Epistemic closure and 1/6

Roughly 3/4 of Republican voters claim to believe that 1/6 was a false flag operation for which Antifa deserves more blame than Donald Trump:

Yet a full 73 percent of Republicans pin “some” or “a great deal” of responsibility on “left-wing protesters trying to make Trump look bad,” even though both the FBI and Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have rejected the falsehood that leftist protesters were involved.

McCarthy and McConnell don’t believe these conspiracy theories are true, but they do want them to remain as widespread as possible to help them regain power in spite of an agenda that commands virtually no popular support. Hence, their opposition to a 1/6 commission and taking advantage of a crucial handful of Democratic legislators who think their vanity and daydream believing should, er, trump any competing value including democracy itself to make it happen.