Blue Lies … I didn’t know the term before today, when I read an essay on the phenomenon in the guest blog section at Scientific American.
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The author, Jeremy Adam Smith, offers a somewhat different explanation for why Trump’s pathological lying doesn’t seem to trouble those who support him.
From the article:
Far from slowing his momentum, his deceit seemed only to strengthen his support through the primary and national election. Now, every time a lie is exposed, his support among Republicans doesn’t seem to waver very much.
WTF?! What are they thinking?! How can that be?!
Trump is telling “blue” lies—a psychologist’s term for falsehoods, told on behalf of a group, that can actually strengthen the bonds among the members of that group.
And, further …
This line of research finds that black lies drive people apart, white lies draw them together, and blue lies pull some people together while driving others away.
I am not going to quote any further from the blog, it is a quick (and, I think, worthwhile!) read.
Except for this one final quotation, where I diverge from this author’s conclusions.
If we see Trump’s lies not as failures of character but rather as weapons of war, then we can come to see why his supporters might see him as an effective leader. From this perspective, lying is a feature, not a bug, of Trump’s campaign and presidency.
Sorry. His lies are absolutely a failure of character, and a testament to how LITTLE he cares about the people of our country, how unqualified he is to represent this country in ANY capacity, least of all the one he now occupies. (And it reflects TERRIBLY on those who SWALLOW those lies, also.)
I think they should be called RED lies. With a hat tip to Putin and all Republicans.
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From Just Bob:
Submitting Addison's comment on the GSA ruling, from Hunter’s GSA rules Trump isn't violating his hotel lease because he promises to not spend the profits yet.
Two from Black Olive:
Ordinarily I would have picked just one, but neither of these comments by Jeffersonian Democrat is less than the other. Coming as comments to that particular diary (TomP’s Wife of Husband Now Being Deported Voted for Trump Because She Liked His Immigration Policy) helped me out with my rather severe case of compassion fatigue. I needed a reminder that this is a war, not a battle. I needed a tangible example of what winning this war looks like. My German friends are all awesome people and if the next few generations of Americans can be turned into similarly awesome people by way of this Detrumpification plan, I'm in.
The first… and the second.
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