Liars Continue Lying Because It Works for Them
Liars Continue Lying Because It Works for Them
How to Manipulate Millions of Americans and Make it Look Easy
Over the Next Twelve Months
This year in our nation’s history is one I call “The Year of the Precipice”. Our democracy is truly on a dangerous precipice that could teeter into authoritarianism depending on the American voter.
For that reason, over the next year we will cover topics like this one in Democraticus. These are topics that were probably not covered in your high school civics class. Or if they were covered, did not receive the depth they need to deal with the challenges our 21st century democracy is facing, our democracy’s greatest assault since the Civil War.
The purpose of this series is to better equip us so we can make wise choices with our most important duty as citizens- to provide an informed consent of the governed. A consent of the governed that will allow us to retain and sustain our democracy for our children, grandchildren, and the generations of Americans that follow us.
Let us begin by looking at the morass of lies and epidemic of lying that has been spreading across our democracy’s political landscape in recent years.
Mark Twain Got It Right
Mark Twain gave us many famous sayings often containing “pearls of wisdom” and dry humor. Perhaps one of his better-known sayings comes from an 1897 book he authored, “Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World”. In its fifteenth chapter was this epigraph:[1]
“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”[2] (emphasis mine)
If Twain’s words were true in 1897, their veracity is even greater today. Evidence of Twain’s wisdom that truth is stranger than fiction lies before us every day in American politics, especially since Donald Trump entered presidential politics. Not only can truth be strange, but in American politics it’s antithesis of fiction (i.e., lies) does not have to “work” all that hard to for us to believe it. Want some proof?
A Recent Poll of Americans Validates Mark Twain!
The Washington Post (the Post) and the University of Maryland (UMD) partnered recently to create and conduct a poll regarding a “snapshot on several hot button issues, leading into the 2024 primaries and the presidential election.” According to the Post, the survey results show that:
“Three years after the Jan. 6 attack, Republicans are more sympathetic to those who stormed the U.S. Capitol and more likely to absolve Donald Trump of responsibility for the attack than they were in 2021…”[3] (emphasis mine)
But wait, there is more and it’s even more shocking and disturbing. UMD’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement that designed the poll also had this to say about its results:
“Republicans are less likely to believe Trump bears responsibility for the 2021 attack than they were in a December 2021 Post-UMD survey, and are slightly less likely to view President Joe Biden’s election as legitimate than in 2021.”[4] (emphasis mine)
What? How Can This Be?
This poll is telling us something significant. It is saying that despite mountains of documented evidentiary documents, testimony, and the fact that millions of Americans watched on live television as a mob of insurrectionists (with Trump’s encouragement beforehand) assaulted, vandalized, and desecrated our nation’s Capital, many do not believe it happened. This even in the face of the fact the mob attacked and injured the police officers defending the Capitol, with some later dying from the stress and trauma they endured. Yet despite all this proof, according to this latest poll, today there are fewer Republicans than in 2021 believing that Donald Trump was responsible for this insurrectionist attack than in 2021. How did this happen?
The truth is that this insurrection really did happen. There was really a set of gallows erected that day on the Capitol grounds so the insurrectionists’ chants of “hang Mike Pence” could be carried out. The mob really did, as shown on television, roam the Capitol’s halls chanting House Speaker Pelosi’s names trying to apprehend her.
So, if you believed something like this massive lying campaign would or could never happen in this country let alone actually be effective, the accuracy of Twain’s words regarding truth being stranger than fiction is verified here. And the “fiction” (lies) being foisted upon these Republicans did not have to be all that fantastical to be believed. Plus, this fiction was spread after January 6, 2021 despite these easily available facts about the January 6th insurrection from the Justice Department:[5]
· “…the approximate losses suffered as a result of the siege at the Capitol totaled $2,881,360.20. That amount reflects, among other things, damage to the Capitol building and grounds and certain costs borne by the U.S. Capitol Police.
· More than 1,265 defendants have been charged in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
· Approximately 452 defendants have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, including approximately 123 individuals who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.
· Approximately 718 individuals have pleaded guilty to a variety of federal charges, many of whom faced or will face incarceration at sentencing.”
What about the “Fiction” in this Situation?
Beyond this growing Republican belief that the January 6th insurrection was not Trump’s responsibility, lies about January 6th are being broadened even further. There is also growing stated belief by some Republican officials that January 6th was not in fact an insurrection. They are calling it simply a “protest” that “devolved into a riot”.[6]
Regardless, this growing Republican belief the Donald Trump was not responsible for the January 6th attack on our Capitol building and that it was nothing more than a protest is an obvious fiction. It is an obvious lie. So obvious it seems to also validate Twain’s statement about fiction- that it must stick to possibilities, even possibilities with obvious evidence to the contrary and millions of eyewitnesses who watched as it unfolded.
But, what would one get so many people in the face of such obvious lies to think that it was possible and plausible that January 6th was simply a protest “gone wrong”? Or that the Donald Trump was not in fact responsible for the January 6th insurrection? How and why do views and beliefs like this get formed?
How Many Americans Can Be Made to Believe Almost Anything
The answer? It is how we are “wired” in terms of how we receive and process messages and information in the world around us. It is called the “illusory truth effect”.[7] It is also known as the illusion of truth effect, validity effect, truth effect, or the reiteration effect. The illusory truth effect is the tendency to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure.[8]
This phenomenon was identified in a 1977 Villanova University and Temple University study. Numerous professional journal articles regarding research results on the illusory truth effect and its various aspects can easily be found. It is used in advertising, marketing, and political propaganda all the time.
When people are trying to determine if information that is being conveyed to them as truth is in fact true, they rely on “…whether the information is in line with their understanding or if it feels familiar.”[9] The determination that the information is congruent with their understanding is a logical reaction whereby people compare new information to what they already know, or at least believe, to be true.
What Makes This Really Work on Us
However, there is a “kicker”.
“…Repetition makes statements easier to process relative to new, unrepeated statements, leading people to believe that the repeated conclusion is more truthful..”.[10] (emphasis mine)
This is called processing fluency. Researchers explain processing fluency this way- by repeating things constantly, it makes it easier for us to process it (i.e., be fluent) “…relative to the new statements, leading people to the (sometimes) false conclusion that they are more truthful.” Said another way, studies show that processing fluency within the context of the illusory truth effect can influence participants who actually knew the correct answer to begin with to be swayed to believe otherwise “…through the repetition of a falsehood.”[11] (emphasis mine)
Research shows that when we humans hear something the second or third time, our brains respond to it faster. In turn, we “misattribute” our information fluency as a “signal for truth”. The power of a repeated falsehood to sway beliefs was famously validated in a 2015 study where participants became swayed to believe through repetition that a Scottish kilt was actually called a “sairi”. They did this even though earlier these same participants had correctly answered the question “What is the name of the short, pleated skirt worn by Scots.”[12]
The illusory truth effect is the first way that fiction becomes “plausible” for us in the public square. It really works to repeat a lie long enough and we humans will begin to believe it. But another technique is often used with the illusory truth effect. What is it?
Using Lies to Create an Alternate Reality
A constant bombardment of fiction (lies), while often highly effective for the liar, it is not the only “go-to” method used by those that tell us lies in the public square. They use another technique in conjunction with the illusory truth effect. They present these “alternate facts” in certain way. We call it gaslighting.
Author and political analyst Amanda Carpenter lays out what this term is all about in her excellent book Gaslighting America (not unironically subtitled: Why We Love It When Trump Lies To Us). It is a term that, up until the Trump presidency, was not a prevalent part of our everyday lexicon. But it is now.
As Carpenter explains, “The term itself comes from a 1938 play later made into a movie titled Gaslight. The plot is about a man who convinces his wife that “she is delusional in order to distract her from the murder he committed.”[13] As Carpenter explains:
“Gaslighting is a psychological term for what happens when a master manipulator like Trump lies so brazenly that people end up questioning reality as they know it…Gaslighting is far more malicious than a little white lie; it is a lie told in such a way that it makes the person being lied to feel crazy, and in dramatic cases, start acting like it.”[14] (emphasis mine)
Trump used gaslighting frequently before and during his presidency. He has continued to use it since in his post-2020 election loss denial campaign. He did it so much as President that some called him “Gaslighter-in-Chief.[15] Trump used it to great effect in the Russiagate investigation that found, despite his denial, that his 2016 presidential campaign did indeed collude with the Russian government to defeat his opponent Hilliary Clinton. By the time Trump got done gaslighting America, special investigator Robert Mueller was viewed by many Americans as having unjustly investigated Trump’s crimes. Mueller acted like he did not know what hit him.
What happened to Mueller is he got hit with masterful gaslighting in conjunction with constant repetition of the same lie- that there was “no collusion” with Russia during Trump’s campaign. Comparing Trump’s gaslighting to President George H. W. Bush’s “read my lips” no-tax increase pledge or his son’s weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that were never found, Carpenter elaborates:
“Gaslighting is far more aggressive than any of these misguided lies. It’s an elaborate scheme undertaken with the goal of gaining control over people. Trump is an expert gaslighter…”[16]
Welcome! You have just gone through the entry process and entered into the fantasy world of MAGA Trumpism that threatens to destroy American democracy.
Becoming Wiser Stewards of our Civic Duty in a Democracy
The reader may say that this is all obvious, that they already know this is what is being done to the American voter. Then why are so many so easily taken in and believe all these lies? Perhaps the answer for some is that they just “want” to believe the lies. That they like having their “ears tickled”. Perhaps right-wing extremist social media’s constant lie repetition has also playeda role.
But for many Americans, the answer may very well be simply that we do not understand or are aware of how we are wired as people. That if we hear something long and often enough, we begin to believe it, and then can be manipulated by lies framed to get us to believe in an “alternate reality”.
However, once we are aware that this is what is being done to us, we no longer have that excuse. We must “wise up”, discern truth, and act on that truth at the ballot box with our most important democratic duty as We the People- the consent of the governed. Let’s make it an informed consent.
Democracy is so important. But it’s hard to keep, and it’s easy to lose. It’s up to us, and only us, to protect it. Stay tuned as we continue exploring topics that are not given near enough time and emphasis in our civic education efforts, if they are even taught at all. Join the ranks of democratists and let others know about Democraticus!
[1] Truth Is Stranger than Fiction, But It Is Because Fiction Is Obliged to Stick to Possibilities; Truth Isn’t – Quote Investigator®
[2] Truth Is Stranger than Fiction, Quote Investigator®, Ibid
[3] Jan. 6 poll: “Republican Loyalty to Trump, Rioters Climbs in 3 Years After Jan. 6 Attack”, by Rachel Weiner, Scott Clement, and Emily Guskin, January 2, 2024, The Washington Post
[4] Washington Post-UMD Poll: Three Years After Jan. 6 Riots, Republicans Remain Loyal to Trump | The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
[5] District of Columbia | Three Years Since the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol (justice.gov)
[6] Ron DeSantis says the Jan. 6 attack 'was not an insurrection' (nbcnews.com)
[7] Illusory truth effect - Wikipedia
[8] Illusory truth effect - Wikipedia
[9] Illusory truth effect - Wikipedia
[10] Illusory truth effect - Wikipedia
[11] Illusory truth effect - Wikipedia
[12] Illusory truth effect - Wikipedia
[13] Gaslighting America, Why We Love It When Trump Lies to Us, by Amanda Carpenter, pg. 14, Ibid
[14] Gaslighting America, Why We Love It When Trump Lies to Us, by Amanda Carpenter, pg. 14, Ibid
[15] “Gaslighter-in-Chief, by J.D. Crowe, Advance Local, October 6, 2019, https://www/al.com/news/2019/10/trump-gaslighter-in-chief.html
[16] Gaslighting America, Why We Love It When Trump Lies to Us, by Amanda Carpenter, pg. 15, Ibid