This post was originally published on Defender Network
By Aswad Walker
According to the Washington Post Fact Checker team, that’s how many lies Donald Trump told during his four years as president.
It should be noted, that number doesn’t include lies Trump told in private conversations during those four years. Moreover, the fact that the Washington Post has been accused of being a conservative-leaning (Trump-supporting) media outlet suggests that the outlet may have grossly under-counted those lies spewed by Trump.
“Just say anything often enough, and they’ll believe it,” said one of Trump’s former aides, recounting his words of disdain for his own MAGA base.
Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, said during a national interview that it was perfectly acceptable for him to make up stories if it generated more media attention on the issues important to him and Trump.
Yikes.
Even though Vance sees no problem with lying, here are five (5) dangers of being over-exposed to politician-produced lies, especially those shared during an election year.
APATHY
Many Millennials and Gen Z members have officially thrown up their hands in disgust at the entire political system, deeming it too dirty and nonsensical to even deserve their time and attention. A large number of these young people view both parties as the same, though when pressed, most see the Republicans as insidiously evil and lying about their objectives and the Democrats as milquetoast weak and unwilling to fight to achieve their goals, which to them amounts to lying.
SCAPEGOATING
One of the main objectives of political lies and disinformation is to redirect the general public’s attention away from real problems and the sources of those problems, by identifying a group to use as a scapegoat. This act of blaming all of society’s problems on a particular group (Blacks, immigrants, the poor, etc.) not only puts the lives of members of those groups at risk, it also ignores real issues and diverts time, energy and resources away from finding real solutions because it’s all focused on demonizing the wrong people.
VIOLENCE
Oftentimes groups are scapegoated not as the reasons for a particular issue in society, but for the purpose of making that group the issue—demonizing a specific group to rile up a political party’s base, and make attacking and scapegoating that group seem like work to improve society, when in actuality, it’s only placing a target on the back of that group’s members.
Trump and his VP pick, JD Vance, have purposely demonized immigrants, with Vance admitting in an interview that he purposely promoted made-up stories about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating people’s pets in order to get more political coverage for himself and Trump. Bomb threats, death threats, etc. have been directed toward Haitians in Springfield and across the country because of purposely perpetrated political lies.
DISCOURAGEMENT
People who might otherwise be inclined to become politically active and maybe even yearn to serve as elected officials could easily get discouraged by the entire system, seeing it as so tainted and dirty that they choose to focus their energies and talents elsewhere. This means, the general public loses out on countless talented and motivated people walking away from their initial desire to serve the larger society. It is incalculable how many potential Barbara Jordans, Mickey Lelands and John Lewises society has lost out on because political lies and disinformation was aloud to dominate the public discourse.
DEATH OF DEMOCRACY
Constant political lies lead to distrust in the entire system and the vast majority of the electorate checking out and not engaging, voting, or caring. In this context, democracy can easily die.
This is happening right in front of our eyes in the present moment.
Over 40% of Republicans said they approve of political violence as a means of gaining political advantage, a position so anti-democratic that it should signal the need for a massive reset. But not only are nearly half of Republicans cool with political assassinations, jailing political “enemies” and/or deploying armed militias/vigilantes to “get” them, and using the U.S. military to put down U.S. citizens who are protesting against positions held by a particular political party.
All anti-democracy.
Hence, it makes sense that nearly 40% of Republicans say they are cool with suspending democracy and/or giving power to a dictator (Trump). The fact that they have said ahead of time that if their candidate doesn’t win, they won’t accept the results of the election hints that maybe democracy in this country is already dead. Why? Because democracy depends not only on people voting and being engaged but also on citizens, voters, and lawmakers honoring election results.
Without candidates who lose elections willing to concede and admit defeat, there is no democracy… only chaos.
