Kavanaugh, Kamala Harris, and Hillary Clinton: A lie gets halfway round the world…
…especially if it’s told by Kamala Harris and then retweeted by Hillary Clinton:
California Senator and likely presidential candidate Kamala Harris spread a misleadingly edited video of Brett Kavanaugh’s hearing testimony, falsely claiming Kavanaugh views birth control as the equivalent of abortion. From that, the argument goes, if Kavanaugh voted against Roe v. Wade, birth control would be banned…
Harris’ perpetrated this fraud by editing out the first part of Kavanaugh’s statement, which made clear that he was quoting what litigants in a case had claimed…
Harris’ falsehood was widely shared on social media, so much so that both Politifact and WaPo felt the need to fact check it. Both ruled it false…
Enter one Hillary Clinton today on Twitter, after all the evidence was in that Harris’ claim was false, including the Politifact and WaPo fact checks.
Hillary repeated Harris’ false accusation in a Twitter thread. This clearly was a planned out series of tweets by Hillary, not just a retweet…
Not only is it a lie, they know it’s a lie, too. Harris doubled down on the “dog whistle” remark after she was informed of the context of Kavanaugh’s words. And Clinton certainly should have known, after the WaPo gave Harris’ original lie four Pinocchios and Politifact rated it false.
Why do Harris and Clinton do this? They do this for a simple reason, and that reason is embodied in the title of this post, which is a shortened version of an old saying about falsehood vs. truth. The saying has several forms and has been attributed to a variety of people:
Metaphorical maxims about the speedy dissemination of lies and the much slower propagation of corrective truths have a very long history. The major literary figure Jonathan Swift wrote on this topic in “The Examiner” in 1710 although he did not mention shoes or boots…
[Swift wrote] as the vilest Writer has his Readers, so the greatest Liar has his Believers; and it often happens, that if a Lie be believ’d only for an Hour, it has done its Work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect…
Let me just pause here and say boy, they really used to know how to write.
More from the same link:
The phrasing and figurative language used in these sayings have been evolving for more than three hundred years. In 1787 “falsehood” was reaching “every corner of the earth”. In 1820 a colorful version was circulating with lies flying from “Maine to Georgia” while truth was “pulling her boots on”. By 1834 “error” was running “half over the world” while truth was “putting on his boots”. In 1924 a lie was circling the globe while a truth was “lacing its shoes on”.
From a 1787 sermon by Thomas Francklin:
Falsehood will fly, as it were, on the wings of the wind, and carry its tales to every corner of the earth; whilst truth lags behind; her steps, though sure, are slow and solemn, and she has neither vigour nor activity enough to pursue and overtake her enemy…
Much much much more at the link.
The point, of course, is that lies work. They are juicy, they often are uncritically accepted because of motivated reasoning, and in this day and age they spread even faster than in the past.
Of course, the same methods of speedy dissemination can help spread the truth. But somehow, truth often lags behind, as in days of yore, and therefore Harris and Clinton can rest secure in the knowledge that their lies will almost certainly have the desired effect.
Of course, where Kavanaugh is concerned, what Harris and Clinton say will not stop him from being confirmed. But that’s not their goal right now. Their goal is to fire up the troops to think his confirmation is a huge outrage and that he will abolish abortion, all the more reason to go out and vote Democratic in 2018 and beyond.
This is a perfect example why I find so many politicians to be horrid people.
Lurch:
Not only that, but people who aren’t horrid people have a tendency to get weeded out of politics at a fast clip, because politics rewards lies.
This lie was trotted out against Mitt Romney, perhaps in a debate; and again in the 2016 Rep. primary debates. And the usual response is something like, “I er, am not really sure, that … maybe you misunderstood …”
Expletive, expletive, what’s wrong with these people? Where’s the full throated denial and condemnation of liars? Are they worried they might lose a couple Catholics? (They won’t.) Do they take classes on how to lose political campaigns?
______
Is it my misperception, or is it true that Dems keep replaying the same gambits over and over? As a kid, I remember adults speaking of depression era programs like WPA and CCC, but didn’t know ’till much later that these fell under the umbrella of the National Recovery Act, or NRA.
What did Obama do quickly in response to the great recession? Create the National Recovery Act.
because politics rewards lies
It’s not easy to reconcile the diverse interests of native and foreign interests, deplorables and elites, and special and peculiar interests.
I’m not sure politicians-in-general are horrid people. It’s just that (1) their banal deceptions are recorded and (2) they get penalized for honesty more than most of us do and (3) the scum also rises. Most politicians are to be found on local councils and live among ordinary people.
One problem we have is the culture. It used to be less tolerant of grossness (and the sort of grossness it tolerated was somewhat different than it is today). By way of example…
Recall that presidential pensions were prescribed by law only in 1958, in part in response to Harry Truman’s spare household finances. Do you recall that Truman was a loyal minion of Thos. J. Prendergast and was a deep friend of two of the Boss’s sons? He played piano in that whorehouse. He didn’t go up the stairs. His patriotism and sense of propriety inhibited him from monetizing the presidency. Richard Nixon (who had overdue legal bills) was mocked and slammed by the liberal press for accepting $600,000 from David Frost. Given the change in nominal incomes since 1976, a contextually similar sum today would be $4,000,000. For his trouble, Frost got 29 hours of unrehearsed one-on-one interviews. Bilge Clinton can charge $189,000 for 50 minutes of boilerplate and BO’s asking price is higher still. Nixon’s deal was (IIRC) a one-off. The systemic buckraking began with Gerald Ford. However, for Brobdinagian cupidity, no one tops the Clintons.
Old (and dead) Joe Goebbels new about the Big Lie a long time ago. Still works today.
Lillian Carter was once asked what she meant by ‘white lie’. She replies, “You remember when I came to the door and I said I was glad to see you?”
Unfortunately, there’s a great deal of deception in daily life. Recall what the Peter de Vries character said, “I’ve done quite a study of true feelings. Most of them deserve to be hidden”. I dislike banal deception in public life, but a great deal of it isn’t vicious. Harry Reid making false claims about Mitt Romney’s taxes on the floor of the Senate is vicious. Charles Schumer issuing a press release claiming a state college professor that Newt Gingrich had tapped for a patronage job was a Nazi sympathizer counts as vicious. Hillary Clinton and her minions launching a bogus prosecution of Billy R. Dale and draining him of his life’s savings counts as vicious. The congressman from Pennsylvania who ran on a pro-life platform while badgering his paramour to get an abortion is frankly hideous. As an interim goal, we might work to build a culture where these sorts of people are screened out and run out of public life.
Recall Jerry Springer’s explanation of why he got out of politics: “I didn’t want to do it as a career. When you’re doing it to put bread on the table, you’ll say anything. Most of these guys haven’t practiced law in 25 years. They’d be incompetent. They go into lobbying because that’s what they know”.
We might improve the quality of office holders if we limited candidacies for presumptively f/t positions to people who’d reached a certain age. Harry Truman’s first run for elective office occurred in 1923, when he was 39 years old. We can unload the Robert Byrds by instituting mandatory retirement, which they do for judges in New York.
“…Let me just pause here and say boy, they really used to know how to write…”
You are so lovely.
I really hate to break it to you. They never knew how to write. They just reprinted Soviet propaganda word for word.
I served on my town’s Planning Board and Zoning Board of Adjustment for 20 years and found that many of the local politicians are perfectly horrid people too. But I will agree that the more local the politician, the higher the chance you’re interacting with a decent human being.
Steve57:
Jonathan Swift repeated Soviet propaganda?
Is that some sort of joke? I don’t get it, if so.
Adams pointed out that our form of governance is “fit only for a moral and religious people”. IMO, by “religious” he meant a people who believe that in the afterlife, they will be held accountable for their actions in this life.
PS: You’re not alone in not getting it neo…
“[Swift wrote] as the vilest Writer has his Readers, so the greatest Liar has his Believers; and it often happens, that if a Lie be believ’d only for an Hour, it has done its Work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect…”
* * *
Having a statement proved as false (even by their own “side”) is no deterrent. Recall how often the “97% of scientists” and “1 in 4 college women sexually assaulted” have been repeated on the Left despite being repetitively debunked.
This article kinda sorta explains why the Left leans on these lies to further their agenda.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-earp/1-in-4-women-how-the-late_b_8191448.html
“So enter the headline from last week’s New York Times coverage of the latest college campus sexual assault survey:
“1 in 4 Women Experience Sex Assault on Campus.”
But that’s not what the survey showed. And you don’t have to read all 288 pages of the published report to figure this out (although I did that today just to be sure). The executive summary is all you need.
…
Now, much more could be said about caveats, but using just the information we have so far, we can see that a more accurate headline would look something like this:
Approximately 1 in 4 of 19% of a Non-Representative Sample of Women Who Responded to a Non-Representative Survey of 27 Colleges (Out of Roughly 5,000) Reported Experiencing Sexual Assault, Where “Sexual Assault” is Taken to Mean Anything from Being on the Receiving End of an Unsolicited Kiss to Forcible Penetration at Gunpoint, Regardless of the Particular Context
Obviously, that’s too long to be practical – so let’s see if we can think of something shorter:
Latest Campus Sexual Assault Survey Paints Complicated Picture: Report Stresses Methodological Limitations
That’s about right in terms of accuracy … but it wouldn’t sell very many papers.
Faced with this dilemma, the New York Times, a discourse-shaping publication with a massive readership, elected to go ahead with a headline that the authors of the very report they’re covering went out of their way to—repeatedly—emphasize was “misleading.”
And that’s putting it nicely. ”
In this case, the Lie only had to run a few paragraphs ahead of the Truth, because NYT editors know their readers often don’t read down far enough to get the “we were just exagerating ” caveats, and even if they do, the headline is what sticks.
“The end justifies the means” is the rationalization embraced. The need to repeatedly lie to achieve the end sought “puts the lie” to its true worth. Demonstrating it to be a substanceless rationalization.
“Man is not a rational animal. Man is a rationalizing animal.” Robert Anson Heinlein
And it is lust for the end sought that extinguishes conscience and allows rationalization to flourish.
FWIW:
“The New Gulliver” — a 1935 Soviet propaganda film. Is that what Steve57 was referencing?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Gulliver
our form of governance is “fit only for a moral and religious people”.
A religious/moral philosophy or another suitable behavioral protocol that normalizes self-moderation and personal responsibility. God or mortal gods are helpful, but are not mandatory, except for people who are not the former, and are oriented to run amuck.
These Democrats are Deranged.
They suffer from Democrat Derangement Syndrome — which has previously been misnamed as Trump or Bush Derangement.
Democrats who act, and possibly even believe, that Republicans are evil. Such Dems are deranged.
They suffer from DDS – Democrat Derangement Syndrome.
The D next to Ms Harris’s name represents Democrat…. perhaps it indicates disgusting, deliberate, deceit when discovered begets disillusionment, despair and destruction.
Does a liar die slower than an honest person? Swinging from the end of a rope, I dare say not.
If a democrat speaks, they are lying.
And when the lie is spread a short time before Election Day, it can be devastating to the one lied about.
Utterly Unscrupulous FraudsCongressional Democratic Caucus Watch:This just in.
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/09/13/dianne-feinstein-ive-received-mysterious-letter-kavanaugh-referred-fbi/
Your people, Manju.
Art Deco – updates
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/09/the-kavanaugh-smear-why-now.php
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/09/dems-resort-to-complaining-about-kavanaughs-behavior-while-in-high-school.php
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/09/13/update-feinsteins-mystery-letter-fbi-doesnt-plan-investigate-kavanaugh-will-refer-matter-white-house/
Neo, I was thinking of the press in general. The Walter Duranty/Jason Blair paper of record. The WaPo. And of course CNN/Eason Jordan. Who admitted he just reprinted Saddam Hussein’s propaganda verbatim.
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/11/opinion/the-news-we-kept-to-ourselves.html
I respect Jonathon Swift, but he’s been dead for over 200 years. The current crop definitely knows how to lie. I spent 20 years in the Navy, and they lied about me a lot. Eason Jordan admitting he lied just to get the tagline “This is CNN, Baghdad” should have been enough to get him fired as CNN’s chief news executive. But he was finally compelled to resign after he said in 2005 at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the U.S. military actively targeted journalists.
Huh? I know torpedoes, missiles, and artillery rounds are expensive. But, just in case any U.S. journalists are monitoring this site I don’t care if rifle and pistol rounds cost me nothing, I’m not wasting one and my freedom on you.
It amuses me that the media think Donald Trump is the problem, And if only he would shut up about “fake news” they’d be back in the saddle telling us all what to think.
But more germaine to the subject at hand, while they lie with great enthusiasm they do it badly. They don’t know how to write their lies to even make them believable.
https://tammybruce.com/2015/09/nyt-omits-arab-from-headline-jewish-man-dies-as-rocks-pelt-car.html
According to the NYT, rocks in Israel can throw themselves. Or, as I’ve read on other occasions, sometimes Palestinians are identified as providing the assist to the rock hurling. But only that they are throwing rocks at the road. Apparently they’re angry at Isreali roads. And the Jews are stupid enough to drive through the hail of rocks that the Palestinians are innocently aiming at the road.
I meant no insult to Jonathon Swift. These clowns, however, can’t write. I can write. I was a Naval intelligence officer for 20 years, and my intel products were (I am told) readable, informative, and at times entertaining. As were my cyclic ops briefs.
When I was with my first fighter squadron aboard the Carl Vinson (CVN-70, the cleanest ship in the Navy, and pretty bad @##ed too) I produced the Chuckie V Rules Of Engagement coloring book for the aviators.
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