This evening I started getting ready for several days of Covid-19 vaccine symptoms from today's second vaccination. If I'm going to be under the weather for a day or two, I'll alternate between reading articles and finishing the excellent Netflix series, Fauda. That is why I finally returned to the December 5, 2020, New York Times article by Ross Douthat, Why Do So Many Americans Think the Election Was Stolen? Looking for the reasons behind a seemingly unreasonable belief .
Given the completion of Trump's second impeachment trial, Douthat's opinion piece on voter fraud belief seemed very worth finally reading. That is due to my recent re-connection with a former work colleague which resulted in a three posts:
- My friend, an intelligent, well-educated Trumpist (part 1)
- My friend, an intelligent, well-educated Trumpist (part 2)
- My friend, an intelligent, well-educated Trumpist (part 3)
I found Douthat's analysis remarkable. He lays out the taxonomy of three unlikely seeming fraud believers: (1) the conspiracy-curious 'normie', (2) the outsider-intellectual and (3) the recently radicalized. To his credit, for each taxonomy, he draws on examples from both right- and left-wing politics.
What I found was a very credible explanation about the belief held by my intelligent, well-educated friend (and very successful entrepreneur). Douthat managed to confirm the hope that my Trumpist friend hasn't just started to become stupid or deranged. Now I am curious to learn if my friend's belief in voter fraud conspiracy actually holds up over time or gets rejected at some point in the future.
Whatever I learn will probably result in yet another post about him.