Compare with the Tea Party, who we weren’t allowed to criticize or characterize by their own scripted fucking talking points that didn’t make any damn sense, or their fucking lunatic spokespeople, or the nutters who took it the extra mile and did something ugly (like step on a lady’s head while “restraining” her a Rand Paul event). They were who they said they were—up to and including not being Republicans—in spite of all evidence to the contrary. They weren’t responsible for the shit they did in their own crowds, let alone their whole movement.
If politics is perception, then what does it mean when “perception” is astigmatic? Isn’t that part of the equation that we should dwell on?
When you encounter a bad faith system—whether it’s an abusive parent or a whole fucking movement in your country—you say “that is fucking bad faith ” and you make you own plans, define yourself without reflexive response to more bad faith critique, and do your best to speak for yourself.
The idea that you can meet expectations that are set up to make you fail, with a judge that won’t give you a win…Lucy will not let you kick the football, Charlie Brown. The hypothetical support and love you could win by kicking the football is a trap full of inedible bait.