A lead editorial in The Economist "The Art of the Lie", has this to say about the lie in politics: "Consider how far Donald Trump is estranged from fact. He inhabits a fantastical realm where Barack Obama's birth certificate was faked, the president founded Islamic State (IS), the Clintons are killers and the father of a rival was with Lee Harvey Oswald before he shot John F. Kennedy. . . . Mr. Trump is a leading exponent of "post-truth" politics -- a reliance on assertions that feel true but have no basis in fact. His brazenness is not punished, but taken as evidence of his willingness to stand up to elite power. . . . The lies of men like Trump . . . . are not intended to convince the elites, whom their target voters neither trust nor like, but to reinforce prejudices."
The Economist, aware of Clinton's lies, refers to Trump as "The Lord of the Lies."
That assessment jives with the cognitive and social science that says that such estrangement from reality isn't just cognitively possible, but it's likely how humans have practiced politics since modern humans or maybe even pre-modern human species invented politics tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago.
The Economist's editorial urges that, despite past political hubris and a lack of humility by politicians generally, "pro-truthers stand and be counted." Those folks seem to be a bit concerned. That's reasonable. Obviously, every person makes their own choices for their own personal reasons. I'm standing and demand to be counted as a pro-truther. Despite Clinton's documented lies, they are much less threatening to American democracy than Trump's lies. Of course, that's just my personal opinion, which is informed more by cognitive and social science than political rhetoric or ideology.
B&B orig: 9/12/16
No comments:
Post a Comment