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I’m spending my day cutting through HOURS of footage from yesterday’s stop the steal rally. I’d like to have a comprehensive video out today but I’m still trying to figure out what to say. This is an anger & resentment that exists in our country that we can’t brush under the rug
It’s been stoked by the media & by the president. It goes beyond institutional distrust & disgust. So many are painting these protestors as a monolith, when in reality it was an amalgam of families, business owners & anarchists who believed they were fighting for “their” America
Walter & I spoke with native Americans who supported trump because he promised to federally recognize their tribe, we spoke with people claiming the deep state was controlling professional sports leagues in order to get them to cooperate with the EPA (i was confused too)
One thing was remarkably clear & consistent- these people have been lied to. A LOT. It felt as though we had stepped into an entirely different reality where the “alternative facts” Kellyanne Conway was ripped apart for months ago were the law of the land.
Misguided as they were (and my GOD have they been misguided)- these people actually believed they were fighting for their own freedom. If we can’t understand that, we’ll never be able to address the growing divide that exists between them & the rest of the country.
From Qanon to OAN to Fox News (which many of them dismiss as LIBERAL PROPAGANDA), there’s a whole industry devoted to sowing distrust in our nations’ institutions. Walter and I were disguised as OAN reporters. We were thanked dozens of times for being “the only real news around”
One protestor said to me “it’s a pretty sad day in America when ALEX JONES is the most trustworthy voice in the room.” And this problem is only growing- these channels of misinformation are only deepening as financial incentives push these companies to crazier & crazier extremism
Yesterday was a sad day in America, yes. It was a sad day for our institutions as the POTUS attempted to undermine the will of the American people determined in a free and fair election. Trump is indisputably a chief perpetrator of this problem in our consumption of information.
That being said- he’s still only symptom of a greater virus. If the nation doesn’t figure out how to stem the flow of misinformation being pumped into the veins of the American public- we may well be overcome by it. A house divided cannot stand? Our balance is long lost
