Wednesday, February 08, 2017 5:22:50 PM
Art of the lie
Politicians have always lied. Does it matter if they leave the truth behind entirely?
From the print edition | Leaders
Sep 10th 2016
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.
[...]
If Mr Trump loses in November, post-truth will seem less menacing, though he has been too successful for it to go away. The deeper worry is for countries like Russia and Turkey, where autocrats use the techniques of post-truth to silence opponents. Cast adrift on an ocean of lies, the people there will have nothing to cling to. For them the novelty of post-truth may lead back to old-fashioned oppression.
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21706525-politicians-have-always-lied-does-it-matter-if-they-leave-truth-behind-entirely-art
--
Andrea Mathews LPC, Ph.D.
Traversing the Inner Terrain
The Art of the Lie
Why can't we just tell the truth?
Posted Jan 25, 2017
Why do we lie? Why don’t we just tell the truth? Wouldn’t life be oh-so-much simpler if we all just told the truth? Wouldn’t our relationships be more intimate, our interactions with others more fluid; our religion, our politics, our international concerns all go smoother?
Well, the answer to those questions for many people is “no.” In fact, beyond the bent to use or abuse others, the main reason most of us lie is because we are afraid. We are afraid that someone will know us. We are afraid that interactions with others will get really messy. We are afraid we will put our vulnerabilities out there for others to see, others who will only use and abuse our vulnerabilities. We are afraid we will have to question our religions. We are afraid that political and international concerns will go awry. And so we lie.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/traversing-the-inner-terrain/201701/the-art-the-lie
Andrea's silence solution sounds a bit utopian, but anyway the fear angle feels valid.
--
Donald Trump's team defends 'alternative facts' after widespread protests
* President and advisers push falsehoods about inauguration attendance
* Secretary of state pick backed by key Republican senators
VIDEO: 0:44 Kellyanne Conway denies Trump press secretary lied: ‘He offered alternative facts’
Jon Swaine
@jonswaine
Monday 23 January 2017 05.25 EST
[...]
Asked on ABC’s This Week whether he had full confidence in Trump, John McCain, the Republican senator and former presidential nominee, replied: “I don’t know.”
Trump also stated falsely during his speech at the CIA on Saturday that reports of a feud between him and US intelligence officials had been invented by journalists, who he said were among “the most dishonest human beings on Earth”.
Only 10 days earlier, Trump had personally likened the US intelligence establishment to Nazi Germany. He also suggested US officials had leaked to the media an explosive and unverified dossier by a former British spy alleging links between Trump and Russia.
Some of Trump’s most loyal supporters in Washington defended the president’s unusual remarks. “You’re going to see more of this,”
Devin Nunes, a Republican congressman for California, told CNN’s State of the Union. “He was just having a good time.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/22/donald-trump-kellyanne-conway-inauguration-alternative-facts
So constant lying is explained away by "just having a good time", eh .. sheesh,
ugly .. this post was prompted by the Kasparov quote in your 6th item down ..
Why Nobody Cares the President Is Lying
[...]
All administrations lie, but what we are seeing here is an attack on credibility itself.
The Russian dissident and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov drew upon long familiarity with that process when he tweeted: “The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”
Mr. Kasparov grasps that the real threat is not merely that a large number of Americans have become accustomed to rejecting factual information, or even that they have become habituated to believing hoaxes. The real danger is that, inundated with “alternative facts,” many voters will simply shrug, asking, “What is truth?” — and not wait for an answer.
In that world, the leader becomes the only reliable source of truth; a familiar phenomenon in an authoritarian state, but a radical departure from the norms of a democratic society. The battle over truth is now central to our politics.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/opinion/sunday/why-nobody-cares-the-president-is-lying.html
which was a top tweet.
Politicians have always lied. Does it matter if they leave the truth behind entirely?
From the print edition | Leaders
Sep 10th 2016
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.
[...]
If Mr Trump loses in November, post-truth will seem less menacing, though he has been too successful for it to go away. The deeper worry is for countries like Russia and Turkey, where autocrats use the techniques of post-truth to silence opponents. Cast adrift on an ocean of lies, the people there will have nothing to cling to. For them the novelty of post-truth may lead back to old-fashioned oppression.
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21706525-politicians-have-always-lied-does-it-matter-if-they-leave-truth-behind-entirely-art
--
Andrea Mathews LPC, Ph.D.
Traversing the Inner Terrain
The Art of the Lie
Why can't we just tell the truth?
Posted Jan 25, 2017
Why do we lie? Why don’t we just tell the truth? Wouldn’t life be oh-so-much simpler if we all just told the truth? Wouldn’t our relationships be more intimate, our interactions with others more fluid; our religion, our politics, our international concerns all go smoother?
Well, the answer to those questions for many people is “no.” In fact, beyond the bent to use or abuse others, the main reason most of us lie is because we are afraid. We are afraid that someone will know us. We are afraid that interactions with others will get really messy. We are afraid we will put our vulnerabilities out there for others to see, others who will only use and abuse our vulnerabilities. We are afraid we will have to question our religions. We are afraid that political and international concerns will go awry. And so we lie.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/traversing-the-inner-terrain/201701/the-art-the-lie
Andrea's silence solution sounds a bit utopian, but anyway the fear angle feels valid.
--
Donald Trump's team defends 'alternative facts' after widespread protests
* President and advisers push falsehoods about inauguration attendance
* Secretary of state pick backed by key Republican senators
VIDEO: 0:44 Kellyanne Conway denies Trump press secretary lied: ‘He offered alternative facts’
Jon Swaine
@jonswaine
Monday 23 January 2017 05.25 EST
[...]
Asked on ABC’s This Week whether he had full confidence in Trump, John McCain, the Republican senator and former presidential nominee, replied: “I don’t know.”
Trump also stated falsely during his speech at the CIA on Saturday that reports of a feud between him and US intelligence officials had been invented by journalists, who he said were among “the most dishonest human beings on Earth”.
Only 10 days earlier, Trump had personally likened the US intelligence establishment to Nazi Germany. He also suggested US officials had leaked to the media an explosive and unverified dossier by a former British spy alleging links between Trump and Russia.
Some of Trump’s most loyal supporters in Washington defended the president’s unusual remarks. “You’re going to see more of this,”
Devin Nunes, a Republican congressman for California, told CNN’s State of the Union. “He was just having a good time.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/22/donald-trump-kellyanne-conway-inauguration-alternative-facts
So constant lying is explained away by "just having a good time", eh .. sheesh,
ugly .. this post was prompted by the Kasparov quote in your 6th item down ..
Why Nobody Cares the President Is Lying
[...]
All administrations lie, but what we are seeing here is an attack on credibility itself.
The Russian dissident and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov drew upon long familiarity with that process when he tweeted: “The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”
Mr. Kasparov grasps that the real threat is not merely that a large number of Americans have become accustomed to rejecting factual information, or even that they have become habituated to believing hoaxes. The real danger is that, inundated with “alternative facts,” many voters will simply shrug, asking, “What is truth?” — and not wait for an answer.
In that world, the leader becomes the only reliable source of truth; a familiar phenomenon in an authoritarian state, but a radical departure from the norms of a democratic society. The battle over truth is now central to our politics.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/opinion/sunday/why-nobody-cares-the-president-is-lying.html
which was a top tweet.
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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