March 21, 2017
A FORTRESS OF FALSEHOOD:
All the President's Lies (David Leonhardt MARCH 20, 2017, NY Times)
I've previously argued that not every untruth deserves to be branded with the L-word, because it implies intent and somebody can state an untruth without doing so knowingly. George W. Bush didn't lie when he said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and Obama didn't lie when he said people who liked their current health insurance could keep it. They made careless statements that proved false (and they deserved much of the criticism they got).But the current president of the United States lies. He lies in ways that no American politician ever has before. He has lied about -- among many other things -- Obama's birthplace, John F. Kennedy's assassination, Sept. 11, the Iraq War, ISIS, NATO, military veterans, Mexican immigrants, Muslim immigrants, anti-Semitic attacks, the unemployment rate, the murder rate, the Electoral College, voter fraud and his groping of women.He tells so many untruths that it's time to leave behind the textual parsing over which are unwitting and which are deliberate -- as well as the condescending notion that most of Trump's supporters enjoy his lies.Trump sets out to deceive people. As he has put it, "I play to people's fantasies."Caveat emptor: When Donald Trump says something happened, it should not change anyone's estimation of whether the event actually happened. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. His claim doesn't change the odds.Which brings us to Russia.
And the otherwise decent people who feel compelled to defend his every falsehood are doing irreparable damage to themselves as well. Let him twist in the wind; he's not one of us.
Posted by Orrin Judd at March 21, 2017 6:04 AM