Lying & deceit: Moral Choice in Politics

In her 1999 book, Lying: Moral Choice in public and Private Life, moral philosopher Sissela Bok lays out an intelligent but simple analysis of the power and effect of lying and deceit in democracy and politics. By contrast with a democracy, the leader’s lies and deceit in authoritarian states don’t make much difference to average people. They have little to no power. They have to live under their leadership regardless of how morally depraved, reality-detached, cruel, bigoted, or corrupt it may be.

The image below is a tally PolitiFact’s assessment of 1,000 of Trump’s statements. That data makes clear why the topic of lying and deceit in democracy, is critically and urgently important in America today.

Bok’s basic argument is simple and rational. Specifically, when people have been deceived and they act on false beliefs, their power to decide how to act based on facts, truths and sound reasoning has been taken from them without their consent or knowledge. Common sense and contemporary research tell us that deceit is inherently authoritarian, therefore anti-democracy. (link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4)

Also, Bok and some others assert that lying and deceit are almost always inherently immoral. Arguably, they are evil when actions by deceived people based on false beliefs lead to unnecessary harm or deaths. That argument is simple logic. A rock solid example of unnecessary harm and death from deceit is people who have been convinced by anti-vaccine liars and crackpots. Some of those deceived people refuse to get vaccinated against COVID or other infections. Some of them get infected and die. Some infect others who die. (link 5, link 6)

Finally, research and history both indicate that irrational emotional manipulation is the single most effective persuasion weapon that demagogues and authoritarians have in gaining power to deceive and destroy democracy. Fomenting fear, anger, and identity-based resentment constitutes the most powerful weapon demagogues have. It works by (1) suppressing conscious reasoning, (2) creating "winner-take-all" attention narrowing that excludes contrary evidence like actual facts, and (3) exploiting unconscious cognitive biases and heuristics that replace careful reasoning with visceral, emotional responses. (link 7, link 8, link 9, link 10)

Wikipedia describes demagoguery like this: The central feature of demagoguery is persuasion by means of passion, shutting down reasoned thinking and consideration of alternatives. Demagogues pander to passion, prejudice, bigotry, and ignorance, not facts and reason, because this is the most effective tool to exploit human beings.

Q1: Can a person reasonably believe that lies and deceit from Trump and MAGA elites are at least immoral, or even evil?

Q2: Are most rank and file Trump supporters immoral or evil, or are they mostly good people who have been deceived and manipulated, whereby deceit has absolved them of responsibility for their actions?