The Oxford Dictionary defined “Post Truth” as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” The left condescendingly popularized it owing to their failure to predict and comprehend Donald Trump’s victory in 2016. With this election, they’re now weaponizing it against America.

After Watergate, an emboldened left consistently applied post-truth polemics to set narratives about Republicans being anachronistic, bigoted, avaricious, pitiless, and religious zealots.

But Trump was an anomaly. The harder the left tried to malign Trump, the stronger the bond between Trump and his supporters grew. In fact, Trump managed to set his own narrative about the news media.

How did the left deal with their impotence of preventing Trump from becoming President? 

It is said that the hallmark of the left is to accuse their opponent of that which they are guilty. Thus, the left’s response was the Russian Collusion hoax, their most sinister and audacious post-truth exercise.

It was floated without an iota of evidence, and it was endorsed by politicians, rogue intelligence personnel, and the news media. It was passed through the cacophonous echo chambers of the mainstream media and, soon, leftists had simulated their own reality.

Leftists had names for those who refused to accept that the Russians interfered in the 2016 elections: Loony conspirator theorists, post truthers, and agents of Mother Russia. And still they pushed it further, calling Trump a Russian agent whom Russia recruited in the 80s and who now reports directly to Putin.

The Russian Collusion hoax reached its pinnacle upon the appointment of a Special Counsel. The simulation’s impact was so powerful that even Republicans who controlled the House and Senate, members of Trump’s cabinet, and pro-Trump voices in the media pussyfooted around the allegation instead of subjecting it to derision and tossing it away with contempt.

The “investigation” took two years, cost $32 million, and exonerated Trump. The left never had the quest for facts as its goal; hence, the left rejected the verdict and continued pushing the story to a pliant media.

In the end, leftists couldn’t accept an outsider such as Trump winning, so they invented their own realities. They convinced themselves that Americans didn’t repudiate them in 2016; instead, Russian poll rigging caused the Trump victory. Maybe some of them even began to believe their lies.

This is perhaps the first instance of the mainstreaming of a most preposterous conspiracy theory.

We move to 2020 on election day when Trump had victories in several states and was on track to triumph in swing states. Then strangely, the count is halted due to some variation of “it’s getting too late.” The next morning, poll workers magically discovered dumps of Biden votes that caused him to shoot into the lead by a wide margin.

The software used to tabulate the votes sent thousands of Trump votes to Biden. The dead managed to vote for Biden. A large number of Trump votes were discovered in garbage cans.

To say these are serious discrepancies is an understatement.

The right thing to do would have been to wait for recounts or audits to resolve people’s doubts. Given that the Democrats insist they won legitimately, they should have nothing to fear. Instead, the very people who claimed that the 2016 election was easily rigged now declared with certitude that vote-rigging is impossible and those who suggested it are conspiracy theorists.

In the days following the election, the facts have been kept at bay, and a new reality is being simulated with Biden as President-Elect. Social media platforms have assiduously suppressed mention of voter fraud. 

World leaders joined in and sent gushing congratulatory messages. Articles were written about Kamala Harris, the first woman of color to become Vice President. Hollywood shed tears of relief and joy. There was dancing in the streets. The first stage of the simulation was complete.

The next stage was the installation of a transition team for making announcements about future appointments and plans.

A visual representation is essential to make the reality simulation seem plausible. Hence, Biden’s team built an elaborate stage with multiple signs referring to Biden as President-Elect. The lead cast -- Biden and Harris -- were there enacting their parts. Photos of them receiving briefings on the COVID-19 from health experts were released to convince people that work had begun.

This is also how Hillary Clinton conducted herself after her defeat, refusing to accept the results, claiming that Russians and agents in Macedonia conspired against her. Back then, the left was satisfied merely casting doubts about the 2016 election without bringing Hillary into the picture. The Biden-Harris simulation is actually a sequel to Hillary’s delusions but on a much larger scale, with complete coordination and cooperation from the media and big tech. 

Do the simulators of this reality not know that their bubble could burst at any moment? They emphatically do, but the goal is to go so far with the simulation of their reality that facts seem ludicrous and a thing of the past. The goal is to shame everyone into submission. In case that doesn’t work, leftists are issuing threats of retribution.

What happens when the simulation is interrupted by facts? The left will reject the facts. They will riot, they will demand investigations, and yes, they will now blame Trump for voter fraud. They will call Trump illegitimate.

Perhaps one of the goals of this elaborate simulation was to elicit a mass, organic, volatile reaction when the illusion ceases to occur. When you are promised paradise but get hell instead, frustration and anger are natural responses.

Interestingly, the simulation of Russian collusion still prevails in the minds of many. Therefore, we’re seeing a new simulation within a simulation, or perhaps a simulation alongside a simulation. Is Christopher Nolan listening? In the first simulation, the Russians easily rigged the votes and, in the second, it is impossible to rig votes.

The mass hypnosis and cognitive dissonance resulting from these simulations must present fascinating case studies for sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists. But when large sections of populations doubt the outcome of elections, irreparable damage is done to democracy.

It is time conservatives realize that they cannot continually react to the left’s reality simulations. It is essential to understand that you cannot win over the left by accepting their premise and then dismantling it by facts. The left only accepts total submission.

The only way to defeat leftists is to reject their premise and subject it to ruthless ridicule. Trump uses this very effectively, and it invariably infuriated leftists when it worked to his advantage.

Failure to challenge the left’s post-truth narrative will mean that, whenever a Republican wins, America will be subjected to these charades. In time the country will be in a permanent state of simulations, so much so that facts will be outlawed.

Fortunately, Trump, his allies, and supporters have decided to fight back. It’s to be hoped that the travesties of the 2020 elections will be systematically undone -- and soon.

Image: Post-truth election fantasy by Andrea Widburg.