Yesterday I conversed with a man who told me, in response to my criticism of the Democratic party’s idiotic Russia conspiracy theories, that it didn’t matter whether the accusations are true or not, because Trump needs to be stopped regardless.

“If the ‘Russian thing’ is the only way to get Trump investigated,” he said, “Do It! I really don’t care if it’s true or not. I am not Russo-phobic or a McCarthyist but if it ruffles him, go for it.”

“That’s Republican Benghazi talk,” I told him. “That’s Birther talk.”

“Yes I know,” he told me, “and really, I’m aware that this is exactly how they acted over Benghazi. Sometimes you need to bully the bully to make him see.”

“That’s the exact divide on America’s political left, right there,” I replied. “Between the progressives who put truth above all else and the fauxgressives who don’t. Thank you for the illustration.”

And when I said thank you, I really meant it. He didn’t have to be so honest and forthcoming about his perspective; he could have lied and said that he really, truly believes that there’s a Russian agent hiding around every corner like all his liberal buddies have been saying. In reality they’re just siding with their team so that they don’t have to experience the primitive psychological discomfort of standing apart from one’s tribe. Their favorite pundits on TV are telling them Putin’s the New Official Bad Guy, all the politicians with a (D) next to their name are saying the same, and they get to experience the psychological comfort of high-fiving their liberal friends about how much they agree with one another about how right they are. Most importantly, though, they know it’s a good way to hurt the standing of the other tribe.

So I appreciated this stranger’s candid comments; the raving lunacy of the liberal establishment has been a bit of an enigma to me, and this friendly Clintonian kindly opened up his head and gave me a quick look around. More importantly, however, it pointed straight at the exact source of conflict that was highlighted within America’s political left (yes I know establishment Democrats can’t rightly be called “left”, but we don’t have a great vocabulary for talking about this thing yet) in the 2016 presidential election cycle. The source of this conflict is integrity, and the lack thereof.

I wasn’t aware of this before I made my happy transition here, but I’ve since learned that Medium is dominated by liberal Democratic establishment loyalists. The “recommended for you based on your interests” feature has no idea how to even deal with people like me; nearly all the stories on my front page are about how Trump supporters are Nazis and Putin runs the US government, and I’ve been enjoying a sudden influx of huffy comments by sputtering CNN acolytes. So that’s cool I guess — it’s always good to venture out of one’s echo chamber — but one thing that’s taken me a bit by surprise is how many people are still talking about how great Hillary Clinton is and how horribly she was treated. This honestly would never have occurred to me. I would have assumed that anyone with a vested interest in the future success of the Democratic party would be doing everything they can to try and get everyone to forget about their unelectable joke of a candidate as quickly as possible so that they can maybe start winning some elections someday, but nothing could be further from the truth. Medium is chock full of astonishingly popular articles by corporate liberal stooges howling to the moon that they’ll never, ever stop talking about Hillary, that they’ll keep fighting Berners and Trumpsters and everyone else who “destroyed” her and get Chelsea Clinton elected out of sheer spite, and that Bernie Sanders is an evil Russian agent who “did everything he could to harm Clinton.”

So that’s still happening apparently, and Bernie’s continuing criticisms of the Democratic party’s consistent failure to accommodate a grassroots movement following his so-called “unity tour” with oligarchic prison bitch Tom Perez have been eliciting many an establishment opinion from many an establishment opinion-sharer as to why that unity remains so elusive. Well, I think I know now.

There was a brief window during the primaries where true progressives were more or less tolerated by mainstream Democrats. They let us have our Bernie with pursed-lipped restraint and only asked us “but you’ll still vote for Hillary when he loses, right?” every 35 seconds or so, which was actually a lot more breathing room than lefties have otherwise been given in mainstream American political discourse. Oh but boy howdy, as soon as he lost the illicit primary did that ever change fast. If you tried discussing Jill Stein on any public forum anywhere, God help you. You never realize how thoroughly and aggressively mainstream liberals dominate political discourse in America until you find yourself supporting something on their official shit list. My inbox was always full of stressed-out progressives telling me how much they hate Hillary and how scared they are of their liberal friends who won’t hesitate to tear you down in front of everybody if it means they get to indulge in a little more virtue signalling and vanity politics. I lost friends — true, dear friends — doing what I do. A lot of them.

But those of us with integrity refused to budge. We didn’t care if we had to stand alone, shunned by our tribe, because however psychologically uncomfortable that is, it could never outweigh the discomfort of being untrue. We knew we were being lied to and manipulated at every turn during the election cycle, and we refused to play along. This remains the major dividing line on the American left to this day on every issue from Russiagate to the Idlib sarin gas false flag to the plot to arrest Julian Assange; we know we’re being lied to, we know we’re being manipulated, and however loudly our liberal brothers and sisters choose to scream at us, we refuse to play along. They’re willing to put comfort before truth. We’re not. That’s all that separates us right now.

Those on the other side of the divide have a completely different relationship with truth. As the man I spoke with yesterday illustrated so perfectly, they’ll use the truth when it’s convenient for their tribal agendas and use lies when it isn’t, which is the same as lying 100 percent of the time. As with their hive queen Hillary, it’s all about finding the most efficacious manipulation possible in each moment; they tell themselves they can manipulate things in the direction of the the greater good, because their tribe is good and the other tribe is bad. The thing is — and their echo chamber consistently refuses to acknowledge this — the thing that they are trying to manipulate is ultimately the deep state. Underneath all the partisan games is the unelected power establishment that is currently controlling both major parties with nearly complete domination. They’re trying to out-manipulate the sitting champions of manipulation using a political party that’s controlled by the same manipulations as its opposition, which is a lot like trying to towel off while submerged underwater.

It’s a losing game against an opponent they’re no match for. An unwinnable battle in an ever-changing world. In that ever-changing world, the Official Narratives must constantly be adjusted and battle lines redrawn, because their side is held together by nothing but lies and manipulations; there’s nothing solid there. One day you’re supposed to love Comey, the next day you have to hate him. One day you’re afraid Trump will start a war, the next day Assad’s got to go and Trump’s weak and incompetent if he doesn’t strike. Those who can’t keep up with these constantly-shifting lines will get stuck on the other side of them, so the tribe gets slightly less unified with each shift, which is why Democrats can’t win elections anymore. Meanwhile those of us who are grounded in the solidity of our loyalty to truth remain undivided, and as more and more people find themselves unable to lie anymore, our numbers can only grow.

So it’s a losing battle on both fronts for our liberal Democrat friends, unfortunately. They can’t out-manipulate the deep state, and their frantic attempts to do so will only weaken and diminish them. In the meantime, we keep fighting untruth. We cannot lose this one.

—

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this, please consider helping me out by sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following me on Twitter, or even tossing me some money on Patreon so I can keep this gig up.