Monday, September 22, 2008

Digg, you're doing great, but don't kid yourself: Lying is an American pastime

I'm a Digger. And day after day I'm proud to watch exposition after exposition revealing how Palin misrepresents her record on the Bridge to Nowhere, how McCain owns Foreign-made automobiles, or how the Republican Campaign is consistently de-Americanizing Obama with fabrications of his support of Kindergarten sexual education or increased taxes for the middle-class.

And reading today, I thought of the one young Digger out there who might get swept up in this rally cry for truth, and may think that this aggressive demonstration of truth will plant a three-inch heel directly into the heart of the Republican fan base. "How couldn't it", this person would think. McCain and Palin are clearly proven liars.

I want to say to this young gumshoe, don't kid yourself. There's a strange preconception in the young that 'revealing the indisputable truth' commands a rethinking of the former believers' thinking.

The problem is, that when the believer's way of being, by nature, involves lying, the content of the message takes a backseat to the more important element, the medium.

In short, the believer knows that any sentiment or fact can be stretched and spun. Numbers, facts and figures are all skews, and since that is as far as the liar has ever taken interest, the more important element of power and confidence becomes the medium. The person, the appearance, the context. And once that connection has been made, for whatever arbitrary message besides the content, it is unshakable unless by a force of incentive so strong as to clearly change their worldview.

Exposing McCain's lies aren't enough, because the position he's in and the lies he spouts are in fact amplifying the resonance with his GOP base. He lies the same way they do, and that makes him ideal and understanding of the way of life.

What lies do the extremists of his base perpetrate in? Pretending to believe in equality, compassion for others and the constitution. Pretending and acting as if the days are simply passing when deep in their hearts believing we are in the 'endtimes', where the Antichrist will soon reveal himself.

When Palin says to Charlie Gibson that her speech about Iraq being "God's War" was a quote of Abraham Lincoln, her listeners don't shudder when they hear it's a lie. They are proud of her long term strategy of hiding her true religion until she has the power to spread it.

So when we on Digg expose these lies, and join together to comment and rejoice about how they're losing momentum or how they've "lost a lot of credibility", I hope the young ones don't let this get to their head.

Half of this country still prefers the liar. And I'd wager 10-20% despite knowing fully well that's what he is.

8 comments:

Mark said...

We expose these lies for the people in the middle. The people who can still think and make decisions for themselves. It's pointless to go after the people who have turned off their brains and have given up their humanity, their free will.

Lauren said...

At least there is a free-access, free-speech forum like Digg out there now. The Internet is a phenomenon that hasn't quite worked itself out yet, and it has the potential to lead people, the average people, the people in the middle, to greater knowledge and understanding, if they so choose to harness it in that way.

That being said, I would like to extend your argument and say that it is not just Republicans... Democrats suffer from the same "truth when it's convenient for us, lies when it's easier" syndrome, as do many non-partisans and many parties in other countries... I would argue that party lines don't create a disconnect from the truth, but rather power. Money and power. These blur the line for many people between what is right and what is necessary.

Not to say that everyone with money is hungry to hoard more for themselves no matter what the cost (Bill Gates), and not to say that all those with power will lie and cheat and discredit their ethics to maintain/obtain more (Dalai Lama).

But it is a rather unhappy medium we have reached, when the majority of the rich and powerful feel that they have the right to dupe the majority of the middle- to lower- class into being the instruments of their own misery. Can things like the Internet, fast-paced and accurate information, exposure of false ads and mockery of partisan networks really change this?

Only in combination with ACTION. Mobilization. Unity. And these are traits that the middle-class, by virtue of their perceived "comfortable" lifestyle, will only be able to take on once they have changed THEIR world view.

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