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He lost the Electoral College. He lost the popular vote. He lost the election as a result of officially certified cumulative tabulations in about 3,000 counties and 50 states. He lost all but a few inconsequential cases in the 60 court suits his lawyers filed. He lost all the recounts. He lost all the audits. He lost the call of his "personal lawyer" now serving as Attorney General. He lost the analytical conclusions of his own Administration's election security agency. He lost his Supreme Court suit. He lost the votes cast by all the states' official electors on Dec. 14. Nevertheless, President Donald J. Trump seems hell bent on making other futile appeals to override states' voting laws and replace the electors selected by the people with the votes of Republican electors. Those who lose an election are not losers. Those who refuse to admit they have lost an election when indeed they have … they are losers, irredeemable ones.
But the one thing he has not lost is the false perception of victory in the minds of his supporters. What's going on here? Have these folks gotten lost in what Eli Pariser calls "the social media filter bubble?" As Pariser explains it, unwitting prisoners in a filter bubble are in "a state of intellectual isolation. This state results from personalized searches, through which a website algorithm selectively guesses what information a user would like to see based on information about the user, such as location, past click-behavior and search history."
Whenever any of us "google" something, we in effect say: "Tell me what you know I want to hear." It happens to all of us, but most of us are not aware. "As a result, we all become separated from information that disagrees with our own points of view, effectively isolating us in our own cultural or ideological bubbles." (See the Netflix documentary "Social Dilemma" to see how we are all manipulated). Personally, I enter the Trump bubble filter every day by faithfully reading a 10 article sampling of Trump talk on TheRighting.com, a liberal site which provides verbatim, unedited articles and writings without comment from various right-wing media outlets.
I think that entrapment in a filter bubble is exactly what is happening to Trump's supporters. Records of their smartphone usage patterns would make that abundantly clear. I am also convinced it is absolutely impossible to burst their bubble. Donald Trump's deepest belief is that he is a born winner. In his mind, he simply cannot lose no matter what. Trump's followers are deeply invested in this belief too.
The tenacious adherence to this tenet of faith by 74 million voters is a ticking time bomb threatening to tear us apart and endanger our very democracy. The United States is the oldest existing nation with a constitutional government in which the people elect their own government and representatives. In 2020 we the people almost did not elect our president. Electors chosen by the legislative supporters of the losing candidate, Donald J. Trump, almost did. However: "Briefs don't elect presidents; ballots do." At least until now.
TIM MANNELLO
Williamsport
Submitted via email