You know the country is moving into dictatorial waters when obfuscation of verifiable facts is part of each White House daily briefing. Imagine a three-card Monte scam being performed for the benefit of the widest possible viewing audience. Political pollution lies at the very heart of earnest propaganda. These times are akin to a neo-Silent Spring scenario, one of our own making, lest we speak out and act up.
The Trump Administration knows that you need only start with the smallest of truths on which to attach your lies. The gullible will give you the benefit of the doubt while those with a vested interest to make Trump’s cause successful will double-down on behalf of his Administration to ensure their reins on power stay intact. Truth not only be damned, but falsehoods welcomed with full employment for the most blatant liars.
The political marketing began on day two of the Trump administration as first Trump, and then his army of minions, argued over the numbers who attended his Friday Inauguration. According to various news outlets, the tally of demonstrable lies during these first seven days of Trump’s Administration reached into the mid-twenty range, give or take your political bent or your grasp of rationality when faced with facts. Not the “alternative” factuality Trump’s spokeswoman, Kellyanne Conway, endorsed on network television but the facts as facts, for lack of any clearer terminology.
These people are not fools, contrary to subjective observation. Just as in any abusive relationship, the pathology always starts benignly, growing more and more egregious as the perpetrator learns that he/she can get away with it. And so we have the early seeds of manipulation in full deployment mode, whose unintended goal will be the gaslighting of democracy. Purposeful lies versus innocent—if sad—delusion come to life, now that Trump has reached the Oval Office and brought the circus with him.
When Trump criticizes legitimate news organizations, over and over again, enough times so that a near majority of the electorate begins to perceive these faithful spokespersons as suspect, society has a real problem. When this swayed constituency chooses fringe news outlets for validation of a skewed reality, this Administration’s job will be mostly done. The legitimacy of democracy, capital D, will go on trial; a mock trial, yes, but one that nonetheless will produce real effects, outcomes that will beget more outcomes as the foundations of our society get tested.
Whose revolution will it be? The battle is just begun.
bymax7 