Motus Mentis

As the Jussie Smollett “hate-crime” flim-flam falls apart, the Daily Caller has put together a list of some of the more sensational faux-racist hoaxes of the Trump era. You can read it here.

It was obvious from the beginning that this Smollett business was a sham. First of all, it took place in the middle of one of the bitterest nights of the winter; the temperature in Chicago that night dipped to -9° Fahrenheit (and Chicago is, let’s not forget, the “Windy City”). Nobody who would have been walking around in such conditions, no matter how truculently partisan, would have done so in a flimsy MAGA hat.

Second, it seems extremely unlikely that Mr. Smollett himself would have been out walking around at such an hour in such conditions.

Third, even if Mr. Smollett had decided to go out, he would likely have been so bundled up that it would have been awfully hard to recognize him on a dark street, even if you happen to know what he looks like.

Fourth, as the Chicago police themselves pointed out, it is distinctly unlikely that Trump-supporting “rednecks” would be watching Empire (the show Mr. Smollett was in), or would know who Mr. Smollett even is.

Fifth, Mr. Smollett’s account of the attack involved his being doused with bleach. Who on earth would walk around Chicago late at night, in nine-degree weather, carrying a bottle of bleach, just to be able to make a point in the event they were to run into a black homosexual celebrity?

Sixth, there was a noose. (Rule of thumb: if an alleged hate attack involves a noose, it’s a hoax.)

Seventh — and this may be shocking to Blue-team members who only know about America’s “deplorables” from news coverage, TV and movie depictions, and Op-Ed pieces that generally depict them as snarling, knuckle-dragging anthropoids with horns and a tail — Trump supporters are generally just decent, well-behaved conservative people who abhor civic unpleasantness, and would never dream of doing such a thing as Mr. Smollett described.

Eighth, here’s another rule of thumb that seems reliable after many years of this nonsense: if a story like this comes up — that is to say, a story that perfectly checks off all the stereotypical qualities that make up the prevailing caricature of the racist, heterosexual, Trumpist Christian white male devil — it’s a hoax.

The fact is, such things just don’t happen much. We don’t do that sort of thing, and for people on the Left to think we actually do is simply projection.

That we aren’t in fact like this at all is, quite obviously, a disappointment. The void must be filled, though, and so these people simply make things up. Some online observer — I wish I could remember who — summed it up perfectly. The existence of all these hoaxes, he said, demonstrates that the demand for racism and bigotry exceeds the supply.