The New Newspeak: When Trump and Co. Lie, It is "Alternative Facts."

[McCamy Taylor]

Hold on to your heads, gentle readers. Otherwise, they might explode and you'll find yourself cleaning bits of brain matter out of the carpet.

Yesterday, Trump and his spokespeople "falsely stated" or "misrepresented" (traditional Newspeak for a presidential falsehood aka "lie" when the rest of us do it) facts about the number of people who showed up for the inauguration, the weather, his relationship with the intelligence community. "With False Claims, Trump Attacks Media on Turnout and Intelligence Rift" writes the New York Times, showing that it is still a gentile newspaper that would never accuse the POTUS of "lying". "On his first full day in office, Trump visited the CIA for a stream-of-consciousness airing of grievances — including against journalists — that included the false claim that the crowd for his swearing-in stretched from the Capitol down the Mall to the Washington Monument," reports the Washington Post. "Sean Spicer didn’t take questions at a news conference — or tell the whole truth" declares a headline further down the WaPo's front page.

All very proper. The mainstream media may criticize the president, but it never, ever accuses him or his surrogates of telling a lie. The POTUS may "claim falsely," he can "misstate". There are rules which govern these things----

Not so fast, says Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway (from the MSNBC web age):

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, said the White House press secretary gave "alternative facts" when he inaccurately described the inauguration crowd as "the largest ever" during his first appearance before the press this weekend. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer gathered the press to deliver a five-minute statement Saturday in which he issued multiple falsehoods, declaring erroneously the number of people who used the D.C. metro on Friday, that there was a change in security measures this year and that "this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe."

Did you get that? The amended edition of the official "Newspeak" manual will be in the mail as soon as Trump and Co. get through with dismantling the federal government and rewriting the Constitution. But in the meantime, never ever accuse Trump of "falsely stating". When the POTUS lies, he does so because the "facts" in the alternative reality in which he lives are different from the "facts" in our world. Where does Trump live? In the pages of George Orwell's 1984.

Next up from Trumpland: the New New Math or why one Trump supporter equals ten Obama supporters.

[Salviati]

1. Alternative facts from the alt right...

... back when people talked plainer, we called these what they really were, lies from nazis.

[ButSeeYa]

2. It's Time...

For an alternative President.

[wiggs]

3. Why do we have to pretend that lying about crowd size is an isolated incident? Why can't

Todd et al ask about the dozens of other times Trump and the gop have lied to the american people and the world? Shouldn't the discussion START by recognizing the pattern of lying? Good for him challenging on an individual instance, but he's missing the forest for the trees.

This is what happens time and again with the gop....a huge issue gets distilled down to parsing words and confused logic until no one knows who is obfuscating and who isn't. Everything is grey. Public discourse is then just argument without solid footing and nothing gets resolved.

The story isn't about crowd size, it's about a pattern of lying his whole life!! COME ON, MAN!

[AgadorSparticus]

4. The media needs to a just RAIL them on this. Just. Go. To.Town

This is how fascism begins. And we need to stand up to this. Don't give kellyanne any air time.