The post, which had two parts, is titled, “I Lied My Way Into a MAGA Focus Group.” Normally, I would quit reading there. But this toxic, arrogant asshole locked-in fick status by boasting about the extent of his dishonesty after telling readers what a good person he was normally: “I like to think of myself as a basically decent person. Responsible. Honest. I pay my taxes without trying to outsmart the government. I pay for my own streaming accounts, even when the password field practically begs me to use a family member’s login. I rarely drive more than five miles over the speed limit. Heck, I return the shopping cart even when no one is watching.”

But, you see, this creep lied extensively to complete this post, he says, and is obviously pleased with himself/herself/itself because stupid, evil supporters of President Trump don’t deserve the Golden Rule, or the benefits of Kant’ edict against using people as a means to an end. Here was part of the confession:

“And yet, this week, I committed an act, premeditated, sustained, and by any reasonable standard, unethical. Furthermore, what I am doing right now, writing this (publishing it) is, strictly speaking, illegal…

They were not looking for me.

They were looking for Trump voters.

And so, when it appeared again, I made a decision that can best be described as deliberate and poorly defensible.

I decided to lie. Just enough to become the kind of person they were trying to find.

I said I had voted for Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024. I said I consumed the expected programming and podcasts. The whole right wing ecosystem. I said I married my first cousin.

Okay. That last one is a joke.

But the intent was clear: I was no longer myself. I was a version of a person they were looking for.

And, like most lies that are built with just enough care, it worked.

I was invited to a live screener. A real conversation with a real person whose job was to verify that I was, in fact, the person I had just invented. They asked me to confirm my answers—including, of course, my voting history.

It’s unsettling to say a lie out loud. It acquires weight. It sits in your mouth awkwardly….A calendar invitation appeared moments later. The next evening, I would attend…As myself, but not…

So when I entered the focus group, I wasn’t there to observe quietly.

I had a plan.

Blend in. Play along. Become, convincingly enough, one of them. And then, at the perfect moment, pull the pin. Rip off the metaphorical MAGA hat and reveal my true self: the woke, elitist, libtard villain of their shared mythology.

I know their talking points. I know the rebuttals. (Facts, mostly.)

I thought I could walk in, say the right things, and then, at the precise moment when everyone felt most comfortable, detonate it…”

As you can see, “Mersault” is an arrogant, doctrinaire prick who thinks “he’s” on the side of the angels as well as the smartest one in any room, especially a room full of MAGA morons who are the kind of people who marry their first cousins. (Come to think of it, I know someone quite well, a former freind, who did marry her first cousin. She’s a Trump Deranged Democrat.)

“Mersault” goes on to admit to signing a non-disclosure agreement, knowing full well that it would be violated.

Nice.

From that point on, reading the rest of the screed is an exercise in futility. If the substacker is willing to lie and cheat this much, who cares what is written in his newsletter? This is not only a liar, but a ruthless liar.Ah, but the lies are justified, see, because is all necessary to get Trump.

The big surprise, detailed in Part 2 of this nauseating post, is that all of the MAGA members of the focus group were furious at Trump, and, it seems. dumb as bricks. Here are the comments he quoted:

“When I see the price of groceries and gas, I want to scream.”

“Food and fuel prices are skyrocketing. Absolutely outrageous.”

“We go to Walmart every week. The exact same items increased exponentially every single time.”

“My main concern is inflation. The prices for food and gas.”

“We go to war in Iran and the prices just keep going up… but my bank account is shrinking.”

“It is affecting us personally.”

“I can’t even afford daycare.”

“I want to be a stay-at-home mom, but I have to work… how do you do all those things?”

“The job market… opportunities are very hard right now.”

“My mom’s on Social Security, and she worked for the federal government for 25 years. She does have Medicare and that doesn’t mean she’s a, what do you call it, freeloader. And Trump was like, oh we don’t have money. What did he say? We don’t have money for this anymore? I almost rolled over. I was like, are you kidding me? People pay into this so that they can retire… she’s 73, she can’t get a job now, you know.”

“At this point there’s obviously no coherent economic strategy at all. You see major policy decisions being made… “big beautiful” budgets being passed… but there’s no serious explanation of how they stabilize prices or protect all of us. That’s a total lack of leadership.”

“They talk about putting the country first… You can’t launch a war in a region that directly affects global energy markets, and then act surprised when fuel costs explode. That’s on Trump and his cabinet. It shows a basic failure to understand or even care about how their own decisions drive up costs.”

“They’ve spent years preaching fiscal discipline, then turned around and blew out the deficit with nothing to show for it. And their supporters still call it success.”

“People are obviously freaking out, and instead of addressing that, the response is to tell them everything is fine. The Republicans tolerate ordinary people absorbing the damage… the only thing holding it together is a base that’s been convinced not to trust what they can see for themselves.”

Wow, 11 MAGA loyalists and a mole, all of whom get their news from MSNOW and Facebook! Who would have thought?

Of course, even that conclusion is predicated on believing a partisan, biased liar. The lesson of this foray into Progressive Land: these people cheat. But we knew that.

I wrote back to “Mersault” and said, “Stay out of my in-box.”