The Satan Trick

     I forget who originated this notion, but it’s been said for many years that the Devil’s greatest achievement was convincing so many humans that he doesn’t exist. In homage to this insight, I’ve christened the ploy of persuading people to not see evil even when it’s in plain view the Satan trick.

     The Left has been trying to pull off the Satan trick for some time now. Just recently, a Leftist addressed me on Gab with a soliloquy about how the Left “doesn’t exist.” It was a thousand words or so of self-serving, hyper-tendentious (and rather paranoid) nonsense, but he probably figured that was the sort of verbal prestidigitation that would work on a wordy bastard (i.e., me). It didn’t, of course, but you probably didn’t need to be told that.

     The Satan trick also appears in somewhat reduced forms. For example, Barack Hussein Obama, inarguably the most anti-American person ever to take up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, recently gave a speech in which he claimed that the well known story about the disgraceful inaction of the federal government during the Benghazi episode is “a conspiracy theory.” I have no doubt that his most ardent admirers swallowed his proclamation wholesale. But here’s a bit of testimony from Kris “Tanto” Paronto, former Army Ranger and one of the six principal defenders of the Benghazi CIA station on September 11, 2012:

     This is a particularly difficult case of the Satan trick to pull off, as five of those six defenders are still alive and talking. But leave it to Obama, who’s never backed away from a politically useful lie no matter how implausible it might be, to feed such nonsense to those still willing to listen to him.

     On the more immediately political front, we have the “Russian collusion” investigation. This farce has turned up zero evidence that the Trump for President campaign ever had any dealings with the Russian government, much less colluded with Russian agents in an attempt to sway the election or corrupt its results. What it has turned up is tons of evidence that various highly placed officials in the Justice Department and virtually the whole of the office cadre of the FBI did their damnedest to sway the election by a coordinated “leak” strategy and the use of salacious but totally fabricated rumors about supposed Trump misbehavior. Which federal Democrats have admitted that with such results after a year and a half of “investigation,” the thing should be shut down? None of them: from them it’s a constant drumbeat of “Russia” and “impeachment.” This is the Satan trick protracted to the limits of human endurance.

     “What are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?” has become a tag line of sorts in political discourse. Sadly, there are many Americans who refuse to see evidence laid out plainly before them. Equally sadly, they condemn those who present them with such evidence as “racists” and “Nazis.” The most extreme of them strive to silence anyone who dares to contradict their dogmas. Between those who ponder evidence and those who swallow absurd proclamations as an act of political faith, there lies a gulf nothing can bridge.

     Yet people still ask why they can’t have a calm and reasonable conversation with persons of the other political persuasion. It is to laugh...hollowly, and with many a tear. Except for Satan: his laughter is genuinely jolly and quite sincere.