Why Rightists Believe Trump's Constant Stream Of Lies

Ideas
The Motivated Ignorance of Trump Supporters

They can�t claim they didn�t know.
By Peter Wehner

On the morning of August 8, 2022, 30 FBI agents and two federal
prosecutors conducted a court-authorized search of Mar-a-Lago, Donald
Trump�s Palm Beach, Florida, estate. The reason for the search, according
to a 38-count indictment, was that after leaving office Trump mishandled
classified documents, including some involving sensitive nuclear
programs, and then obstructed the government�s efforts to reclaim them.
On the day before the FBI obtained the search warrant, one of the agents
on the case sent an email to his bosses, according to The New York Times.
�The F.B.I. intends for the execution of the warrant to be handled in a
professional, low key manner,� he wrote, �and to be mindful of the optics
of the search.� It was, and they were.
Over the course of 10 hours, the Times reported, �there was little drama
as [agents] hauled away a trove of boxes containing highly sensitive
state secrets in three vans and a rented Ryder box truck.�
On the day of the search, Trump was out of the state. The club at Mar-a-
Lago was closed. Agents alerted one of Trump�s lawyers in advance of the
search. And before the search, the FBI communicated with the Secret
Service �to make sure we could get into Mar-a-Lago with no issues,�
according to the testimony of former Assistant FBI Director Steven
D�Antuono. It wasn�t a �show of force,� he said. �I was adamant about
that, and that was something we all agreed on.�
The search warrant itself included a standard statement from the
Department of Justice�s policy on the use of deadly force. There was
nothing exceptional about it. But that didn�t prevent Trump or his
supporters from claiming that President Joe Biden and federal law-
enforcement agents had been involved in a plot to assassinate the former
president.
In a fundraising appeal, Trump wrote,
BIDEN�S DOJ WAS AUTHORIZED TO SHOOT ME! It�s just been revealed that
Biden�s DOJ was authorized to use DEADLY FORCE for their DESPICABLE raid
in Mar-a-Lago. You know they�re just itching to do the unthinkable � Joe
Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger.
On May 23, Trump publicly claimed that the Department of Justice
�authorized the use of �deadly force� in their Illegal, UnConstitutional,
and Un-American RAID of Mar-a-Lago, and that would include against our
Great Secret Service, who they thought might be �in the line of fire.��
Read: The two-time Trump voters who have had enough
Trump supporters echoed those claims, as he knew they would. Steve
Bannon, one of the architects of the MAGA movement, said, �This was an
attempted assassination attempt on Donald John Trump or people associated
with him. They wanted a gunfight.� Right-wing radio hosts stoked one
another�s fury, claiming that there�s nothing Trump critics won�t do to
stop him, up to and including attempting to assassinate him and putting
the lives of his Secret Service detail in danger.
The statement by Trump went beyond inflaming his supporters; it created a
mindset that moved them closer to violence, the very same mindset that
led thousands of them to attack the Capitol on January 6 and threaten to
hang Vice President Mike Pence. Which is why Special Counsel Jack Smith
filed a motion asking the judge overseeing Trump�s classified-documents
case to block him from making public statements that could put law
enforcement in danger. �Those deceptive and inflammatory assertions
irresponsibly put a target on the backs of the FBI agents involved in
this case, as Trump well knows,� he wrote.
Motivated ignorance refers to willfully blinding oneself to facts. It�s
choosing not to know. In many cases, for many people, knowing the truth
is simply too costly, too psychologically painful, too threatening to
their core identity. Nescience is therefore incentivized; people actively
decide to remain in a state of ignorance. If they are presented with
strong arguments against a position they hold, or compelling evidence
that disproves the narrative they embrace, they will reject them. Doing
so fends off the psychological distress of the realization that they�ve
been lying to themselves and to others.
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Motivated ignorance is a widespread phenomenon; most people, to one
degree or another, employ it. What matters is the degree to which one
embraces it, and the consequences of doing so. In the case of MAGA world,
the lies that Trump supporters believe, or say they believe, are
obviously untrue and obviously destructive. Since 2016 there�s been a
ratchet effect, each conspiracy theory getting more preposterous and more
malicious. Things that Trump supporters wouldn�t believe or accept in the
past have since become loyalty tests. Election denialism is one example.
The claim that Trump is the target of �lawfare,� victim to the
weaponization of the justice system, is another.
I have struggled to understand how to view individuals who have not just
voted for Trump but who celebrate him, who don�t merely tolerate him but
who constantly defend his lawlessness and undisguised cruelty. How should
I think about people who, in other domains of their lives, are admirable
human beings and yet provide oxygen to his malicious movement? How
complicit are people who live in an epistemic hall of mirrors and have
sincerely�or half-sincerely�convinced themselves they are on the side of
the angels?
Throughout my career I�ve tried to resist the temptation to make
unwarranted judgments about the character of people based on their
political views. For one thing, it�s quite possible my views on politics
are misguided or distorted, so I exercise a degree of humility in
assessing the views of others. For another, I know full well that
politics forms only a part of our lives, and not the most important part.
People can be personally upstanding and still be wrong on politics.
But something has changed for me in the Trump era. I struggle more than I
once did to wall off a person�s character from their politics when their
politics is binding them to an unusually�and I would say
undeniably�destructive person. The lies that MAGA world parrots are so
manifestly untrue, and the Trump ethic is so manifestly cruel, that they
are difficult to set aside.
If a person insists, despite the overwhelming evidence, that Trump was
the target of an assassination plot hatched by Biden and carried out by
the FBI, this is more than an intellectual failure; it is a moral
failure, and a serious one at that. It�s only reasonable to conclude that
such Trump supporters have not made a good-faith effort to understand
what is really and truly happening. They are choosing to live within the
lie, to invoke the words of the former Czech dissident and playwright
Vaclav Havel.
One of the criteria that need to be taken into account in assessing the
moral culpability of people is how absurd the lies are that they are
espousing; a second is how intentionally they are avoiding evidence that
exposes the lies because they are deeply invested in the lie; and a third
is is how consequential the lie is.
It�s one thing to embrace a conspiracy theory that is relevant only to
you and your tiny corner of the world. It�s an entirely different matter
if the falsehood you�re embracing and promoting is venomous, harming
others, and eroding cherished principles, promoting violence and
subverting American democracy.
In his book The Bible Told Them So: How Southern Evangelicals Fought to
Preserve White Supremacy, J. Russell Hawkins tells the story of a June
1963 gathering of more than 200 religious leaders in the White House.
President John F. Kennedy was trying to rally their support for civil-
rights legislation.
Among those in attendance was Albert Garner, a Baptist minister from
Florida, who told Kennedy that many southern white Christians held
�strong moral convictions� on racial integration. It was, according to
Garner, �against the will of their Creator.�
�Segregation is a principle of the Old Testament,� Garner said, adding,
�Prior to this century neither Christianity nor any denomination of it
ever accepted the integration philosophy.�
Two months later, in Hanahan, South Carolina, members of a Southern
Baptist church�they described themselves as �Christ centered� and �Bible
believing��voted to take a firm stand against civil-rights legislation.
�The Hanahan Baptists were not alone,� according to Hawkins. �Across the
South, white Christians thought the president was flaunting Christian
orthodoxy in pursuing his civil rights agenda.� Kennedy �simply could not
comprehend the truth Garner was communicating: based on their religious
beliefs, southern white Christians thought integration was evil.�
A decade earlier, the Reverend Carey Daniel, pastor of First Baptist
Church in West Dallas, Texas, had delivered a sermon titled �God the
Original Segregationist,� in response to the 1954 Supreme Court decision
in Brown v. Board of Education. It became influential within pro-
segregationist southern states. Daniel later became president of the
Central Texas Division of the Citizens Council of America for
Segregation, which asked for a boycott of all businesses, lunch counters
included, that served Black patrons. In 1960, Daniel attacked those
�trying to destroy the white South by breaking the color line, thus
giving aid and comfort to our Communist enemies.�
Now ask yourself this: Did the fierce advocacy on behalf of segregation,
and the dehumanization of Black Americans, reflect in any meaningful way
on the character of those who advanced such views, even if, say, they
volunteered once a month at a homeless shelter and wrote a popular
commentary on the Book of Romans?

Readers can decide whether MAGA supporters are better or worse than
Albert Garner and Carey Daniel. My point is that all of us believe
there�s some place on the continuum in which the political choices we
make reflect on our character. Some movements are overt and malignant
enough that to willingly be a part of them becomes ethically problematic.
Read: The voters who don�t really know Trump
This doesn�t mean those in MAGA world can�t be impressive people in other
domains of life, just like critics of Trump may act reprehensibly in
their personal lives and at their jobs. I�ve never argued, and I wouldn�t
argue today, that politics tells us the most important things about a
person�s life. Trump supporters and Trump critics alike can brighten the
lives of others, encourage those who are suffering, and demonstrate
moments of kindness and grandeur.
I understand, too, if their moral convictions keep them from voting for
Joe Biden.
But it would be an affectation for me, at least, to pretend that in this
particular circumstance otherwise good people, in joining the MAGA
movement, in actively advocating on its behalf, and in planning to cast a
vote for Trump, haven�t�given all we know�done something grievously
wrong.
Some of them are cynical and know better; others are blind to the
cultlike world to which they belong. Still others have convinced
themselves that Trump, although flawed, is the best of bad options. It�s
a �binary choice,� they say, and so they have talked themselves into
supporting arguably the most comprehensively corrupt man in the history
of American politics, certainly in presidential politics.
Whichever justification applies, they are giving not just their vote but
their allegiance to a man and movement that have done great harm to our
country and its ideals, and which seek to inflict even deeper wounds in
the years ahead. Many of them are self-proclaimed evangelicals and
fundamentalists, and they are also doing inestimable damage to the
Christian faith they claim is central to their lives. That collaboration
needs to be named. A generation from now, and probably sooner, it will be
obvious to everyone that Trump supporters can�t claim they didn�t know.