The Politics of Lying

October 12, 2020

written by Net Advisor

WASHINGTON, DC. We see every day, or I would hope that one can recognize the massive amount of disinformation (lying) that occurs in social media, some politically-driven news media and of course by too many politicians.

Psychological Defense.

Some seem to have this uncanny ability to use the psychological defense mechanism of projection.

They call people names, insert labels (racist, etc.,) or complain some else in high office is violating the law, or someone is a fascist, etc.

If one can’t articulate their argument specially, then their argument is moot.

The way you question that person is: Can you give me a specific example?

Chances are, it is usually they who are doing exactly what they are projecting onto others. We first talked about this seven years ago.

Joe Biden called Americans who believed in the modern Tea Party as “terrorists,” Report, Point [13].

Americans are lied to 24-7 on many politically-driven TV news programs.  Lying means not tell the truth, misrepresenting the facts, providing partial facts (half-truths), omission of the facts, and the similar.

“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”

— Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). Source: U.S. Medicine.

One can expect certain politicians and some politically-driven media to not always be forthright. But for many, lying is compulsive or pathological behavior.

Sure we are in infallible and make mistakes and misstatements. The difference is, those who can recognize and better yet, admit and learn from their errors, are the ones who are generally deemed more credible. This shows the ability and willingness to learn.

Certain media who use deceptive communication is doing the public a disservice. They might as well remove their station logo and just replace it with the political party’s logo as an infomercial. I see this every day even on a business channel. They can’t help themselves to lie. They think lying will advanced their personal political narrative.

“Thanks to the Nazi experience, powerful sectors of society realized that people are able to believe any message, as long as it is properly presented.

They just had to maintain absolute control over the media and all institutions that transmit ideology. For example, schools.”

— Source: Exploring Your Mind, 11-28-2017.

One will find most of these people have terrible argumentation skills, operate off half-truth, political talking points, hearsay, and have no clue what they are talking about.

Being honest seems difficult for some. They are so lost in their own deception, that can’t tell the difference between what is right and wrong. They just look at things as supporting a narrative, and lack the evidence to support it.

Will this change? Probably not. But people should be calling this out more often. Just remember to cite credible sources.


NetAdvisor™ has a diverse background, who spent many years as a trained volunteer and mentor, counseling children, teens and adults. NetAdvisor™ is a college graduate from the University of Southern California (USC), Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism with a research-based education covering the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Behavioral Psychology) and Communication Theory.

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