06 March 2017

Lying With Conviction

This past weekend saw arguably one of Donald Trump's most bizarre episodes in a career of bizarre behavior: without any proof, he accused President Obama of having bugged his offices during the campaign last year.

His behavior was soundly condemned by both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. The FBI Director, a Republican, refuted the claim and asked the Justice Department to do the same.

A parade of officials from the last administration stepped forward and said the claim was preposterous. And, of course, President Obama flatly denied Trump's surreal assertion.

So what's going on? Was this another frantic attempt by Trump to divert attention away from the widening Russian scandal that's increasingly consuming his presidency? Or is he edging into some kind of actual psychotic breakdown?

Or is this yet another example of Trump peddling lies because that's what he does best?

Speaking of lying, Salon published an interesting article yesterday with the title "Here’s the key to Trump’s outrageous lies: He sells them with conviction" (link here).

The article asks "how can Trump’s supporters be so blind to the president’s measurable aversion to facts?" In other words, why can't they grasp that he's lying, when his lies are so thoroughly debunked by so many sources and often so obviously false?

The answer is simple, as the article explains: "those who excel at deceiving others often deceive themselves first. The best liars, it turns out, are people who can successfully lie to themselves."

In short, liars like Trump are actually delusional and living in an alternative reality.

This goes a long way to explaining why some Trump supporters actually believe he'll be good for LGBT Americans. He's deceiving himself with that claim and had been peddling that deception to others, some who buy the lie.

Most of us realize, however, that Trump's claims of being pro-LGBT are horse shit.

If Trump was a crazy old man down the street who is sure the CIA is listening in on his phone calls, then he could be dismissed as a harmless old crank. But when that crazy old man is living in the White House, that's another matter entirely.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous05:25

    No hay que dejarse confundir con estas sucias tácticas.Amigo venezolano,Cucuta

    ReplyDelete

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