With each day bringing more bad news for the 2020 Trump reelection campaign, some of the president’s most ardent supporters are falling back on absurd conspiracy theories regarding why their political hero did so poorly at the recent debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden, and what they have to say is the same sort of crap you’d expect to hear from Alex Jones or see in deepest, darkest recesses of Reddit or 4chan.

Professional messaging coach Rich Thau recently held a focus group with some of the president’s voters, and the things they had to say will flat out curl your hair. Here’s a sampling:

  • “I came across a couple theories that [Biden] was wired up, and they showed some evidence [at] that debate. Also, somebody pointed out, possibly he was wearing contact lenses that were projecting things for him.”
  • “I call it a ‘scam-demic’…. I know this firsthand. I have people in nursing homes. People are not dying from COVID, they’re dying with COVID. The numbers, and this is already starting to come out, have been fudged.
  • “Another factor, and I don’t know how much truth there is to this, but it’s something that plays in my head, is this whole child predator ring that’s going around in Hollywood and how [Trump’s] got information on it and he may expose it. That’s kind of important. I have a small child…. Here’s just one example: Celebrities will commit suicide, and then it turns out they’re working on documentaries about child predator rings.”

Thau goes on to note that many of the people who spin these bizarre theories when he asks them about the upcoming election are far from the sort that goes around shouting from the rooftops that the entire planet is under the control of a nefarious overlord who seeks to harm Trump and Republicans who support him:

“Instead, the conspiracy theories are woven into what sounds like an otherwise normal argument. The gentleman who thought Biden was wired for the debate and wearing special contact lenses was merely making the point he does not trust Biden. Yet rather than rely on rational argument—or even his own subjective appraisal of Biden’s character—he leaned on fiction.

“That need to justify a subjective verdict of Biden by employing a fictional fact-set is interesting, and possibly new—at least in the mainstream of American politics.”

If people aren’t even willing to engage in sharing the same reality, that’s a very bad sign for the future of any democracy.

Featured Image Via NBC News