2012 Comment on GOP Liars: Terrifyingly Prescient?
LGF user Interesting Times has asked me to re-post this comment from 2012, as a prescient warning about the Trump administration’s concept of veracity. I have believed for a long time that this is a common attitude in the Republican base, and we have now seen it brought to its full, terrible potential. (Interesting Times’s highlighting)
Many years ago, I read an article about a missionary who went to New Guinea to work with some barely contacted tribes. The culture of one of these tribes was such that they openly admired lying and treachery. When the preacher told them the story of Judas’s betrayal, for example, they responded with a low whistle of admiration.
I don’t know whether this missionary’s tale was true, but it rather reminds me of the Lubbock Republicans: They are, themselves, pathological liars. They have little regard for education and knowledge because they can simply invent whatever “facts” they require, rather than working hard to acquire them. They apparently think this is a good thing, a sign of power and status. The only reason they dislike being called liars is the implication that they aren’t getting away with it. If you call them out, you haven’t impugned their honesty, you have impugned their skill and power. It therefore does no good to prove to them that Mitt is lying, they actually admire him for it.
I fear that these dark values are now dominant. We are pilgrims in an unholy land.