Weasel Words: Part 02

According to CNN, on February 5, the House of Representatives voted to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments in the wake of recently unearthed past statements from the congresswoman that have triggered widespread backlash from Democrats and divided congressional Republicans.

Greene defended herself ahead of the vote in a speech on the House floor and attempted to distance herself from the dangerous and debunked QAnon conspiracy theory, which she has previously embraced.

The congresswoman said that after “seeing things in the news that didn’t make sense to me,” she “stumbled across” QAnon at the end of 2017.

Greene said that she became “very interested” in the conspiracy theory and began posting about it on Facebook and talking about it, adding that throughout 2018 she was “upset about things” and felt she could not trust the government.

“The problem with that though is I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true, and I would ask questions about them and talk about them, and that is absolutely what I regret,” she said.

Greene also said that she believes “9/11 absolutely happened” and “school shootings are absolutely real and every child that is lost, those families mourn it.”

In an attempt to put the controversy behind her, the congresswoman said, “These were words of the past, and these things do not represent me. They do not represent my district, and they do not represent my values.”

We can take two things away from this. Firstly, we get the expected weasel words: “These were words of the past, and these things do not represent me. They do not represent my district, and they do not represent my values.”

Secondly, and more surprisingly perhaps: “The problem with that though is I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true…”

Hmmm, “I was allowed to believe things that are not true”: you can never find the Thought Police when you need them.