I've been skimming MAGA forums of late, partly, I admit, from schadenfreude, but also partly out of dark fascination / how-to-write-villains research. I've noticed an interesting thing about their nature of their beliefs, I think.

The ones who aren't completely cuckoo, i.e. the non-QAnon folks, a) are the majority, b) have at best mixed emotions about those who are, a kind of "wellll, those are some ... interesting ideas, but hey, those ... curious people are on our side, for now, I guess."

Whatever their level of other conspiracy belief, though, they all seem utterly convinced that Joe Biden is a front for by the Chinese Communist Party. OK, this is hilarious, clearly they wouldn't know a real communism if one bit them... but it seems somewhat genuine.

They also seem convinced, in semi-good faith, that the election was indeed fraudulent and stolen. What's fascinating about this belief, though, is that they seem completely unable, not unwilling but _unable_, to distinguish between "allegations" and "evidence" from their side.

There are limits, e.g. the belief that CIA chief Gina Haspel was killed in a firefight in Frankfurt while trying to protect the stolen votes, or something, was eventually written off, but most allegations are basically considered automatically true and proved by default.

I know that sounds, um, kind of break-with-reality delusional ... but I think the issue is actually deeper than that; I think their _real_ belief, unspoken, in their bones, is that everything which is happening is part of a narrative in which they are the protagonists.

I don't mean a religious belief in divine fate; that's present, but far from universal. I mean a belief that, basically, they - white male conservative Americans - are collectively the heroes of the story of the universe, and therefore the story must twist their way.

Like, imagine you were watching a Captain America movie, and 35 minutes in, Cap suddenly... dies. You wouldn't actually believe it. Of course he's not dead. It's a Captain America movie! It says so on the marquee! He'll be back any minute. You don't need evidence. You _know_ it.

And if Cap actually _was_ dead, you wouldn't just feel bereft, or cheated, you'd feel like that was a _fundamental wrongness_. You really might have genuine trouble believing you had just seen that movie. Because it's the Captain America story! ...Isn't it?

And if the director told you - through a musical sting, a camera angle, a close-up - a character was a villain, you'd know it to be true. You wouldn't need _evidence_. You know modern cinematic grammar, you know how these stories go. A cinematic allegation _is_ evidence.

Deep down, I think MAGAheads really believed they were protagonists. And now they're experiencing a kind of postmodern metafictional cognitive dissonance - the discovery this is not the movie they thought it was; that other people, even The Libs, are all protagonists too.