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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 6, 2025

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At what point are Trump's allies tacitly seconding accusations that Trump is an authoritarian and his "movement" a cult of personality, by treating him as though the accusations are true?

Whenever you want to assume that conclusion.

I mean, sure, you could come to other conclusions based on available evidence- such that rather than a Jan 6 retcon there were always significant voices on the American right that disagreed with blue-tribe framings, that there are enough examples of boy who cried wolf that the media-commentator sphere's credibility is abysmally low, that Matt Yglesias isn't exactly anyone's idea of an objective and even-handed commentator- but you can always just dismiss such things to boo the outgroup for not booing the outgroup.

such that rather than a Jan 6 retcon there were always significant voices on the American right that disagreed with blue-tribe framings

Yglesias gives specific examples of criticism:

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-02-13/gops-mcconnell-trump-morally-responsible-for-jan-6-attack

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/01/what-happened-on-january-6/

So far as I know, the National Review has been consistently Trump-critical, not endorsing any presidential candidate in 2020 or 2024 (someone please correct me if this is wrong), but McConnell?

That's nice, but why did you ignore the point you chose to reply to? Mitch McConnell is an individual, not a totem for the entirety of the American right- his stance neither proves or disproves whether there were always significant voices on the American right that disagreed with blue-tribe framings.

Moreover, Mitch McConnell's own change of views being simply labeled a retcon is itself assuming a conclusion. An alternative hypothesis would be that McConnell never bought into the Blue Tribe's framing, but was willing to pretend for political advantage at a time when it would have seemed politically advantageous. Or that McConnell believed it at the time based on information that he had, but later information changed his views. Or various other, non-assumed conclusions.

You are, of course, under no obligation to value those alternatives, but you are also under no obligation to assume Yglesias' conclusions either... which is to say you are just as free to assume the conclusion to justify booing the outgroup for not booing the outgroup.