Soliciting slander

It can be difficult, nowadays, to remember that there was once a time when Republicans weren’t malicious ignoramuses.

Far-Right Smear Merchants Try to Slime
Pete Buttigieg with Bogus Sex Assault Claim

A pair of right-wing provocateurs are being accused of attempting to recruit young Republican men to level false allegations of sexual assault against Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.

The details of the operatives’ attempt emerged as one man suddenly surfaced with a vague and uncorroborated allegation that Buttigieg had assaulted him.

Donald Trump will probably tweet an allusion to this in a few days, and if he does the lie will then be eternal. Debunking will fail; “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” the gullible will tell each other.

I do not exaggerate. I have met people who still repeat the World War II-era lie that we were sucked into the war by Jewish manipulations, because Roosevelt was a corruption of Franklin Roosevelt’s true name: Rosenfeldt.

Nor is there any reasoning with the fools who fall for these lies, because the lies are merely modern myth-making and they serve the same purpose — they make the world comprehensible to idiots steeped in malice for a world they can’t belong to or, even, understand. So they create for themselves an alternate reality that demonizes others.

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