These are interesting times, as the Chinese curse says. Who would have thought three months ago that COVID-19 would be surging to levels not seen since the peak days of the pandemic, mainly due to ignorant, unvaccinated people who were duped by Fox News and others into believing that vaccines were a government plot to control them? Who would have thought that Mike Lindell, the MyPillow crackpot would have pulled all of his ads from Fox News because they weren’t sufficiently bought into Donald Trump’s “Big Lie”?
And who would have thought last November that, after Trump was soundly defeated by Joe Biden, he would be still kicking around trying convince a bunch of pitiful losers that the election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him?
The persistence of derangement among America’s radical, right-wing is surprisingly resilient. But nowhere is it more evident than on the fringe, Trump-fluffing “networks” Newsmax and One America News Network (OAN). And on Sunday OAN provided a frightfully apt example of just how deeply they have descended into Trump worship.
Natalie Harp anchors OAN’s absurdly named “Real Story.” But she is hardly a detached journalist, having previously served on the Trump 2020 Advisory Board and as a speaker at the Republican Convention. In the segment that follows (video below), Harp did her best impression of a North Korean television propaganda dispenser introducing a video clip of Dear Leader Trump. Here is an annotated transcript of what Trump had to say:
“What’s happening to our country has, sadly, happened to so many others. We are at the beginning of a communist system.”
Trump uses the word “communist” as an all-purpose epithet to keep his dimwitted disciples in a constant state of fear. He has no idea what the word actually means.
“Radicals are seizing power and destroying everything we hold dear as Americans. And it’s happening. And I said it was going to happen.”
Holding true to the cult leader’s manual, Trump plays the role of the prophet. And like most cult leaders, he’s making up the miracles he’s pretending to prophesize.
“They dismantled the rule of law, censor speech, take over the free press, imprison political opponents. You see that’s happening all over – look at what I’ve been through for years – and, of course, hold fake phony elections.”
Trump is now making sure that his followers are seething with anger at the completely false prospect that their rights are being stripped from them by nefarious evildoers. And he’s using himself as the image of a martyr, sacrificing his own welfare on their behalf.
“They’re still coming after me because I will never stop fighting and winning for you.”
And of course, Trump is their also their savior who goes to battle for the peasant class that he aspires to rule. Although it’s a mystery how any of his klan can believe that he’s “winning” for them when he literally lost the election eight months ago, and has been losing repeatedly in court (more than 60 times) ever since.
Following Trump’s impotent disgorging of egomaniacal bullshittery, Harp returned to deliver a painfully obsequious – let’s say boot – licking.
“We may not recognize our country anymore, but as much has changed in our country and, yes, even in the Republican Party, you want to what or who hasn’t? President Trump.
With him it’s always promises made and promises kept. And just as he promised he’d never let us down, he never has and never will. He keeps fighting. Not because of who he is fighting against, but who he is fighting for. We the people. And you know what? We will not stop fighting for him, or our country either.”
So Trump has never let America down? Not by presiding over the loss of more than 600,000 lives due to his negligent and incompetent mismanagement of the COVID pandemic? Or by being the first president in decades to leave office with fewer people employed than when he started? Or sucking up to America’s enemies, while alienating our allies? Or by embracing racist hate groups and domestic terrorists? Or by worsening the climate crisis and the future health of the Earth and its inhabitants? Or by enriching himself and his wealthy pals at the expense of the vast majority of the American people?
Harp’s humiliating harangue is typical of a fully indoctrinated cult member. And she is passing on that state of delusional devotion to her small but eagerly gullible audience. And, by the way, so is Trump. This video was tweeted by his spokes-shill, Liz Harrington (a flagrant violation of Twitter’s Terms of Service that prohibit circumventing a ban) to the suckers who are still swept up by his lies and con artistry. Let’s hope it doesn’t all end in a Kool-Aid party, or something even worse.
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At times it feels like we don’t even recognize our own country anymore—and there is a reason for it. And something we can do about it.
THE REAL STORY @OANN: pic.twitter.com/U0Ensnk6o0
— Natalie Harp (@NatalieJHarp) July 30, 2021
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.