The irrationality chronicles: When does irrationality become insult?

When faced with evidence or credible accusations of wrongdoing, embarrassing behavior, corruption, lies, etc., MAGA elites routinely fall back on irrational denials, defenses and deflections, the three Ds. When, if ever, does such irrationality go from being not insulting or more or less defensible to indefensible irrationality that amounts to insult? Opinions will differ.

A NYT news article exemplifies the situation. Kevin Roberts is the president of the Heritage Foundation. Heritage is think tank at the center of radical right authoritarian MAGA politics and power. It is the source of the radical right authoritarian manifesto, Project 2025. Roberts makes more than $800,000 a year. He manages a budget of $100 million. He has a doctorate in history. He's not stupid or ignorant.

What triggered a self-defense response from Roberts was criticism from criticism by MAGA elites about Roberts defending Tucker Carlson in a friendly interview with the racist, antisemite, white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Roberts got in hot water after he posted a video on social media that called Carlson's critics “the globalist class” and a “venomous coalition”. Those comments are code for antisemitism. After MAGA elites criticized Roberts for defending the indefensible, he felt a need to defend himself. Roberts' defense was this:  

“I didn’t know much about this Fuentes guy. I still don’t. .... I actually don’t have time to consume a lot of news. I consume a lot of sports.” 

So, is it insulting for a guy with a PhD, making $800,000/year to run a political organization at the heart of America's radical right authoritarian wealth and power movement to say he didn't know that Fuentes guy because he spends his highly paid time as a major political operator doing sports stuff, not politics stuff? To some, that excuse sure is insulting. One elite MAGA critic said that either Roberts was lying or incompetent.

We all know that Roberts, being a MAGA elite, is lying. That's just what just what MAGA elites routinely do when faced with inconvenient things they don't want to face. 

It's beyond insulting that elite MAGA criticism of lies by another MAGA elite counts for something, but when the rest of us criticize the same lies, we get a smug kick in the nuts. Here, intra-MAGA criticism from Heritage staff and other MAGA authoritarians counted for something. They forced Roberts to apologize. But external criticism from non-MAGA sources didn't count. Roberts blew off external criticism. Only internal elite MAGA pushback mattered. 

For MAGA elites, that is just routine arrogant, irrational business dealings. 

Q: Is MAGA business as usual often irrational and insulting to people outside the ranks of elite MAGA operatives? What about the MAGA rank & file?

Note: This post has been Pxy fact checked and reasoning approved. 👍