Accusation in a Mirror

On November 5th the American people will go to the polls and inoculate the nation against a disease. That disease is what experts in realpolitik call Accusation in a Mirror. Accusation in a Mirror (AiM) is also sometimes referred to as mirror politics, mirror propaganda, mirror image propaganda, or a mirror argument. If you’ve always wondered if there’s a technical term for what Donald Trump specifically and MAGA Republicans in general do, now you know.

Accusation in a Mirror has an infamous history. Invented (or perhaps, refined) in the annals of 20th century monstrosity, AiM was invoked to rationalise the slaughter by the Ottomans of the Armenians in World War I, the Rwandan genocide and, most infamously, the Holocaust. In fact, the Office of the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide (OSAPG) defines mirror politics as a “common strategy to create divisions.”

So what is it exactly? Accusation in a Mirror is a false claim that accuses the target of something that the perpetrator is doing or intends to do. You’ve seen it applied a million times to infuriating effect. Claims that “Democrats are trying to steal the election” is a mirror of what Republicans are trying to do. Claims that “Democrats are fascists” are absurdly and (if you’ll pardon the word) “liberally” employed by the same Republicans who authored Project 2025, the latest blueprint for fascism. It’s more or less the political equivalent of what psychologists call “projection.” But unlike projection it is not a defence mechanism — it’s a weapon.

AiM is to be found in a common logical fallacy known as “Tu Quoque” (Latin for “you also.”) It’s perhaps the most childish and infuriating of all the logical fallacies. The practitioner of this particular fallacy merely turns every accusation back on the accuser. But it can be extremely dangerous when it gains its particularly odious strength from cult-like followers who, upon hearing the counter-accusation, endlessly and brainlessly echo it.

AiM was used by the extreme rightwing group “The Proud Boys” by blaming “leftists and anti-fascist activists” for resisting their violence and absurdly (but effectively) asserting that self-defence by leftists was the actual violence. In other words, if we protect ourselves from harm by the fists and clubs of the Proud Boys then WE are the ones who are being violent, not them!

Of course, AiM was perfected by the master of lies and propaganda Joseph Goebbels. Without a doubt, Goebbels was Hitler’s most fanatical and deranged follower. (Goebbels and his wife murdered their five daughters before committing suicide because they did not want them growing up in a world without National Socialism.) That he was also brilliant made him a very dangerous man. He applied the politics of AiM to his persecution of the Jews, accusing an entire race of human beings of all forms of evil that the Nazis themselves were in fact committing at that very moment.

AiM is insidiously and cynically used today by MAGA Republicans to advance their agenda of hate. Hate for immigrants, hate for Democrats, hate for members of the LGBTQ+ community, hate for Muslims, hate for people of colour, hate for anyone who is different from them.

MAGA Republicans perpetuate much of this hate by simply accusing their targets of doing what they in fact are doing. The silly notion that “millions of illegal immigrants” are fraudulently voting for Kamala Harris is absurd on its face. Such an operation would be impossible to implement and would be immediately exposed, of course. And no illegal immigrant, whose primary concern was working and survival, would ever risk exposure by voting for an American politician they couldn’t care less about. But amongst the glassy-eyed MAGA brainwashed it’s easy for them to believe they’re doing just that, and “thinking things through” is not MAGA’s forte.

Meanwhile, MAGA Republicans strategically placed in key positions in battleground states are trying everything they can to actually rig the election so Donald Trump can win. They are trying everything from attempting to throw out ballots to recruiting “fake electors” to refusing to certify the election results should they not be in Trump’s favour. None of these sneaky tactics are going to work. We’re on to them. But the fact that they’re trying while attempting to blame illegal immigrants for the same thing ought to send chills down your spine.

Are practitioners of AiM aware of what they’re doing? Yes. They understand that they’re tricking their followers with a lie. But they do so anyway because they either fanatically believe in their ideology as Goebbels and his wife did, or they know it’s an effective way to grab power. We must stop them. And we will, on November 5th. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.