There Should Be Social Penalties For Lying
What happens to a society when the truth is optional?
Over the weekend, Donald Trump posted a photo of himself as the pope to his personal social media accounts and to the White House’s. On Monday, he told reporters, “I had nothing to do with it.” He continued,“Somebody made up a picture of me dressed like the pope, and they put it out on the internet. That’s not me that did it, I have no idea where it came from — maybe it was A.I. But I have no idea where it came from.”
He may have no idea where the image came from. But he certainly had something to do with posting it.
As for Catholics who were offended by the image, “They can’t take a joke,” Trump said, then quickly clarified: “You don’t mean the Catholics; you mean the fake news media. The Catholics loved it.”
Some far-right MAGA Catholics no doubt loved it. But many Catholics did not, and many prominent Catholic groups and leaders said so publicly. That, though, is beside the point. Trump seems to be in full mad king mode, surrounded by people who only tell him what he wants to hear, and convinced that the false reality he’s built around himself might just be real. And in this false reality, whatever Trump says must be accepted — no matter how contradictory to his previous statements, or how contradictory to observable reality. Late last month, for example, Trump refused to concede that a photo he shared on social media of an alleged MS-13 tattoo on the hand of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man the administration mistakenly and illegally deported to an El Salvador prison for terrorists, was digitally altered. The digital alteration doesn’t even appear to be a serious attempt at photoshop; it looks more like the kind of label law enforcement might put on evidence. This is the photo:
If you think that looks like an actual tattoo that says “MS 13,” I know a Nigerian prince who has some money he would love to deposit into your bank account, if you can just send him your details.
“Donald Trump lies” is hardly news. But his lies have gotten more brazen. What’s stunning about these lies is that they aren’t denials of some past misdeed or even false or misleading claims about a fact-checkable statistic or data point. They are things the public can see with their own eyes, that Trump is telling them isn’t true. The image of Trump as pope — it’s right there on his Truth Social account. The clearly photoshopped MS-13 tattoo — it’s obviously not a tattoo. And yet Trump seems to genuinely believe that anyone he’s speaking with, including the broader American public, will simply go along with what he’s saying. That’s scary, coming as it does from the most powerful man on earth.
It also seems to be correct. For Trump’s second term, he is surrounded entirely by sycophants, many of whom seem to think it’s their job to root out the disloyal — the end result is a White House full of people falling all over themselves to be the most obsequious. No one saying, “uh, that’s a bad idea” or “that doesn’t make sense” or “that’s demonstrably false.” No one seems to be saying, “Sir, the public is just not believing that claim.”
And there isn’t much in the way of reality-based living happening in MAGA world more broadly. The conservative public turns to conservative influencers, who see their influence drop if they contradict the president. MAGA conservatives largely reject mainstream publications that have safeguards including fact-checking and standards teams. Many social media companies have removed their fact-checking functions, leaving users to correct each other. This is consistent with the general American retreat from expertise or excellence: What do professional journalists know that the average anon on Twitter doesn’t?
To be honest, I found some of the earlier fact-checking obsession to be tedious and, on occasion, genuinely skewed. Reality does, as the saying goes, has a well-known liberal bias. But on some fact-checking sites there was a kind of pedantry that could be eye-rolling; sometimes, social media statements were flagged for what really did feel more like political reasons than factual ones. There was certainly room for correction.
Instead, we’ve gotten a wholesale chucking-out of any claim that the truth matters.
Politicians have always lied. But getting caught in lies — especially really obvious ones — used to be a political problem. There were social penalties for lying: Newspapers and TV channels would run negative stories; clarifications or sheepish apologies would be issued; voters might lose trust and punish you at the polls. Being a liar was stigmatized, in the political realm and the personal. This was a good thing. I don’t know how a society survives if we don’t agree that when someone knowingly and obviously lies to your face, that person should lose your trust and esteem.
This is not just a Trump problem. This is a society-functioning problem. If we don’t figure out a way to fix it — a way to impose social costs on people who lie obviously and on purpose — we aren’t going to have a functional society left.
xx Jill
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Everyone knows that Trump lies, has always lied, and will always lie. The only people to whom it is no concern are his loyal base who will always believe whatever he tells them. The problem here is not with us but with the lamestream media which refuses to call out his lies as lies but uses weasel-words like "confused".
I believe it was Anne Appelbaum, in the Atlantic, who said that an authoritarian lies constantly in order to assert their authority over reality. Reality does not matter. What the authoritarian says matters.
As you say Jill, society cannot function like this.
Do we have a brave enough journalist who can interview Trump and ONLY confront him about his incessant lying? Rather than arguing with him about a specific lie, do we have a journalist who will assert, "You lie" (that's the truth) and ask him questions about his motivations and patterns of behavior?