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Our President* Spent His Saturday Lying to Our Faces
"I'm here because I want to be among my friends and among the people. This was a great movement, a movement like has never been seen before in our country our probably anywhere else."
Christianity. Islam. The Protestant Reformation. Abolitionism. Daniel O'Connell, Women's suffrage, the labor movement, Gandhi. The Civil Rights Movement. The movement against the war in Vietnam. Punk rock.
"Within a few days of taking the oath of office, I've taken steps to begin the construction of the Keystone and the Dakota Access Pipelines. Anywhere from 30-40,000 jobs. And very importantly, as I was about to sign it, I said who makes the pipe? Who makes the pipe? Something this audience understands very well, right? Simple question. The lawyers put this very complex document in front. I said, who makes the pipe? They said, sir, it can be made anywhere. I said not anymore. I put a little clause in the bottom. The pipe has to be made in the United States of America if we're going to have pine line."
The 30,000 jobs figure was debunked years ago. The pipes for it have been sitting in North Dakota for years. Many of them were not made in America.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a53269/trump-florida-rally-lies/
RELATED: Why Do People Believe Trump's Lies?
THEIR ANGER AND PARANOIA, THEIR HYPERBOLE, AND THE CONSTANT WHIFF OF CONSPIRATORIAL DOOM THEY PERCEIVE IN THE DEMOCRATIC WINDS ARE NOTHING NEW.
While it's Pollyanna to believe American will ever get to a place where we have a complete electorate who thinks rationally about things that come from the mouths of elected officials, it's worth understanding the issue and impact of conspiracy theories and the denial of established facts. So Esquire spoke with Dr. Lipstadt, who had just returned to Emory University in Atlanta after a whirlwind tour of Europe for the premiere of Denial.
Conspiracy is the root of denial.
I think that most denial—whether it's climate denial, Holocaust denial, vaccine denial, or Newtown denial—rests in a conspiracy theory, and America has a long history of conspiracy theories. People who've believed the moon landing was fake, that Kennedy was killed by the CIA, etc. So those can exist independent of any political or economic climate. Having said that, I do think that when there is economic stress coupled with a sense among some people, a cadre of people—be it a class, be it an ethnic group, be it a religion—they're getting "the short end of the stick," that can enhance it, especially if it feels another group is getting "the long end of the stick." So it's a constellation of things. I don't think that just because you have an economic downturn that you're going to have conspiracy theories. But I do think those kind of things help bring it about.
The media plays a role.
It's very easy to talk about "the media," and we've done a lot of that lately, too glibly so. I do think that at times there are portions of the media that play upon these ideas. During the presidential election, during the early months, the president of CBS said Trump was "great for ratings." Trump may not be telling the truth, but he's the best thing that's happened to ratings. Ultimately the media is a business, so it's gotta sell tickets, get viewers, things like that... I wouldn't look for culpability, but I would say the media, though not singularly, has a special responsibility for pointing to the absurdity of certain claims, and the mainstream media has begun to do that in recent months by saying if a claim was made without evidence or if it's clearly a lie. That's very important and very significant. But I think it's incumbent on all of us. There's a plethora of information now available to us, and it's great, but I think we have to be particularly vigilant. We've been given this gift of an "information superhighway," but with every gift come responsibility. I think now more than ever.
While it's Pollyanna to believe American will ever get to a place where we have a complete electorate who thinks rationally about things that come from the mouths of elected officials, it's worth understanding the issue and impact of conspiracy theories and the denial of established facts. So Esquire spoke with Dr. Lipstadt, who had just returned to Emory University in Atlanta after a whirlwind tour of Europe for the premiere of Denial.
Conspiracy is the root of denial.
I think that most denial—whether it's climate denial, Holocaust denial, vaccine denial, or Newtown denial—rests in a conspiracy theory, and America has a long history of conspiracy theories. People who've believed the moon landing was fake, that Kennedy was killed by the CIA, etc. So those can exist independent of any political or economic climate. Having said that, I do think that when there is economic stress coupled with a sense among some people, a cadre of people—be it a class, be it an ethnic group, be it a religion—they're getting "the short end of the stick," that can enhance it, especially if it feels another group is getting "the long end of the stick." So it's a constellation of things. I don't think that just because you have an economic downturn that you're going to have conspiracy theories. But I do think those kind of things help bring it about.
The media plays a role.
It's very easy to talk about "the media," and we've done a lot of that lately, too glibly so. I do think that at times there are portions of the media that play upon these ideas. During the presidential election, during the early months, the president of CBS said Trump was "great for ratings." Trump may not be telling the truth, but he's the best thing that's happened to ratings. Ultimately the media is a business, so it's gotta sell tickets, get viewers, things like that... I wouldn't look for culpability, but I would say the media, though not singularly, has a special responsibility for pointing to the absurdity of certain claims, and the mainstream media has begun to do that in recent months by saying if a claim was made without evidence or if it's clearly a lie. That's very important and very significant. But I think it's incumbent on all of us. There's a plethora of information now available to us, and it's great, but I think we have to be particularly vigilant. We've been given this gift of an "information superhighway," but with every gift come responsibility. I think now more than ever.
http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/news/a53228/why-people-believe-trump-fake-news/
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
how?
