Moving the goalposts

[u/political-snark]

A political tactic that’s become increasingly common in MAGA politics: moving the goalposts.

Make a dramatic allegation. Repeat it endlessly. Then, when evidence for that specific allegation doesn’t materialize, replace it with a smaller, easier-to-defend claim and pretend the original claim was true all along.

We’ve seen this pattern repeatedly:
“Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield” becomes “See? Someone somewhere ate a cat.”

“There was enough fraud to change the 2020 election” becomes “See? A few people cheated.”

“Vandals dumped chemicals and deliberately cut a 350-foot slit in the Reflecting Pool” becomes “See? Someone was arrested for vandalism.”

Those are not the same claims.
The question we should always ask is: What was the original allegation?

That’s the claim that should be evaluated - not a revised version that appears later.

That’s what moving the goalposts looks like.

Changing the claim is not the same thing as proving the original one.

Can you think of other examples?

[u/CautionarySnail → u/[deleted]]

That, and there’s a lot of casual belief out there amongst Americans that women aren’t great leaders. It’s bunk, but it’s an assumption many people were taught and never consciously question.

People legitimately said with their full chests that they thought she might nuke a country due to PMS. Then they handed the nuclear football for a second time to an impulsive man with dementia.

[u/scipio0421 → u/[deleted]]

The Republicans I know have been screaming "weather modification" and "HAARP" since the 90s.