There’s no such thing as a good lie

I recently heard a podcast in which a girl who was president of a political club at her college said “You need to find your truth. Your truth might be different from my truth.” And I wondered, “How did someone that stupid get into college?”

My book, “HTTPV: How a Grocery Shopping Website Can Save America,” is about ways the Internet can improve society by ensuring the truth is the basis of decisions. HTTPV is a factchecking protocol. If you use it to call up a website that lies, it gives you the equivalent of a 404 page not found. It’s not here yet, but it will be. And it can’t come soon enough.

The chapter on politics is what most readers focus on, and perhaps it’s the first place to mandate fact-checking. After all, if we can’t pass laws that are grounded in facts, who knows where we’ll end up? And if we elect people who use lies to get the power to hand out favors to their donors, we know where the rest of us will end up — at the bottom of the heap.

Let’s get something straight: In our civilization, the truth consists of the conclusions of intelligent, well-informed people who have spent their lives studying a particular issue and have all come to the same conclusion. If half of them say one thing and the other half say the opposite, we have to conclude the jury is still out; but if they all agree and you don’t, the probability they’re wrong and you’re right is ZERO. Calling them “so-called experts” doesn’t let you off the hook. It just denies reality.

Many voters are mystified as to what’s true and what isn’t. You can’t trust facts, they’re told; there’s no such thing as facts. If you agree with something, it’s true, and if you don’t, it’s false. That’s the opposite of reason. It doesn’t matter if tens of millions of people believe a lie; it’s still not true. How many Germans agreed the Jews were responsible for all of Germany’s misery? How many Americans believed if you lower taxes for the people with the highest incomes, it will create jobs? Both statements are lies; both won for their candidate.

The quest for the truth is made harder by the fact lately, lies are the principal means of manipulating voters. They tell you there’s no such thing as the truth, or the fact-checkers lie, so you can’t believe anyone, or that both sides lie equally. That’s today’s Big Lie. And lies fester in the Petrie dish of hatred — the other American pandemic. Hatred isn’t a political philosophy; it’s a mental illness. Ask your pastor.

Forces in our body politic employ lies to enrage and motivate voters, and it works. According to an MIT study lies spread six times faster on the Internet than the truth does. And, while there’s only so much truth to enrage us, there’s no limit to the lies that creative manipulators can cook up. Anyone devoted to the truth is at a distinct disadvantage.

Also, there’s the alarming trend for people who are targeted by lies to think believing lies is patriotic, or at least displays a commendable loyalty. These voters are used like, well, pick a disposable paper product, and are then discarded once their votes have given their handlers the power to deliver the promised goods to their real constituency — which absolutely, positively isn’t the American middle class. The people who voted for the liars are harmed just as much as the ones who didn’t. And tax revenues, and the services that those revenues could have provided to help their children, evaporate. End Social Security and Medicare, and taxes can be reduced even further. That’s the end game.

Political lies exploit paranoia. Paranoia can be a symptom or a sign of a psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, but it can also be within the normal range of behavior. As they say, “just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.” But paranoia seems to be a fundamental component of conspiracy theories, which are a staple of political manipulation. Make up a lie, insert a grain of truth, and set it loose on the Internet. No matter how crazy it is, it will attract people who want to believe it. It’s a slippery slope that ends in — well, we’ve seen how it ends.

Education should be the answer, but not everyone wants this particular political tool blunted. Three years ago I was named Chairman of the CODE Pathway for Porterville Unified School District. At the organizational meeting, one speaker opined many of our kids should be studying a trade, like electrician or plumber, because they can make a good living. When my turn to talk came, I said I agreed they could make a good living, but that we also need well-informed citizens who can tell when their candidate is lying to them. The earlier speaker turned purple. He had just told the assemblage how much he admired a local politician who had slavishly backed every lie his boss told. That pretty much sealed my fate as Chairman of the CODE Pathway Advisory Board.

Calling out liars is a political risk, but I don’t care. Our children are more important than brown-nosing a lying Congressman. That’s why I ran for School Board, and that’s why I’m going to run again. If you like what you’re reading, go to Pinter.com and register your support.

We need to agree lying is wrong. That shouldn’t have partisan disagreement. There are valid differences people can have when neither side is lying, but merely disagree. But if you disagree about facts, and one side has truth on their side, then the other side is wrong, and they should be ashamed of themselves.

Words matter. If someone you admire lies and you repeat what they said, then you’re a liar too. Don’t expect to be respected, except by people who don’t know any better than you do. And their respect isn’t worth anything.

You don’t let your children lie; why would you let your political party lie — because it’s a good lie? There are no good lies — just people who think if you can lie to win, it makes you a winner; it doesn’t; it makes you a liar.

Nothing is more important than informing yourself before you vote. Ignorance is treason. Les Pinter is a resident of Springville.