Aaron Rupar owning himself, a thread

Trump on climate: I don't believe it. Trump on Khashoggi: I don't believe it. Trump on Russia: I don't believe it. Idiocy? A canny game? Doesn't really matter as much as the underlying intellectual autocracy. In this administration only one opinion matters.

It's an assault on facts and reason. It's an assault on good governance. It's an assault on the bureaucracies that are being discounted. It's an assault on science and history. But it is also an assault on one of the underpinnings of democracy.

We live in a system that is grounded on the idea of collaborative government. Leaders may have a final word but even then, there are typically checks and balances. Hopefully, in this case, such checks and balances may work. But they also are being tested.

The president's position that he is smarter than all the world's scientists, than the entire intelligence community, than experts who have studied any issue all their lives, is, of course, asinine. But his belief that government turns solely on his opinion, is monarchic.

Louis XIV reportedly said, "L'etat est moi." That he was the state. Trump asserting that he knows better than all, discounts all advice, that his brain is enough to chart the course for America alone, is essentially saying the same thing.

Strongly endorse everything in this @OsitaNwanevu piece. One of the key mistakes I see among Dems, both online & in the real world, is thinking that people believe right-wing nonsense because they are unintelligent or uneducated.

In the area I know best, climate change, it's been found repeatedly that climate denialists & skeptics have, on average, MORE higher education than those who accept the science. They know MORE about climate science. They have, on average, HIGHER verbal intelligence.

What they do is adopt the conclusion that best serves their social tribe and then use their intelligence & education to build a case for it. It's called "motivated reasoning" & everyone is subject to it, very much including the smartest people.

After the video went viral, Shringi Yadav was arrested last night for mercilessly beating Asif for drinking water inside Dasna Devi Mandir. A look at his Facebook profile shows he is inspired by hate speeches of Dasna Mandir Mahant Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati. Thread 👇

Here is a video of him with Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati.

Here are a few facebook posts of Yati Narsinghanand shared by Shringi Yadav. But who's Mahant Yati Narsinghanand?

A few years ago, Bajrang Dal organised a ‘show of strength’ in Dasna Devi Temple in Ghaziabad, where a dozen people were seen firing guns in the air. The caretaker of Dasna Devi Temple, is Mahant Narsimhanand Saraswati. Do watch full video

In a speech, Yati Narsinghanand advocates for the killing of Muslim 'jihadis'. Via -