Subject: F’ em
The comfortable liberal assumption is that this is an information problem. If we just fact-check harder, teach media literacy, or find the right messenger, people will come around to reality.

This is delusional.

These Americans aren't confused. They've chosen a story that feels true over facts that don't. Everyone has access to the same internet. The FBI crime statistics, deficit numbers, vote counts, death rates, Trump's actual business history, his documented lies, it's all right there. But millions have decided that all of this is fake while anonymous posts about microchips in your flu shot and Trump's secret genius reveal hidden truths.

You can't educate people out of beliefs they didn't reason themselves into.

This is harsh to acknowledge. These are our neighbors, our family members, our coworkers. But pretending they'll suddenly embrace reality if we just find the right words is preventing us from protecting democracy from those who no longer live in the real world.

You cannot govern people who live in different realities.

When a third of the country believes we're being invaded by immigrants while actual border crossings dropped 81% in December 2024 compared to the previous year, how do you collaborate on immigration policy? When they believe hurricanes are God punishing gay people, how do you craft disaster preparedness plans? When they think wildfires are caused by Jewish space lasers and climate change is fake, how do you discuss evidence based environmental policy?

You don't. You just have to govern while each side responds to completely different versions of what's happening.

This isn't like normal democratic disagreements. It's not "how should we address crime?" It's "are mass shootings real or are they all transgender crisis actors?"

If we can't share reality, we need to stop pretending we can share governance.

Blue states can't effectively collaborate with red states who refuse to acknowledge basic science. Instead, we need to be building renewable energy infrastructure, funding public health, and investing in education. Meanwhile, red states are banning books about Rosa Parks, rejecting federal healthcare funds, and teaching creationism as science. They're passing laws based on conspiracy theories about litter boxes in school bathrooms.

This is the future: Two Americas, each governing according to their own version of reality.

Stop trying to convince them. No amount of facts, logic, or evidence will change minds that have already decided facts, logic, and evidence are themselves conspiracies.

Instead, do the following:

if you live in a red state, pass voting rights expansion, make it so every voice can be heard. Also, fight to have ballot initiatives that improve quality of life for your fellow residents.

If you live in a blue state then work to cut off red state welfare, improve your quality of life, and make bilateral agreements with other blue states. Create friction at every level of engagement with the federal government to counter their wild corruption, greed, and hate.

Build systems that function without them. The Federal Reserve doesn't take a vote on whether inflation exists. It measures it and responds. Every critical institution needs this same independence from democratic input when that input is based on fiction.

Let reality be the referee. Major insurers have withdrawn from Florida markets because climate change is real whether Ron DeSantis believes it or not. Businesses are leaving states that ban books and restrict healthcare because educated workers won't move there. Reality has a way of asserting itself through money.

Protect the systems that determine truth. Universities, research institutions, and government statistical agencies need constitutional protection from political interference because they threaten the alternate timeline.

We must accept that democracy has limits. We don't vote on whether gravity exists. Some things are true regardless of what people believe, and policy about those things shouldn't be subject to democratic input from people who deny they exist.

This isn't elitist. It's recognition that democracy cannot function when voters are responding to events that didn't happen, solving problems that don't exist, and fighting threats that aren't real.

Of course, not everyone who voted for Trump believes all of these things. Some only believe the election was stolen. Others only think vaccines are dangerous. Still others simply wanted lower taxes. But enough believe enough false things that we can no longer govern based on shared facts. And those who don't believe the lies but vote alongside those who do are choosing power over truth.

The 35% answer is an acknowledgement that we can't govern in two different realities. It's an acknowledgment that a third of America has chosen fantasy over reality, and the rest of us need to figure out how to build a functional society without them.

The alternative is simple: We keep pretending both realities are equally valid, keep seeking compromise between what happened and what didn't.

That's not democracy. It's a suicide pact.

Christopher Armitage