How is the sausage?

Uncle Rico?

Funny clip of Sean Spicer at Newsmax whining:

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1582705084353622017

It's pretty simple. The Crossfire Hurricane investigation started with a proper predicate. It wasn't some deep state plot to bring down Trump, it was legit. It resulted in many convictions, and it showed us how closely Trump and his campaign were tied with Russia's effort to influence the election. Trump's campaign chairman was passing over internal campaign polling data to a Russian intelligence officer(according to the Senate Intel report approved by Republicans). That's the most egregious example, but there is plenty more.

That said, there was wrongdoing uncovered on the FBI side. Mostly optic issues, like the Strzok/Page texts, but the Carter Page FISA was a mess.

There's zero Trumpist commentators in the media who acknowledge the reality here, which is why they are all so surprised that Durham completely failed.

I gotta be honest, I was curious as to what he would find. I found it plausible that agents could've done something very wrong because they legitimately thought Trump and/or his associates were a threat to national security.

But Durham looked into it, and found essentially nothing. The only conviction came from an IG's investigation of a mid-level FBI agent fudging an email.

Will Trump cultists learn any lessons from this? The answer is no... they'll use it as further evidence of their silly beliefs about the FBI/DOJ/deep state/w/e.

Why is that? Read this great twitter thread by Julian Sanchez on "epistemic closure":
https://twitter.com/normative/status/1298738662532935681?lang=en

I've recently heard the term "thought terminating cliche". They are easiest to identify in religious circles. Things like "well God works in mysterious ways". They aren't meant to answer an argument or objection, but a way to signal that it's time to stop thinking for those with the indefensible position.

The right has developed way more of these than are normal. Terms like "deep state" are among them. They aren't meant to actually answer the question of who is right or wrong or who is actually doing something. It's just "the deep state did this" and that's where the thought stops.

Comes in line with the "epistemic closure" thing. They've developed a not-so-complex web of signals that signal to those following the argument that it's time to stop thinking.

This post was edited by NetflixAdaptationWidow on Oct 19 2022 06:05pm

Nope, deep state is just code for Jews.

Jews are another thought terminating cliche.

As a believing Catholic, that's very interesting. Christians might terminate their thought as "a mystery of God", while Trumpists terminate theirs by blaming one of Trump's perceived enemies.

I can see the similarities. If an argument aligns with one of the perceived "out groups", it's to be dismissed immediately with no critical thought.

This post was edited by IceMage on Oct 19 2022 06:28pm

Religious circles are chalk full of epistemic closure

If by thought terminating cliche you mean where the rabbit hole ends.
Then yes.

I think that's true. Christianity is still right. Read my edit though.

This post was edited by IceMage on Oct 19 2022 06:30pm