When I was a kid I discovered that embellished stories and outright lies were more compelling, attention getting, and sometimes “ass-saving” than simple truths. Adults were amused, entertained, moved, impressed, and sometimes acted based on my lies. At first I thought that this was a good thing. My exaggerations and false words were powerful. However, I soon learned that embellishing stories and telling lies often had dire consequences. I recognized that real people could be hurt by my lies. I soon understood that the damage to my personal credibility was too high a price to pay for momentary gratification. And because of these early lessons, I grew to value personal integrity as a virtue and a way of life. I think similar experiences have had the same kind of moderating effect on most people’s behavior. But what happens when a person who is prone to lying is addicted to the attention, craves constant adoration, is overly ambition, is shielded from consequences associated with his lies, and doesn’t give a damn about hurting other people?
What happens is what we are living through in this moment in our nation’s history: A liar in the White House. A liar who is addicted to applause and power. And so the outlandish lies just keep coming via tweets and public interviews. They get aired on television and repeated by Fox News commentators and radio hosts and end up on social media and then they are either silently ignored or endorsed by Republican politicians and religious leaders seeking Trump approval to further their own agendas. The lies are false accusations like, Biden wants to defund the police. Lies like voting by mail causes voter fraud. They take the form of saying you will protect Social Security while seeking to decrease the tax dollars to pay for it. They take the form of associating Black Lives Matter with violent protest groups. It’s saying a deadly pandemic will magically disappear. It’s claiming to be a Christian who doesn’t need forgiveness while being unable to name a single Bible verse that is meaningful to you. It is calling the press the enemy of the people. It is claiming to be pro-life when you separate babies from their parents and refuse to promote wearing a mask during a pandemic. It is saying whatever comes to mind that will boost his ego or gain applause no matter how ridiculous.
The outlandish lies garner attention and capture the imagination of desperate people who want to be entertained, to feel relevant, or who feel threatened by the changing diversity in the U.S. These people grasp unto lies like we’re going to build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it. These people grasp unto lies like people coming through our southern borders are rapist and murders. They grasp unto lies like trade deals are really easy. Such a person easily stokes underlying fears, elevates deep seated prejudices, readily incites violence, and poisons the morality and reputations of otherwise decent people. Such a person is dangerous. And when the lies are continuously met with silence, or worse, complicity, all hell breaks loose. The chaos we are experiencing today has Donald Trump stamped on it as the creator.
It is difficult to counteract outlandish lies, especially when the lies are more interesting, salacious, emotive, inflammatory, and provocative than the truth. But if they are not loudly exposed every time, then the truth itself is co-opted. Americans must beware. We are obviously not immune to being dazzled by the cult of personality and we can be led down the same road that Nazi Germany was by a loud and bullying personality like Adolf Hitler. History is screaming at us that Donald Trump is not much different. Hitler wasn’t taken seriously until it was too late. The opposition within his own party were silenced through intimidation and later through death. Sound familiar? And our consequences will be just as dire if we are not careful.
We are already seeing that those who get caught up in his lies are at risk of damaging themselves and others. I think about the 28 year old man, Edgar Maddison Welch, who fired on a pizza parlor with an assault rifle, believing that he was disrupting a Hillary Clinton child sex ring. Or Trump supporters who attended his political rally without social distancing and masks and got infected with Coronavirus. Herman Cain was at that rally and is now dead from COVID-19. For Trump, there is no attention getting, self-promotion, self-aggrandizing lie he won’t tell.
If we allow it, the lies will take over like they did in Nazi Germany. The truth will be snuffed out and decent people pushed aside in favor of the murderous few. At this moment, our fate is in our hands. Will we allow our friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors to be enamored by outlandish lies every day until the truth is completely buried and more innocent lives are loss? The choice is ours. The vote in November has never been more consequential.