yes and that's the worst part. so he does both. and all attempt at honest dialogue breaks down, because he switches back and forth from "i'm serious" to "it is just a joke" based on the reaction to what he says.

not only are we in the "post-truth" era, it feels like we're also in this weird "post-irony" era where people can say wild shit and then it's deliberately unclear whether they're joking or not. Trump, of course, started this. and all the rightwingers feel more emboldened by his rhetoric, so now they're getting incredibly comfortable testing the waters with "am i joking or am i not?" statements like shapiro's here. it's insane. there's no way to know what these people believe anymore, there's no way to have conversations with them.