The Paper of Record has done it again! Combining its stellar record of journalism with its down-the-middle analysis of current events, they have decided to re-write a bit of history and brand two ardent Trump opponents as… Trump supporters.

No, really.

Paper of record NYT identifies two prominent #NeverTrumpers (@JayCostTWS and @baseballcrank) as Trump "supporters" https://t.co/MNNfh7XN1i pic.twitter.com/WtFJBbiiJt

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) January 30, 2017

Now, you may remember Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank on Twitter) as a former Front Page Contributor here at RedState before National Review stole him away from us, but there was no doubt that if you had read anything he wrote at National Review or on Twitter that he was against Trump’s ascension.

Now, the Times did correct the piece, though it should be noted only corrected the part where they misidentified Crank as a resident of Los Angeles.

Correction: January 30, 2017 

An earlier version of this article misstated where Dan McLaughlin is based; he is in New York, not Los Angeles. Because of an editing error, it also misstated the views of Jay Cost, a senior writer at The Weekly Standard. He is not a Trump supporter.

The question we face now is a simple one: Was this reporter lazy, just deciding to go with the latest opinion instead of the history of writings both Dan and Jay Cost have out there? Or, was there something a little more neurological going on here?

The Media, it would appear, has decided to go the route of every other political activist out there, and decide that if you speak for something, you support the person behind it, and if you speak against something, you are against the person behind it. The danger here is that you are labeling someone based on one opinion, and not their body of work.

See, these two men have been extremely critical of Trump, but by pointing out the hysteria of those attacking Trump, the past is erased, and these two men are shoved into the box of “Trump Supporters” that the Left can easily dismiss. It’s not a tactic solely of the Left, mind you.

After all, we here at RedState are still being called Hillary supporters and liberals for opposing Trump.

This is what happens when you let mass hysteria over something you like or don’t like take over. This is the biggest problem the political scene currently faces. We now form cults of personality and twist ourselves into rhetorical pretzels defending someone or something that otherwise shouldn’t be defended.

Cost and McLaughlin, however, are not guilty of being part of any cult of personality. Those of us here at RedState don’t buy into them, either. We realize that people are not perfect, and that the core beliefs of conservatism are what should be upheld.

But the Left is not concerned with beliefs or ideas at the moment. It is all about identity, and what little identity box you can shove someone into in order to dismiss them. Because they don’t want honest debate. They want us gone, and they think associating us with Trump is the way to do it.