We're reliving one of the foundational lessons of my life - There are certain lies people will believe beyond all evidence, because they WANT the lie to be true.
My 2003 Lesson:
At the time Colin Powell made his presentation to the UN, I was at the airport, preparing to leave for a ski trip in Canada.
At the time, I was unsure of my position on the Iraq war. On one hand, war is a last resort, and I wasn't convinced things had reached that point. On the other hand, our leaders were telling us the danger was real.
While I was in Canada, I saw a story on their national evening news (CBC I think, but possibly BBC). They had a camera crew in one of the weapons sites, and proved it to be not only abandoned, but that it had been abandoned for years.
I was blown away. I just saw convinving evidence my government had lied to me.
When I got home after the ski trip, I started telling friends what I had seen in Canada. No one believed me. There was no level of proof I could give, to convince my friends.
I mean, Colin Powell showed a frigging cartoon drawing of a mobile weapons system. How obvious is that lie? But it worked, and hundreds of thousands of people died.
Today:
It's happening again. My Republican friends are drinking the "stolen election" kool aid. Yesterday's Giuliani news conference is a bad, awful, childish, obvious set of lies. But they're working.
I don't know why these obvious lies work. But they work. The Republican base is falling for these obvious lies. They are sharing them in social media, and keeping the tribal members in line. There is no level of obvious lie which will make them say “Hey, that sounds wrong.”
The only difference between now and 2003, is the target audience is much smaller. They're not talking to you and me, or anyone outside of the US. They're only talking to their base. And their base is dutifully swallowing the BS.
It's working. Laughing at it won't change the fact it's working. Waiting them out only gives them more time to keep it working. It has to be pushed back on. We can't just wait it out, because it's working.
