The tragedy of MAGA's conspiracy theory about Tim Walz's "fake" dog

Hannah Arendt famously described the psychology of Nazi propaganda as "the point where [the masses] would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true." It's a quote that comes to mind often when contemplating the lies of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. And it cropped up for me again while reading about the new right-wing conspiracy theory targeting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his dog.

It's a twisty road that led us to this point. Scout, the beloved pet of Kamala Harris' running mate, stands accused by rabid Trump fans of being a fake. While this story is a silly sideshow, it has serious implications. Unable to handle the strong possibility that their candidate will lose in November, Trump's followers are preemptively immersing themselves in a fantasyland where everything they don't like is "fake," from Harris' crowd sizes to the pet photos of their opponents. This isn't just a coping mechanism, either. As we saw on Jan. 6, 2021, the non-stop accusations that Democrats are "faking" everything can lead Trump's followers down dangerous and even violent pathways.

For those fortunate enough not to have seen this story yet, a quick recap: Walz has a Labrador retriever mix named Scout, who crops up regularly on Walz's social media. One time he took Scout to a dog park, where he was videotaped petting another dog. Right-wing pundit Dustin Grange took a screenshot from the video and falsely claimed Walz tried to pass off this other dog as Scout. The lie spread rapidly, racking up millions of views.

https://twitter.com/GrageDustin/status/1828065388325744762

Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only.

Grange's lie is strangely lazy. As many folks noted, Walz doesn't say that dog is Scout. It's just another dog in the dog park where he took Scout. In the video, Scout is visible playing with the brown dog, as the caption says. But even this fact check misses the larger weirdness here: Grange is saying that the governor would fake having a pet dog. That lie is bizarre and bordering on psychotic. But it's exactly what Arendt warns readers to look out for in fascist propaganda, which assumes an audience "ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd."

Grange's purpose in creating this disinfo isn't mysterious. Walz, simply by being the corny middle-American dad he is, disproves the MAGA claim that such a lifestyle is incompatible with progressive values. So they want to somehow "prove" that Walz isn't really who he says he is. The problem is that Walz's cheery Midwestern normalcy has an authenticity that's hard to assail. In his desperation to say otherwise, Grange whipped out this "fake dog" nonsense.

What happened next is, in many ways, even more telling. Caught in an obvious lie, Grange pretended he wasn't trying to spread disinformation at all. Instead, he insisted it was all performance art to get revenge on "the left’s manufactured outrage" over what he claims is a made-up "story about JD Vance," Trump's running mate. He didn't explain what the supposed made-up story was. Headache-inducing, to be sure, but as Parker Molloy pointed out in her newsletter, this is Grange arguing that "misinformation [is] a legitimate tool for scoring points against opponents." It's also, as she notes, "a textbook example of projection." Grange falsely accused progressives of lying to justify his actual lying.

This goes beyond childish psychological games, however, as Arendt predicted:

The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.

As I've written before, Trump and his co-conspirators use the oldest trick of con artistry on the MAGA masses: convincing the mark they're in on the hustle. Most people who shared the "fake dog" story didn't pause to consider whether it was true. If they had, perhaps they would have considered how idiotic it is to think Walz would fake adopting Scout in 2019, fake all these photos and then somehow "forget" what his "fake" dog looks like. Getting a real dog is much less work! But "believing" their own B.S. is beside the point. The pleasure comes from participating in an ugly rumor mill that benefits MAGA.

But that's why they're the marks and not the masters here. No doubt it feels empowering in the moment for the typical MAGA follower to repeat a Trumpian lie, whether it is a serious one, like "the 2020 election was stolen" or a dumb one, like "Walz fakes having a dog." Trump has convinced them that when they don't like reality all they need to do is create their own. For that brief moment when they're spreading a conspiracy theory, that feeling of power that comes from asserting fantasies trump reality provides a straight shot of dopamine to the brain.

The ugly truth, however, is that this is how Trump is controlling his cult-like followers, by convincing them to cut all ties with empirical reality and even basic common sense. By luring people to promote delusions for MAGA, Trump is breeding an immorality and cynicism that cannot help but cause mental and emotional rot in the people who go along with it. Trump has been on a bender with lies to deny that the big crowds and exuberance of the Harris campaign. He falsely claims her crowds are generated by "AI." He declared that a Time cover magazine depicting Harris must be fake because she "looks like the most beautiful actress." In both cases, what he's reacting to are simply photographs that accurately depict the moment captured.

Trump's narcissism may be fueling this, but the effect it's having on his supporters is alarming. Looking especially dour Sunday on CNN, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., denied the outpouring of happiness TV viewers saw at the Democratic National Convention last week. "This whole joy lovefest doesn’t exist in the real world," he declared, arguing that, in reality, the U.S. is a miserable place full of nonstop pain. His reason? Gas and grocery prices are higher than they were before the pandemic.

Seems like an overreaction! The inflationary bump has been unpleasant, but it's overkill to paint it as the end of joy itself in America, especially as travel rates are rising, consumer confidence is high and Americans continue to gorge on the social activities we missed during the pandemic. But this refusal to believe the pent-up release of joy is real has become a talking point throughout MAGA. I've seen it with my GOP-voting relatives, who have been steadily posting memes on social media claiming the Harris enthusiasm is all "manufactured" and the "hope" and "joy" shown on TV are all fake.

I usually try not to respond to these kinds of posts, but in this case I gave in to the urge. I was at the DNC and saw the hope and joy with my own eyes. Not that I think I can persuade anyone to abandon the delusion, but still, it's unsettling to see people you have known your whole life reject the evidence of their own eyes and ears. Worse, they think it's "savvy" to deny that hope and joy are real emotions people can feel in a political context.

This is how Trump ultimately manipulates his followers. He convinces them that better things are not possible, hate and anger are the only "real" emotions, and politics can only ever be used to inflict pain on others, not to uplift people. It's a dark and depressing worldview, and it's spreading rapidly, aided by authoritarian propaganda that assures the MAGA masses that anything appealing about Democrats must be "fake."

In that context, we can see how sinister the "fake dog" conspiracy theory is. The Harris-Walz message of "joy" is a counterpoint to what Trump is offering, which is an endless barrage of anger, despair, nihilism and sadism. Walz playing in the park with his dog offers a visual example of this contrast. The picture asks us to imagine a future where we let go of all the hate and just hang out together with our dogs at the park. The only way to disrupt the appeal of such an image is to deny that it's even possible, arguing that vitriol and violence is all that we can ever hope for. Dogs are such happy, easygoing creatures. Faced with such sweetness, the only thing MAGA can do is call Walz's dog "fake."