Unforgiven

Recently, evidence has surfaced that proves the on-air personalities at Fox News knew Trump had lost the election, there was no significant voter fraud, and the maneuvers designed to overturn the results of the 2020 election constituted an attempted coup. But they did nothing to stop the coup, because the Big Lie was good for ratings.

Lots of people knew Fox was lying. I did. Everyone I know did. But did you? And if not, why not? What was it in your character or mental ability that rendered you incapable of detecting the lies those around you could clearly see? And when virtually every Republican Congress member and Senator repeated those lies, did they magically become truth? Do lies repeated by people you trust become the truth? How about lies voters repeat, believe, and base their votes on. Are those lies also? YES THEY ARE.

It has become clear ignorance is not the principal cause of support for the perfidy of Republican supporters. Some are ignorant, of course; if you don’t ever read, if you don’t watch alternative news sources, you will by definition be ignorant. But that seems unlikely to be widespread. The truth is everywhere. Increasingly, Trump supporters are perfectly aware they’re lying, and repeating lies. Why? Because they LIKE them.

What’s the difference between ignorant and stupid? Ignorant means you don’t know you’re being lied to; stupid means you’ve been TOLD you’re being lied to, and you STILL believe the lies.

But there’s another explanation. Some folks believe their cause is so just winning is the only outcome they will accept. Being “right” — having views that are supported by the truth, means nothing. Winning is everything.

Of course, there’s sometimes another motivation: GREED. Fox talking heads sometimes introduce segments with “this is going to make you really, really mad” or words to that effect. Enraging voters to the point they’re willing to take action - to send in a check, or attend a rally, or show up at the polls - is precisely what they want to do. Making people angry keeps them watching, and that keeps ratings up, and that drives the price they can charge for ads. They know they’re lying, or presenting only half of the facts, or invoking whichever of the so-called logical fallacies that inform their deceit, but it’s how they keep the money rolling in.

If you think lying to win makes you a winner, or cheating to win makes you a winner, or stealing an election is justified because you’re winning for God, then your soul has died. You’ll vote in ways that harm the rest of us - harming yourself and your children and grandchildren, and your country, in ways that are unforgivable. And you think we’ll forget what you did.

We won’t forget. You’ll die unforgiven.

Les Pinter is a contributing columnist and a Springville resident. His column appears weekly in The Recorder. Pinter’sbook, HTTPV: How a Grocery Shopping Website Can Save America, is available in both Kindle and hardcopy formats on Amazon.com.contact him at lespinter@ earthlink.net