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It's not really about the Russians

By that subject heading, I really mean to posit the question: what would it mean for our evaluation of the current political inferno if it were really about the Russians?  I am supposing first of all that the involvement and attempts to interfere of the Russian government in the American presidential election of 2016 was real; moreover, I believe the Trump administration, including Donald J. Trump himself, colluded knowingly with the Russians.

But even taking all that as given, and taking as given that it's a good thing for the legal process to be set loose on these events because they may provide the most straightforward path to the impeachment of Trump, the question remains: is it really about the Russians?  Assuming full culpability of both the Russians and the Trump campaign, it would still remain the case that the interference and collusion consisted in obtaining and promulgating garbage about Hillary Clinton, and messing with people's heads on social media.  Disinformation aimed at consenting adults who've been consuming similar disinformation, or worse, on Alex Jones or Fox News for years doesn't seem to me core to the issue of what's wrong with these people; these people are what's wrong with these people.

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