It’s lies all the way down, and you can fool some of the people much of the time
It seems to me that lies are not incidental to the leftist campaign; they are foundational. The lies are constant and pervasive, and without them the left would have almost no selling points. The key to lying effectively is to be as united as possible in the lie, to repeat it and not back down in the face of corrections, and to enlist the cooperation of the MSM and social media heads in the endeavor.
The left has accomplished that for the most part, although now and then there’s a defection from someone who just can’t wallow in the lies anymore. That’s also why those who do defect must be ostracized and if possible destroyed financially and socially, maybe even imprisoned and certainly broken financially. And that’s why Elon Musk is considered such a dangerous traitor by buying Twitter and instituting (or re-instituting?) a measure of free speech there, as well as community notes.
But the left and the MSM still have great power, for the simple reason that a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its boots on. News junkies like us follow the details, but a great many people only get the headlines and then go about their lives, and social media and email are still great conduits for spreading the lies. What’s more, the newer lies are placed on top of a large edifice constructed of the older lies, and the new ones are integrated seamlessly and seem extremely plausible because they fit into the previous worldview of the person receiving the information.
That’s how perceptions based on lies persist and even grow stronger. It’s a rare person who – like a friend of mine did recently – tries to determine whether a new story is a lie or not. This friend likes neither Trump nor Harris, and had gotten some sort of communication from friends, either through email or Facebook, that Trump said he wanted Liz Cheney put up in front of a firing squad. My friend found this very disturbing, if true, and because she knew I research these things she asked me what I thought and I was able to explain about the “chickenhawk” charge.
But what of her friends who believed it and I’m pretty certain continue to believe it? It fit in perfectly with their idea of Trump, formed by thousands of other such incidents and lies: that he’s a violent threat to women and should never, never ever, be given power. What’s to be done to set them straight? You might say it’s not worth bothering and/or impossible, but they are the voters who might elect Kamala Harris as president, without even knowing how they’ve been duped.
I think the key is the MSM. If the media did its job properly, the politicians might tell their lies but the lies wouldn’t get halfway round the world.
I’ve been following political campaigns for over 40 years, and this is the most astonishing campaign I’ve ever seen. As you’ve said, Neo, lies have been a part of the left from the beginning. But in the past there has always been at least *some* truth around which the lies were framed.
Not this time. There is *nothing* about Harris or her campaign that is genuine. It’s lies all the way down. *Everything* is fake; every speech, every interview, every campaign event — even her ethnicity. Everything.
Sometimes I wonder if Kamala Harris even exists.
An interesting article in _Tablet_ by Park MacDougald, “The Democrats’ Insanity Defense”:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/democrats-insanity-defense
Subtitle: “Republican activists say they have to water down the reality of their opponents’ agenda in focus groups. ‘They just don’t believe it’s true. It can’t be.‘”
Between this “lies” post and the one above on election fraud, my slight tendency towards optimism for Tuesday has now been squashed back down to my usual pessimism.
To lie is “to knowingly tell an untruth”. Those who know them to be lies and condone them make themselves complicit in the lies. May they reap the reward they so richly deserve.
A reward that approaches ever closer for the tangled web they weave is falling apart for an ever growing skeptical public.
Gallup poll; “Oct 14, 2024 — Currently, 54% of Democrats, 27% of independents and 12% of Republicans say they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media.”
If we go by a metric that 1/3 of voting age adults are democrat, 1/3 ‘republican’ and 1/3 independent… with the Fed estimating a Voting-Age Population for 2023 of 262,083,034.
Then 1/3 of 262,083,034 = 87,361,011 in each category.
54% of democrats = 47,174,946 + 27% Independent = 23,587,472 + 12% voting republican = 10,483,321 for a total of 81,245,739 voters who arguably lean toward Harris.
That 81,245,739 voters is just under 31% of America’s voting age citizens.
Cheating is the ONLY way she can ‘win’. So bring on Antifa and the riots. Let them burn down the blue cities. If they invade red areas… put down the rioters with ‘extreme prejudice’.
They’ve made the ‘rules’ they play by, make them fully play by them.
Well those people were already likely to vote for harris
2020 was also a pretty weird election — if you actually paid attention to what Biden was saying and how he was saying things (though not if you just assumed he was a normal guy who was going to make everything normal again). The election “fortifying” was also quite astounding.
I agree with you, MKent. That might be a fun little meme: does Harris actually exist? She truly seems to be entirely a social construct. Wags (myself included) said the same about Obama, but even he would have gaffes (‘spread the wealth around’) and poor public performances (the first debate with Romney). Harris really doesn’t, because she doesn’t say or do anything outside of a script. When she does, it’s absurd, but not because she accidentally discloses her true beliefs and intentions (like Obama), but because there’s no there, there. She truly is a deer in the headlights, an empty vessel, pure astroturf; a social construct.
The ultimate question: are Trump hatred and abortion obsession both strong enough for a social construct to be elected President. I don’t think so, but….stay tunned
The most troubling thing to me is that Democrats always run to the middle until after they are elected and then govern as committed leftists. They know they would lose if they did otherwise. Harris is no different and her claims to the contrary are meant to lull the least sophisticated to buy it.
Indeed.
See Karmer in the UK, disguising himself as a decent moderate but now hell-bent on wreaking extraordinary damage to his nation.
Seems to be the playbook, in fact
You can go to the well only so many times. The worst that could happen would be a collapse, humans will survive, what comes next I don’t know.
@stu:The most troubling thing to me is that Democrats always run to the middle until after they are elected and then govern as committed leftists
That’s not the main reason they win elections. They run a spoils system using our money. Yes, you get tampons in the boys’ locker room, but somebody else gets a contract and revenue, or a government job.
I don’t think most of us old folks realize how many businesses take government money and count on it for their continued existence nowadays. That spending running up the national debt is going mostly into the pockets of some business.
It’s a shell game of course: what’s taken from taxpayers would have benefited some other business had the government not spent it. But that’s the key word “other”. Keeping the public happy is hard, keeping the government happy is easier. The ones taking the money are not going to give it up without a fight.
“It’s a shell game…”
Well yes.
Though Obama (& Co.) implemented that additional “humorous” dimension in which taxpayers PAY big bucks to help the Democrats destroy the country, as well as generously reward those doing the destroying(!!), that those taxpayers—not all, certainly—love and wish to nurture, strengthen and protect….
Yep, that special brand of tried and true piquant, Obaman,“transformational” humor…
Thank you, Nancy. I also saw and was thinking about that tablet article.
Lying also has the benefit of the “chaff” defense. If they get people arguing over whether one story is true or not, it has the added benefit of pulling attention from a story they DON’T want people noticing.
For this example, everyone argues over Trump’s Liz Chaney comment are not talking about the jobs report numbers. In a narrative battle, where both sides fight over what the popular topic will be of the day, lying about the other side is a great way to steer the battle to the topic you want and away from the one you want to avoid.
This is the true power of the corporate media. Even those among us who do not believe a word they say end up discussing topics chosen by the media, never the topics we want.
Just running this scenario out if the Marxists can win with very possibly the worse candidate ever. I am thinking of course that will start some kind of revolt by conservatives, and no not armed rebellion or bombings just protesters with destroying much if at all, they will get false flag operations and get sucked into the Jan6 Ralliers gulags.
@Nate Winchester:Even those among us who do not believe a word they say end up discussing topics chosen by the media, never the topics we want.
That’s our own fault. Young people have given up listening to them, and so can we, if we choose to.
@Skip: I am thinking of course that will start some kind of revolt by conservatives
No; the normies will keep grilling as long as they’re allowed to buy meat, and the GOP will roll to the left and die, trying to stay in office as long as possible.
Over time, nice middle class people will start cheating on their taxes, stop picking up their trash, and stop following rules, as they wake up to the banana republic that exists only to fleece them.
And at some point the Federal government will go broke, or get us into a war that we lose badly; turns out that a military geared to fighting misgendering and patriarchy isn’t good at war no matter how many contractors it enriches….
Related…
“The Internet Is Getting Flushed Down Orwell’s Memory Hole“—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/internet-getting-flushed-down-orwells-memory-hole
‘UK Foreign Secretary Blames Civil Unrest In Europe On “Russian Disinformation”‘—
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/uk-foreign-secretary-blames-civil-unrest-europe-russian-disinformation
The Hamas fanboi quelle surprise
UNBELIEVABLE!!!
FORSOOTH, Second Spouse blurts da TRUTH….
https://instapundit.com/681975/
Hmm. Here’s something, um, interesting…
“Somali Leaders in Minnesota Endorse Trump: ‘We Can’t Afford Anything’;—
‘“ Now please understand this, we love our brothers and sisters who are Democrats, but you left us.”‘
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/11/somali-leaders-in-minnesota-endorse-trump-we-cant-afford-anything/
Heh…so did Ilhan Omar run off with all of the dough? (Curious minds, etc.)
Barry Meislin:
I did a double-take too.
If Somalis can figure this election out, maybe Americans can.
@ Barry & huxley – politics makes strange alliances.
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2024/10/26/trump-endorsed-by-arab-americans-while-campaigning-in-michigan-n3796325
Despite Trump’s solid pro-Israel positions, the locals are voting their pocketbooks.
“During that rally he discussed a meeting he’d held earlier in the day with representatives of Arab American and Muslim American groups.”
It’s unclear if these are separate groups, and if both are Muslim organizations.
Lots of Arabs in America are Christians, and many emigrants from Arab nations are Jews.
Steve Cortes @CortesSteve
Powerful closing ad from President Trump…
https://x.com/CortesSteve/status/1852776120279515141
On reflection, I think the HotAir post is about the same group as the LI post, but didn’t identify the Arabs as Somalis (who do not jump to my mind as being “Arabian” although they are Muslims).
Scratch that; the Somalis are in Minnesota not Michigan.
That makes this an even more interesting development!
It all boils down to who is motivated to tell the truth. It seems these Somalis are.
I think this election is also a referendum on the MSM. Right now, its approval rating is similar to, if not lower than Congress’ approval rating, according to what I read. We’ve already seen Zuckerberg and Bezos furiously backpedaling to get in front the way the wind is blowing. CNN, which is probably barely hanging on as a viable business, is sure to follow.
There’s no doubt these agents of propaganda will see a boost when they can once again spend all their time undermining the Administration, but they only have credibility with Low-Information Voters. The rest of us see them for what they are, and maybe this will be a sea change towards at least the _appearance_ of objectivity.
Assuming Trump wins…
Somalis in Minnesota or anywhere else are definitely not Arabs. I saw first-hand when I lived in Egypt how lighter-skinned Egyptian Muslims treated darker-skinned Muslims from sub-Saharan Africa. It’s a mistake to think that discrimination based on appearance was a uniquely North American failing.