At a rally Friday Trump wasn’t using the word “disinformation” and the old saw about repeating a lie so often eventually people start to believe it to apply to himself. I think he was so thrilled he learned a new word he felt compelled to share it. Once again he engaged in projection. He leveled a highly publicized fact about his own lies against his enemies.
This is how Wikipedia defines disinformation:
Disinformation is false or misleading information that is spread deliberately to deceive. This is a subset of misinformation.
….
The word disinformation did not appear in English dictionaries until the late 1980s. English use increased in 1986, after revelations that the Reagan Administration engaged in disinformation against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. By 1990, it was pervasive in U.S. politics; and by 2001 referred generally to lying and propaganda.
This is how RawStory presents their perspective on how Trump used the word:
On Saturday, during a campaign speech in Florida, Trump inadvertently explained exactly how he was able to dupe so many of his supporters into believe his nonsense.
"There's a word: disinformation. If you say it enough and keep saying it — just keep saying it — and they'll start to believe you," Trump explained. RawStory
Breitbart had an entirely different take on what he said conveniently admitting that were lying an Olympic sport Trump’s record would be as unbeatable as someone running a two minute mile.
Excerpt:
Former President Donald Trump said Saturday night in Florida Democrats are spreading “disinformation” that Republicans have defunded police.
“So now they [Democrats] are getting killed by defund police, which they are doing by the way,” Trump said. “But they are getting absolutely killed.”
“There’s a word [called] ‘disinformation,'” Trump continued. “If you say it enough, and keep saying it, just keep saying it, they [people] will start to believe it.”
“We can’t let that happen,” he stated. “Because now they are saying ‘it was the Republicans’ fault.'”
“It’s disinformation. They say it again and again and again and after months and months of hearing, people begin to believe the Democrats’ claim,” Trump reiterated. Breitbart
Trump, if he really did read Mein Kampf and admire Hitler (a claim Snopes can’t find verification for) he should know all about repeating a big lie. Consider the following and note (in bold) how Trump did exactly what Goebbels did by accusing Churchill of running a lie factory:
The original description of the big lie appeared in Mein Kampf. Adolf Hitler applied it to the behavior of Jews rather than as a tactic he advocated…..
… The OSS psychological profile of Hitler described his use of the big lie:
His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.
Goebbels did describe the big lie in different language in an article he wrote in 1941, “Churchill’s Lie Factory,” but he was accusing the British of the ploy: The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.
Randall Bytwerk argues that neither Hitler nor Goebbels would admit to lying. Goebbels, “always maintained that propaganda had to be truthful. That doesn’t mean he didn’t lie, but it would be a pretty poor propagandist who publicly proclaimed that he was going to lie.” Jewish Virtual Library
Of course whether Trump ever thinks about Hitler and follows his big lie strategy or not, he has been compared to him so many times that looking up Trump compared to Hitler could almost break the DuckDuckGo web search machine. Click to enlarge image
If Trump’s cult wasn’t so gullible they’d realize he had just revealed the recipe for his own secret sauce. If he slathers on enough of it for long enough people won’t realize it is hiding the fact that the burger underneath is made out of _________ (fill in the blank).
Whether P.T. Barnum ever actually said “there’s a sucker born every minute” (it can’t be verified) doesn’t matter. It may have come from a man named David Hannum in reference to Barnum's part in the Cardiff Giant hoax. Considering that the Cardiff Giant was fake there is a parallel to so many people being fooled by it and how many people were “hoaxed” by the orange giant into believing his lies.
Addendum: The recent Breitbart story is first if you search Trump disinformation, but there are numerous other articles about the subject.
