Alan Jacobs nails it:
Published October 24, 2024
Alan Jacobs nails it:
Warzel errs here in assuming that when people in MAGAworld make
declarative statements, and endorse or amplify the declarative statements
of others, they do so because they believe those statements to be true.
They don’t; nor do they believe or know them to be false. In my judgment,
truth and falsehood do not at any point enter the frame of
reference — such concepts are non-factors, and it is a category mistake
to invoke them.
In MAGAworld, declarative statements are not meant to convey
information about (as Wittgenstein would put it) what is the case.
Declarative statements serve as identity markers — they simultaneously
include and exclude, they simultaneously (a) consolidate the solidarity of
people who believe they have shared interests and (b) totally freak out
the libtards. That’s what they are for. They are not for conveying Facts,
Truth, Reality — nobody cares about that shit. (People who call themselves
Truth Seekers are being as ironic as it is possible to be.) Such
statements demarcate Inside from Outside in a way that delivers plenty of
lulz, and that is their entire function. In that sense only they
articulate a kind of dark gospel.