Day after day, we Americans are living in a chaotic tangle of lies and delusions that imperil American democracy.
Bloated prevarication is, in large part, the thriving toxic legacy cultivated by Donald Trump, who has told more than 20,000 provable lies – big and small – during his tenure as president.
The bigger the lie, the more it’s believed – hook, line, sinker. The following are just some of the lies that many still cherish:
Early lies: Barack O’Bama wasn’t born in America; he is a secret Muslim; his ObamaCare is a “trainwreck” that will take this country down to tatters. Man-made climate change is just fake news.
Later lies: The biggest? The election was stolen, and we know because Donald tells us so. Did you know that one cause of fraud was an Italian satellite that beamed down to machines in polling places to steal Trump votes?
Republican-majority state legislatures are busier than bees passing voting-suppression laws, using as an excuse another big lie – to make elections secure from rampant voter fraud. Yeah, un-hunh, tell us another one!
Mike “Pillow Guy” Lindell staged a rally at which he promised to deliver proof of the stolen election. Oops. No proof surfaced. It was because of computers on the fritz or faulty wiring at Lindell’s rally hall or . . . or . . . something.
Covid was a hoax. More fake news. Many believe hospital officials would write down “Covid” as the cause of death when, in fact, the deceased really died of heart attacks, car accidents or whatever. Tragically, so many anti-vaxxers are themselves now learning the hard way, the terminal way.
We’ve heard that masks are a means of control by sinister forces, like communist-socialist-radicals, not to mention devious Democrats. True Americans stomp on masks and even harangue or punch anyone who asks them to wear one. Such anti-maskers fancy themselves freedom fighters.
Vaccinations will cause people to die later or turn into reptiles or – worse – Democrats. Whatever comes first. And hey, get this!, vaccines contain micro-chips so “they” (evil ones) can keep track of us.
Some medicines, like horse de-worming concoctions, are good for us. But the Deep-State scoundrels keep pushing vaccines because they want people to die from them in order to keep their Covid hoax alive.
We hear time and again “The Donald” is a genius businessman, and that is why he was such a great president. All that talk about bankruptcies, cheating on taxes, phony foundations, stiffing contractors – just a bunch of baloney.
Some lies change like chameleons. Anti-fascists perpetrated the violence at our nation’s Capitol. Oops. Nope. They were loving, cop-hugging peaceniks. Rewind that tape, please. Oops. The lies grew more desperate, with some in Congress claiming the “ralliers” were just like tourists strolling around in Capitol hallways. The current whopper? Those folks are patriots being persecuted by crooked functionaries (aka Democrats) – you know, the ones in Satan’s cabal who drink babies’ blood. We know because Qanon tells us so.
About a third of Americans – maybe more – have come to prefer flashy lies to plain facts. Lies are more entertaining, and besides you darned well know that what’s reported by the “lamestream media” are lies and so what they don’t report must be true. That’s why they ignored the “facts” about Hillary’s sex-trafficking of children at a pizza joint. Big cover-up. So they tell us.
Now Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tells us rape will be “eliminated” from that state. Lie or delusion? Doesn’t matter. It’s his way of countering outrage about an abortion ban, even in cases of rape or incest. Is Texas going to eliminate incest too? Or just wish it away?
Democracies wither and die when a critical mass of the electorate prefers preposterous conspiracy theories, lies and delusions rather than facts. Some day, we just might find ourselves living in a world imagined by George Orwell in his dystopian novel, “1984,” in which the characters know (of course!) that 2 plus 2 equals 5. Yes it does! Because “Big Brother” tells us so.
