About Lying
by John Lawrence, September 16, 2020
To be blunt lying is as American as cherry pie. Lawyers lie even if they know their client is guilty. Prosecutors lie even if they know the defendant is innocent. In fact the best lawyers are the ones who can lie with the straightest faces as if they were telling a profound truth. Ads on TV lie all the time. About the only thing you can't claim for a product is that it will cure cancer. That's a no no. But for anything else it's caveat emptor - buyer beware. The same holds for politics. I'm not a fan of President Trump, but I find it naive that some newscasters are astounded that Trump lies routinely. Political ads lie routinely. Facebook posts lie routinely. If you did away with lying, you would do away with half or more of public discourse. That's why fact checking is so important. Some people want to believe lies because they are sexier than the truth.
Then we get to conspiracy theories. Basically they are whole congeries of lies. They are lies upon lies that somehow manage to create a story. This isn't hard to do. Works of fiction are by definition not reality, but they make sense because they tell a story. So do conspiracy theories. They just do not represent reality. They are lies based upon lies. They are whole multilevel structures of lies. Getting to the basis of what's true, what's factual, what represents reality is the work of all of us. American culture does not make it easy when so much of it is based on lies. There are a few people we can trust to tell the truth. Dr Fauci is one. So is Bill Gates. But when there is a truth teller among us, the first thing that some people want to do is to cast doubt on their veracity. They want to make up conspiracy theories about them. It seems that some people find the truth to be too bland, too unsexy.
What this boils down to is the Nazification of American culture. Hitler supplied the conspiracy theories that the Germans needed to assuage their feelings of defeat over the First World War. It was not your fault, Hitler told them. You were betrayed by the Jews.Hitler gave them pageantry, campaign rallies complete with torchlight parades, symbols like the Nazi flag, a rationale why they found themselves in such miserable circumstances. He created a culture that was fun and sexy, one that gave Germans something to look forward to after they became immersed in their Germanness and rid the world of certain nonGermans. Hitler gave them entertainment; he gave them something to cheer about. He was an exiting public speaker.
American demagogues have done much the same thing. They have taken their approach right out of Hitler's playbook. Concoct a reality that is more entertaining than factual reality. Give them someone to blame for their lack of success. Whether it was Father Coughlin, Joe McCarthy, George Wallace or Donald Trump, their tactics and techniques are similar. They cater to a downtrodden group which has seen better days and is resentful of the fact that they have landed up where they are. They are highly entertaining. They give their followers something to cheer about. Entertaining crowds is their forte. They encourage conspiracy theories especially about their perceived enemies, the ones responsible for their being where they perceive they are. They look forward to a future utopia when their enemies have been vanquished and they will take their true place in history, the place they were destined to achieve. Destiny is theirs once they rid the world of undesirables.
Which brings us back to lying and Donald Trump. Since he lies so consistently, it's easy to discern the truth. It's usually the opposite of what he says. A good liar will tell the truth about 50% of the time. Then you never know whether he is telling the truth or lying. Lying usually works with people who have no critical thinking ability. They can't tell truth from fiction because they just accept unquestioningly what their leader tells them. A free society demands fact checking. Facebook, Instagram and all the social media should employ watchdogs to fact check posts so they don't get out of hand. Hate speech should just be taken down. The First Amendment doesn't apply to private property so Facebook can do whatever they want with posts on their platform. Twitter is taking a more aggressive approach with fact checking even fact checking the President. This will throw cold water on the cult like atmosphere Trump and other right wingers are trying t create.
