TORONTO (July 13) — Yes, I am venturing outside the lines for today’s blog. With Donald Trump still alive; still treacherous, and likely planning to defile democracy in a second run for United States president, it’s time to say hello to my friends on the far right; the companions of conspiracy who would believe, with every strand of DNA, that the sky is perfectly clear during a thunderstorm; that little green men roam the Earth at night and that the siege on the U.S. Capitol just more than six months ago was an event triggered by tranquil hearts. The Supreme Court of the United States, replete with judges appointed by The Donald, can scoff at allegations of voter fraud from the 2020 presidential election (courts require tangible evidence as proof of wrongdoing) and my far–right friends will convince themselves, eternally, that Joe Biden lost the electoral college and popular counts.

There are no boundaries to the alternate universe.

Of course, those at the extreme end of authenticity believe that the rest of us are naïve and delusional. Which is another aspect of their pointless crusade. Actual evidence, in their world, exists on frivolous websites and an American television network with crackpots that feed the frenzy. A co–worker of mine, whose loving heart is boundless, told me the world would end as soon as Biden took office. Which she was convinced, despite the certified election results, would not happen, as planned, on Jan. 20. Here we are, nearly half–a–year later; our planet is still rotating on its axis every 24 hours, and Joseph Robinette Biden occupies the Resolute Desk at his leisure.

If I choose to yank my colleague’s chain about the innumerable hypotheses she embraces — none of which can be tangibly sourced — she loudly responds, “but there is proof! It’s everywhere. You just need to open your eyes.” When I enquire as to where this proof exists, she invariably refers to any number of the aforementioned Internet creations. If I blithely press the issue, wondering, for example, if she would chew on a hunk of the green cheese that comprises the moon, she angrily waves me off, claiming I am enveloped in blunder and deception.

Which is another indisputable trait of those gripped by defiance: ultimately, they throw in the towel and return to their own. While people like myself, who prefer to stay somewhere between left and right, are generally confident and comfortable in our positions, the far–right element attempts to drag us into its hallucinatory embrace. My conspiracy friends drive themselves crazy trying to convince us about their illusions. Endlessly, they are on social media, posting and sharing the “truth”… while we shrug and snicker. And, the anger in these people. I can hardly wait for the sailor’s language response to this blog. Nothing is more sacrilegious than poking the conspiratorial bear.

LOS ANGELES TIMES IMAGE FROM THE “PEACE” RALLY IN WASHINGTON ON JAN. 6 OF THIS YEAR.

This fictional element has been around forever, but it took root — in modern times — after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas nearly 60 years ago. We still do not know if the president was murdered by Lee Harvey Oswald; an anti–Communist figure hiding in a grate near the triple–underpass, or some kid carelessly brandishing a B–B gun. It returned, in full force, while silly Trump denied the coronavirus; told us it would magically “disappear, like all things disappear” and implored his followers to inject Pine Sol. What did they have to lose… other than their lives? How one of the most disturbed, emotionally unstable and hypersensitive public figures in recent memory rose to the highest political office on the planet will be an enduring mystery. This egomaniacal con artist changed even the manner in which conspiracy thinkers evolve. No wonder he was trounced in both columns of the 2020 vote… even if a dangerous number of Americans stood by him, or simply voted along party lines.

The world, though still in turmoil, is a safer place with Trump on the sideline.

As for my far–right friends: keep trying. You’ll spend your entire lives tempestuously groping at fallacy and misconception. With not a shred of triumph beyond your impassioned circle. What a torturous existence it must be.

EMAIL: HOWARDLBERGER@GMAIL.COM