Quick thread on misinformation & violence: important to understand that these super-MAGA fans don’t just feel empowered to act-they feel compelled to do so. That’s why they keep using the language of freedom & democracy- because they genuinely believe this election has been 1/

stolen from them & they are called to take heroic action to thwart the threat and reclaim what’s theirs. It’s the same sense of entitlement & fantastical conspiracy belief that compelled mass white supremacist shooters in El Paso, Christchurch & Pittsburgh. “Screw your optic,” 2/

the Pittsburgh shooters last words said, noting that he couldn’t just “stand by” and watch while his people faced an existential threat. He thought he was being heroic. This is how conspiracy theories work. And when they are reinforced by months of elected officials telling 3/

them there has been mass voter fraud & the election has been stolen, they feel compelled to act. But here’s the thing. Once that genie is out of the bottle, it will take years to get it back in. We haven’t even begun to comprehend what it will take to counter the fact 4/

that millions of Americans fervently believe -at scale- in an alternative universe of facts about the country and its political system. This isn’t just polarization. This is radicalization. And everything we know about deradicalization and conspiracy theories suggests it will 5/

be extremely challenging to reverse course for those who fervently believe in that alternative world. What can more easily done is prevention & offramping- through mass public media literacy efforts that help ppl understand how propaganda works, what scapegoating looks like, 6/

how manipulative & persuasive extremist rhetoric is powerful. This country has never invested adequately in preventative education to interrupt or prevent extremist radicalization before it begins. Germany just committed over 1 billion Euros to fight 7/ https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/news/cabinet-right-wing-extremism-1820094

right-wing extremism. If there was ever a time to follow that lead, this is it. Instead, we will see the bulk of emphasis on carceral solutions: more surveillance, monitoring, infiltration. This is problematic for lots of reasons- and will always be band-aid solutions. /END