subscribing to a widely supposed Nazi strategy of mass deceit.
I really don't understand why Biden and his campaign keep resurrecting a lie which is so well documented.
Probably reflects that I am too naive.
UPDATE: I see Althouse is as puzzled by this turn as I am.
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