Trump’s MAGA movement now faces a profound cognitive crisis. Their leader has violated the central promise of their political identity—the promise to reveal hidden truths and expose child sex abusers. But the conspiratorial frame he taught them makes it impossible to simply accept this as ordinary political disappointment.
Instead, they must choose between two equally destabilizing options: abandon the conspiratorial thinking that has become central to their identity, or turn that conspiratorial thinking against Trump himself.
[…]
This is why fighting conspiracy theories with facts doesn’t work. Facts are interpreted through frames, and frames shape how facts are understood. When someone is thinking conspiratorially, contradictory evidence just becomes proof of how deep the conspiracy goes.
Another take on the slow implosion of the MAGA world view. It’s delightful watching MAGAts contort themselves in their support for—or opposition to—releasing the Epstein files.