The culture of mendacity
Donald Trump's misleading claims and other lies we're telling ourselves
For years I have been observing a growing culture of mendacity. Its manifestations permeate our everyday life.
It concerns the general awareness of the truth of a situation while everyone associated with that truth adheres to an alternate explanation to avoid addressing it. It is usually associated with politicians but no one is immune from the lying games.
The following are examples of this kind of “group-think,” creating an alternative narrative and reality to that which is happening in the “real world.”
THE BIG LIE
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudi Giuliani, reported to be tipsy at the time, allegedly told the defeated president after the 2020 U.S. election: “Just say you won.”
It was obvious that Trump had, in fact, lost the presidential election. The election has been described by election officials (who else would know?) as the most accurate election in history. More than 60 lawsuits by Trump allies alleging fraud in the election have been shot down.
The Big Lie spawned the "Stop the Steal" and other mendacious (dishonest) battle cries, convincing millions that President Joe Biden did not come to office legally.
PROVEN FALSEHOODS
I am crowning former president Trump as the “Monarch of Mendacity" or "Liar King." I cannot improve on Wikipedia’s description of the extent of his lying:
“During and after his term as president of the United States, Donald Trump made tens of thousands of false or misleading claims. The Washington Post's factcheckers documented 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, an average of about 21 per day. The Toronto Star tallied 5,276 false claims from January 2017 to June 2019, an average of 6.1 per day. Commentators and fact-checkers have described the scale of Trump's mendacity as 'unprecedented' in American politics, and the consistency of falsehoods a distinctive part of his business and political identities. Scholarly analysis of Trump's tweets found 'significant evidence' of an intent to deceive.”
DUKES OF DECEIT
It has just come to light that the attempt to bring articles of impeachment against President Biden, primarily by Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, Representative James Comer of Kentucky and Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, were based on direct misinformation from Russian intelligence. The FBI warned the “dukes” that the potentially damming evidence against President Biden and his son by the mysterious confidential informant they presented as a trusted source had not been closely verified. After being exposed of intentionally making false allegations they unabashedly went on with their Impeachment inquiry with absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing.
COVID-19
There are two prevalent pandemics that demonstrate the disastrous effects of misinformation and deceit. The Trump administration responded to COVID-19 by stimulating the development of a vaccine in record-breaking time. This is a scientific accomplishment that will be seen as historic.
At the same time, the response to Covid was hampered by a small group led by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law, in order to dismantle the plans in place to address this type of emergency. He and his cadre of frat-boy friends with no public health experience decided the virus did not require the comprehensive plan to quash it. Their disastrous handling of the crisis caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in the United States that were tragically unnecessary.
GUN VIOLENCE
The other pandemic is gun violence in the United States. Much attention is focused on mass shootings, which are so common that most are not even reported by the regional and national media.
The most prevalent form of gun violence, however, is suicide and violence within family circles. The leading cause of death of children in the United States is gun violence. Over 80 per cent of Americans want something to be done about gun violence.
I live half-time in Missouri and half-time in Nova Scotia. Missouri appears to have an especially “wild west” view of gun ownership. This certainly came to light at the Superbowl celebration in Kansas City where more than 20 bystanders were gravely injured, and one person died when two teenagers pulled out their semi-automatic weapons and had a gunfight in a packed crowd. The guns were illegally acquired even under the lax firearms laws of Missouri.
The U.S. is drowning in guns. Canada has a healthy gun policy. Australia responded to a mass shooting tragedy by rounding up the guns not necessary for law enforcement and legitimate hunting and predator management and went about destroying them. The U.S. must do the same.
CLIMATE CRISIS
Perhaps the biggest example of the Culture of Mendacity has to do with the climate crisis.
We are being warned by scientists around the world that our activities utilizing fossil fuels are leading to the extinction of a large share of mammalian life. It is especially threatening human life. While there is publicity about how we are developing alternatives to our fossil fuel addiction, we are ignoring the root of the problem.
We must initiate a concerted effort to develop community self-sufficiency which is the only true form of homeland security. Canada is a rich land full of resources that, with the right tools and training, can provide an excellent life with technology and knowledge we already have when placed in the hands of resourceful rural Canadians.