Dear America,
While I was reading the opinion section in the New York Times yesterday, an unidentifiable frustration came over me. As on every other Sunday, Times regulars commented on MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump, but it always seemed that they can't get to the point of refuting their argument that Trump won the 2020 presidential election. I have had that experience with Trumpers that I know. No matter what one says, their response is that the fraud Trump claimed to have defeated him must be there if for no other reason than that he won, he got the most votes, but those winning votes were just obscured by this alleged fraud. That's the end of their argument: it's so because it must be so. And week after week I look and listen for someone to confront one of them with the flawed nature of their argument, but no one ever does, so I am bringing that flaw into plain view. It is called teleology.
Teleaology is arguing from the conclusion backward. There actually is a word for what they are doing: teleology. The way it works is that you posit the putative fact that Trump won as indisputable, and then you look for the proof of that proposition. But when you find no proof, that isn't a refutation because you started from the proposition that what you believe is categorically true. Put another way, Trumpers think themselves vindicated by the fact that no one has proven that there was not some massive fraud that neither they nor anyone else can find. The only thing that has been proved is that the fraud claims made by Trump, Giuliani and the other Trump minions were false, which by MAGAlogical extension just means that neither they nor anyone else looked in the right places. The Trump fraud myth is an axiom for them, a given, and thus it needs no proof, but it is my contention that every time one meets someone who believes the Trump lie, one should explain to them what teleology is. It is nigh unto impossible to prove a negative, for example, that there are no real flying elephants. You can adduce the fact that neither you nor anyone else has ever seen one, but the fact that one has never been seen doesn't convince the true believer, who will argue that there may be one hiding somewhere; the fact that you haven't seen it doesn't prove that it isn't there. Or the true believer might say with levity intended to reduce the impact of genuine logic on his magical thinking, what about Dumbo, to which you might rightly respond in cognate levity that you are talking about real elephants, but that would be to no avail too. The true believer believes none-the-less, thinking that a paradigmatic Dumbo is out there, and it's real, and knowing that it's out there is tantamount to proof that it is. Knowing that there was fraud in 2020...being certain of it...is proof enough for a MAGA type.
Of course, the true-believer's reaction often is anger and petulance, but the fact of the teleology of their beliefs has been explained to them and it cannot be undone. Initially it will seem a futile effort if you make the endeavor to so explain, but I can almost guarantee that they will be unable to erase from their thoughts that the belief they are cleaving to has no basis in logic or fact. That doubt will be there lurking in the back of their MAGA little minds, and in some cases...maybe very few, but some...you will have made some progress in debunking the myth for them, and once that happens, the Trumper may well be disabused in general of the merit of Trump's fusillade of bogus claims.
The key to diverting a MAGA Republican from the delusion that despite his gesticulating and raving, he is dispossessed of any verity with which he may ever have been endowed, say in early childhood. All that is left of Trump's soul today is the snake oil that he sells, and that is what it is: snake oil.
Your friend,
Mike
While I was reading the opinion section in the New York Times yesterday, an unidentifiable frustration came over me. As on every other Sunday, Times regulars commented on MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump, but it always seemed that they can't get to the point of refuting their argument that Trump won the 2020 presidential election. I have had that experience with Trumpers that I know. No matter what one says, their response is that the fraud Trump claimed to have defeated him must be there if for no other reason than that he won, he got the most votes, but those winning votes were just obscured by this alleged fraud. That's the end of their argument: it's so because it must be so. And week after week I look and listen for someone to confront one of them with the flawed nature of their argument, but no one ever does, so I am bringing that flaw into plain view. It is called teleology.
Teleaology is arguing from the conclusion backward. There actually is a word for what they are doing: teleology. The way it works is that you posit the putative fact that Trump won as indisputable, and then you look for the proof of that proposition. But when you find no proof, that isn't a refutation because you started from the proposition that what you believe is categorically true. Put another way, Trumpers think themselves vindicated by the fact that no one has proven that there was not some massive fraud that neither they nor anyone else can find. The only thing that has been proved is that the fraud claims made by Trump, Giuliani and the other Trump minions were false, which by MAGAlogical extension just means that neither they nor anyone else looked in the right places. The Trump fraud myth is an axiom for them, a given, and thus it needs no proof, but it is my contention that every time one meets someone who believes the Trump lie, one should explain to them what teleology is. It is nigh unto impossible to prove a negative, for example, that there are no real flying elephants. You can adduce the fact that neither you nor anyone else has ever seen one, but the fact that one has never been seen doesn't convince the true believer, who will argue that there may be one hiding somewhere; the fact that you haven't seen it doesn't prove that it isn't there. Or the true believer might say with levity intended to reduce the impact of genuine logic on his magical thinking, what about Dumbo, to which you might rightly respond in cognate levity that you are talking about real elephants, but that would be to no avail too. The true believer believes none-the-less, thinking that a paradigmatic Dumbo is out there, and it's real, and knowing that it's out there is tantamount to proof that it is. Knowing that there was fraud in 2020...being certain of it...is proof enough for a MAGA type.
Of course, the true-believer's reaction often is anger and petulance, but the fact of the teleology of their beliefs has been explained to them and it cannot be undone. Initially it will seem a futile effort if you make the endeavor to so explain, but I can almost guarantee that they will be unable to erase from their thoughts that the belief they are cleaving to has no basis in logic or fact. That doubt will be there lurking in the back of their MAGA little minds, and in some cases...maybe very few, but some...you will have made some progress in debunking the myth for them, and once that happens, the Trumper may well be disabused in general of the merit of Trump's fusillade of bogus claims.
The key to diverting a MAGA Republican from the delusion that despite his gesticulating and raving, he is dispossessed of any verity with which he may ever have been endowed, say in early childhood. All that is left of Trump's soul today is the snake oil that he sells, and that is what it is: snake oil.
Your friend,
Mike
Leave a comment