Now, I want to make very clear that very very few people on campus actually believed this sh!t. But the people who did were very vocal and, more importantly, had the institutional backing behind them. Conservatives have overstated the amount of people that believe this nonsense, but they didn't invent these issues out of thin air. The reason this argument works for conservatives is because it resonates, and resonates because it's real and it's ridiculous.
You think conservatives who spend every waking minute saying everyone who isn't them isn't a real American or is some cultural threat and tried to stage a violent coup and let a virus run rampant--all based on conspiracy theories--wouldn't make stuff up about the most marginalized groups of society? This stuff resonates with conservatives not because it has credibility, but because conservatives are living in their own alternate reality where they're the victims and everyone who doesn't fit their view of 'normal' is the oppressor.
It's amazing how quickly Dems have forgotten this a mere five months after Trump left office and treat this garbage that they've been spewing for years--often accompanied by sock-puppet 'activist' groups that are created solely to agree with them--is suddenly true and valid just because it's no longer coming from a Trump white house.
