A Very Special Kind of Cognitive Dissonance
A pattern of conflicted political beliefs that, like the Guinness record holder who ate 89 hot dogs in six minutes, is disgusting, to be sure, but also awe-inspiring-- How, exactly, do they do that?
After twenty years in the trenches of social media political wrangling, I thought I’d seen it all, but this latest ability to state so profoundly conflicting ideas at the same time with a straight face and no hint of inner doubt truly amazes me. It’s as if nuclear fusion physicists suddenly invented a new superconducting magnetic bottle capable of holding all of the most oppositely charged idea-particles in the universe together in a critical mass and sustain it indefinitely. How, one wonders, do the heads of people espousing such conflicting beliefs not explode?
If there is a God fascinated by the unexpected twists and turns of this universe-experiment we live in, how could it not give Him pause? How could he not notice and think, “Wow, I never expected such a level of voluntary self mind-fuckery was even possible within my quantum framework of existence. Is it a bug or a feature? Does it threaten my omnipotence?”
I should warn you, dear reader, that reading the rest of this article is not without risk. We don’t yet know what causes this new orders-of-magnitude more hypocritical belief system so any contemplation of these conflicting beliefs could have personal catastrophic consequences. If you start hoisting full size flagpoles on your pick-up truck, call 911.
Seriously, this could be a “Killer Joke”1-scale threat. Continuing to read implies your consent and waiver.
So, let’s get down to it. Imagine that you firmly believe all of the following statements:
I, (state your name) am a Christian and a patriot, sworn to defend the U.S. constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.
The J6 protesters were peaceful and I support Trump’s pardoning of J6 protesters who were convicted of various crimes related to the J6 protests.
The operations of ICE in Minnesota in January of 2026 are in accordance with the rule of law and any harms they caused ICE protesters were in self-defense. The protesters themselves are to blame for their deaths.
Every American has the right to bear arms and to carry a concealed weapon in public if they are trained and have the appropriate permit.
No one is above the law in the United States.
How do you continue to hold all of the above beliefs, supporting ICE, the constitution, Trump, 2A rights and freedom in general when facts emerge that:
ICE officers are arresting U.S. citizens
ICE officers are arresting immigrants who are following all of the legal requirements of their naturalization process.
ICE officers are violating the 4th amendment, conducting warrantless searches and unreasonable search and seizure of personal dwellings, papers and effects.
ICE officers are arresting, pepper-spraying and injuring protesters whose only “crime” is exercising their rights to freedom of speech and assembly
Alex Pretti had a concealed weapons permit and had his weapon already taken by ICE officers before they shot him to death.
J6 protesters were more violent and threatening (especially against members of Congress after they’d broken into the U.S. Capitol building) than Minnesota ICE protesters.
ICE officer Jonathan Ross may not even be charged in the murder of Renee Good so a court may never hear the case and deliberate on whether his use of force was self-defense or not.
Maybe I’m giving these people too much of the benefit of the doubt. Maybe my assumption that they honestly believe the things they say they believe is foolishly naive. Maybe they really are just playing a game in which they say whatever is convenient for the agenda they’re pushing in the moment. Maybe they know they’re lying and don’t care as long as they get the results they want. That’s probably true for some, certainly for many of those in positions of leadership, who are or should be intelligent enough to know their professed beliefs and values are contradictory and hypocritical. That I can understand, even though I strongly disapprove.
But, I think there are also people who don’t recognize the contradictions. They simply can’t see the contradictions. I struggle to understand that. It’s as if they are pedestrians getting ready to cross Fascism Boulevard and they’re so absolutely certain it’s a one-way street— that fascism always comes from the left and not the right— that they only look one way before crossing, to their left, and, seeing no scooters of doom approaching from the left, they confidently strut across the Boulevard only to be splattered by a speeding Ford 350 of doom coming from the right flying five Trump flags.
Even Alex Jones who spent decades warning us about unconstitutional overreach by the government doesn’t get how his current ICE-supporting is completely at odds with his past exhortations to support and defend the constitution at all costs.
Even many of the so-called Oathkeepers are in this same boat.
We have so few survivors of Germany’s Third Reich and World War II left among us now. That’s a tragedy because we need their voices now. We need to hear them say how familiar what we’re experiencing today is to them based on their lived experience. We need to hear them say, “We who lived through it know how this story ends. History doesn’t always repeat, but it definitely rhymes”. Because Fascism doesn’t always wear a square moustache and appear in grainy black-and-white photos. It morphs. It comes back in ways we don’t expect. It pretends to be different this time.
I wish I knew how to get people holding onto these contradictions to see that it just isn’t possible to support the constitution, J6 rioters and ICE tactics all at the same time. It seems that they can inflate their fears of fascism from the “other side” to whatever tonnage is needed to outweigh the fascist measures they want to use to fight it. Big fears are used to justify big abuse. Maybe it’s the old FDR observation, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” writ large.
But I have no answer for that. The lymbic brain in fear-based fight-or-flight mode cannot process logical contradictions or change behavior to comply with brilliant insights from the neo-cortex.
We should, as a society, calm down, take it slower, get ICE out of Minnesota until the recent murders are processed through the judicial system and then figure out how to manage immigration and deportation without resorting to such violent tactics.
But, it appears ICE and its managers will escalate and keep pushing until they have a civil war on their hands. That seems to be where things are headed. And, it could be an intentional plan to create chaos in blue states and change the outcome of the 2026 elections (or maybe even suspend elections).
Nonetheless, we have an opportunity to stop ICE, as Ro Khanna points out. We just have to keep the pressure up on our Senators by calling (202) 224-3121. Tell then to do what Ro Khanna is suggesting:
Below are several of the related posts on X that fed my still-developing views on this issue. I could keep going and expanding this article for a good while, but I’ll stop here for today. Thank you for reading and I welcome your thoughts in the comments.
If I were in a different category of conspiracy theories, I’d be circulating old and new pictures of AJ and asking when the deep state replaced him with a body double (lol). What did they do with Constitutional-Rights-Above-All-Else AJ? Note: The comments on RealAlexJones’s post are worth a look.
Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene asks MAGAs to imagine if ICE was using all of these same tactics to crack down on their beloved J6ers. Old school equivalencing. Gotta love it. Maybe they can hear it from her if they’ll listen to no one else.
If you just look at a slo-mo’d, clipped video, maybe you can tell yourself Alex could have been mistaken as reaching for something in his already empty holster. But, why did they let him get back up after he’d been pinned on the ground?
Video from the “woman in pink” (seen in videos taken from across the street) is a more complete view of how the situation unfolded.
Thomas Paine sees the double standard. If Kyle Rittenhouse showed up at an ICE protest, exercising his 2A right to open carry in support of people resisting unwarranted door-to-door search and seizures, what would ICE do to him and how would MAGA opinion about KR shift?
Victim-blaming is par for the course with ICE supporters like MattWalshBlog.
Senator Amy at her best. Can we not all just be Americans in support of constitutional rights together?
A step-by-step recounting of the events in multiple videos by SilenceDamned.
Monty Python’s “The Funniest Joke in the World” bit (see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Funniest_Joke_in_the_World )
You know me. I believe nothing.
Having said that, I can say that I agree with the first five points. But without sources, I don't agree that the following list of seven items are 'facts.' I am of the opinion that those are elements of propaganda.
As a result, I do not see my position as conflicted in any way.
Robert Anton Wilson said "Belief is the death of intelligence."
As soon as you decide to believe something, you've stopped thinking about it. That's why you are having a conflict. You are believing things that you should still be thinking about. If you did, you just might find that they are not actually facts.
Thank you for providing the phone number to call and contact representatives. I googled it. I like the idea of a central location channeling calls and messages. Action steps are very helpful. Thanks for your years of hard work.