re: #130 Targetpractice

“I believe Tara” has become like a mantra, rather than a statement of belief. Much like a fable of old, it doesn’t matter how ridiculous or fantastic it may sound, they cling to it and attack anyone who calls it into question. And generally for the same reason: There is something about the fable, some meaning to it or some use of it, that they cannot bring themselves to abandon.

It’s a stick to beat their enemies with, so they do that.

Also, tribal authoritarians can’t understand people who don’t think in tribal authoritarian terms. A long time ago, I was talking to my wingnut cousin about Michael Jackson: she couldn’t believe I thought he was a pedophile, because don’t liberals like black people? So why wouldn’t I support him? Same here: the libs support women, so they have to support all women no matter what they do, so they have to believe Tara Reade and therefore that Biden is an abuser, so checkmate suck it libs! Biden is out and Bernie is in! Then they think we’re all huge hypocrites for actually investigating what happened.

At this point, I think Berners choose to believe Tara because to turn on her would mean abandoning what they see as the last hope for Bernie. If they acknowledge that Tara is a liar, then their ammo is spent, and they have no hope of convincing enough people to abandon Biden to make his nomination anything but inevitable.

Hell no, we’ve got Bernie stans who are convinced that Biden is going to keel over any minute now, so Bernie’s back in it baby!