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Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

You are correct. Whether it was my rabid COVID denialism, my insistence that Roe v. Wade would never be overturned, or my continuing and ever-more-absurd assertions that Trump never represented a threat to democracy, my inability to understand what was happening in American politics was matched only by my arrogant belief that I, and I alone, was able to assess these issues free of bias and rampant emotionalism. I did not simply agree to disagree with you all on these issues — I derisively mocked you for taking a contrary position. If you said Roe v. Wade would be overturned, you were not just wrong. You were a hysterical (like a woman!), hair-on-fire liberal. If you said COVID was a serious threat that needed to be aggressively addressed early on, you were a scared sheep, engaging in performative acts of virtue signaling. I called you naive fools and emotional little children, even when, again and again, my sneering certitudes turned out to be … how shall I put this … inaccurate prognostications. But I now understand that corrupt institutions not only need active evil-doers in order to succeed — almost more so, they need the deniers and the apologists. The ones who tut tut and roll their eyes at those sounding the alarms, contemptuously superior in their ridiculous but unwavering belief that they are the only ones who can see through smoke and pronounce The Truth to the masses who have let themselves become consumed by childish emotion. I now realize that I was wrong, time and time again, and that I, in fact, was the useful idiot. I am sorry.

I'm naive enough to have some hope that there will be a significant electoral backlash. Maybe.