Why should what the right is willing to engage in determine what facts and views you have around an issue?
They don’t. But choosing to engage with them only helps their credibility, and that implicit credibility can help them sway naive and gullible people.
Don’t you agree elites shouldn’t be treated differently, that the right will force this as an election issue as much as they can…
Yes, but since we’re in the context of this article, Hunter Biden specifically is irrelevant to that conversation. Running his name as a headline for this decades-old issue only gives credence to the efforts to link his personal conduct to his father.
…and that you’d rather it explained away reasonably so people are immune to the conspiracy disinformation?
Yes, but that presumes people are predisposed to reason, and that reason would immunize them. I simply don’t see evidence of that being the case for far too many people, and certainly not people on the right. Nobody is immune to propaganda, even skeptics.
Engaging on a personal level is a different matter, but on the public stage, engagement is the goal. I think there are exceptions, like where it puts people in danger (see anti-vaxx bullshit), but in general, the liar is not obligated to engage honestly.
They don’t. But choosing to engage with them only helps their credibility, and that implicit credibility can help them sway naive and gullible people.
Yes, but since we’re in the context of this article, Hunter Biden specifically is irrelevant to that conversation. Running his name as a headline for this decades-old issue only gives credence to the efforts to link his personal conduct to his father.
Yes, but that presumes people are predisposed to reason, and that reason would immunize them. I simply don’t see evidence of that being the case for far too many people, and certainly not people on the right. Nobody is immune to propaganda, even skeptics.
Engaging on a personal level is a different matter, but on the public stage, engagement is the goal. I think there are exceptions, like where it puts people in danger (see anti-vaxx bullshit), but in general, the liar is not obligated to engage honestly.