The GOP base would love to arrest people who laugh at them

[marmar]

Why MAGA buys Trump’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool hoax
The GOP base would love to arrest people who laugh at them

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published June 24, 2026 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) The word “narcissist” comes from the Greek myth of Narcissus, which tells the story of a young man so enamored of his image in a reflecting pool that he is unable to look away. He eventually dies from his own egotism and turns into a flower.

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The president, whose thin skin is not protected by his ever-thicker makeup, is not taking the taunting well. The same man who threatened to sue and ban comedians for satirizing him is now overseeing an effort to falsely accuse people of “vandalism” as a pretext to cuff them for laughing at his Reflecting Pool calamity. Trump has gone hard on the “vandalism” conspiracy theory in recent days, telling reporters in a breathless tone on Monday that someone took a “box cutter” and “start(ed) hacking it up,” somehow putting “a 300-foot long gash” in the pool. The tale contradicts comments he made to reporters on May 4, when he bragged that the new lining was “very strong” and “if you had a knife, you can’t even cut it.”

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The “vandals did it” conspiracy theory is painfully stupid, but that hasn’t prevented widespread uptake among Republican politicians and GOP voters. Rep. Tim Moore, R-N.C., released a video baselessly accusing “politically motivated” actors of putting fertilizer in the water. (Experts have blamed the algae on the choice of a paint, which was apparently chosen without any environmental review.) Fox News dutifully started demonizing Hearn with stories about his “ties” to a “Dem fundraising giant,” which turned out to be 15 donations ranging from $10-$100 over the past two decades to ActBlue and Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns.

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Do these people believe this silly lie? With MAGA, it’s always hard to distinguish the line between self-serving tales and genuine delusion. Ultimately, it’s irrelevant: What matters more is why right-wingers are burrowing so deeply into this nonsense. Like Trump, they want an excuse to arrest people for laughing at them. It really isn’t deeper than that. Just as Trump is too egotistical to admit he screwed up the iconic Reflecting Pool, his followers cannot stomach admitting liberals were right all along about how stupid it was to vote for him. ......................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/06/24/why-maga-buys-trumps-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-hoax/

[Walleye]

1. Maga. Afraid of being laughed at, meanwhile, the rest of us are afraid of being killed

[mwmisses4289]

2. Honestly, I think it's time to start looking at them

with either a pitying or contemptuous look and ask them, "You really aren't that stupid, are you?"

[maxsolomon]

3. I've been at that point for 10 years.

I'm definitely more into the contempt side.