We all know why people believe lies. We have always known the reason. We rationalize our way into believing what it is that we want to believe. Sometimes that’s ok, a lot of times, it’s not.
The buffers to prevent us from falling for tall tales, conspiracy theories and disinformation are critical thinking skills, intellectual curiosity, a willingness to accept to be proven wrong and a healthy ability to not take ourselves too seriously. Or, the ability to laugh at our own follies. With nearly half the population focused on economic sustainability, there is too little time for them to be intellectually curious enough to critically think about things other than figuring out which brand of spaghetti sauce is the best value. Nearly half our population depends on their party leadership to tell them the truth. No mentally healthy person likes being proven wrong and it’s hard to laugh at yourself when you goof up on important stuff. If your identity is defined by your political party, it’s nearly impossible to get the party faithful to question party leadership. I’m not going to do both siderism. The Dems don’t seem to have this problem, please see Susan Sarandon, Joe Manchin and Jaime Dimon and then, consider The Squad. Look at the current IP positions of various leading Dems. The Dems don’t have a lemmings walking off a cliff problem. We have a unity problem. I’ll take our problems over the GQP’s any day of the week.
Nicole Wallace calls it living on Earth 2. Some call it GQP. Why the MAGA enthusiast clings to Trump is difficult to fathom. Why people believe in conspiracy theories and other not helpful disinformation is bewildering.
I began with asking simple questions:
Why do people believe lies?
Why do people accept disinformation as truth?
What makes people skeptical and what makes them gullible?
After study, I found at least a dozen reasons why people believe false concepts and stories.
Just about all of the studies found that people want to believe these false ideas, theories, stories and policies to be correct, so they select their target ideology and ignore the inconvenient facts.
I surmise you may be thinking something like, “OK, so tell me something I don’t know”.
Glad you asked, because there are many, many paths for how people accept deception as truth. The main mechanism is how to frame the lie so it becomes easier to believe. Start with targeting people most likely to accept the false message. Make the message emotional, viscerally engaging. Repeat, repeat, repeat the lie. People accept falsehoods through using various forms of self-deception. The repetition normalizes the lie. The lie is heard so often, that starts to ring true. From there, continued repetition reinforces the disinformation until the lie becomes new dogma. Dogma, firm personal boundaries, denial and cynicism are all tools those motivated to be deceived use to come to the “right” conclusion.
You already knew that, too? Right?
The depth, breadth and pervasiveness of just how much false information is out there is numbing. Not enough people know how to do critical thinking and they don’t know how to develop these skills. We live in a society that celebrates ignorance and ridicules certified experts. We are creating “Structural stupidity”. We are becoming numb to the lies. We are normalizing just about everything. True, freaking out over someone using the “wrong” fork when confronted with a 13 piece place setting is a bit passe. Think about gun violence, domestic violence, road rage, calling for the destruction [death] of political opponents. Now consider how normal that is. Was it normal 10 years ago? Read the news headlines. How many have violent words in them like “Bury”, “Hit Back”, “Slam”, “Attack”. All these catchy, violent words are click bait. I yearn for the day when the worst scandal was that President Obama wore a tan suit.
Both siderism is a distraction. It puts unequal issues on the same level. It equalizes unequal values. I had a strange conversation with someone who both sidered Nazi’s accepted at CPAC with progressives accepting LGBTQ+ folks at their events. Equating neo-Nazi’s with LGBTQ+ people is absurd. Equating Nazi exclusion with LGBTQ+ inclusivity is NOT the same or equal. The core beliefs of both groups are opposites. CPAC’s flirtation with Nazi’s at the convention last month worried me. Why on earth, are conservatives playing nice with Nazi’s? We know where that path leads — genocide of multiple groups of people. The last go round ended with over 50 million deaths. The right laments progressives accepting LGBTQ+ folks into our open spaces. Conservatives say “normalizing” the LGBTQ+ experience is going to destroy our way of life. How? exactly, will any right granted to a LGBTQ+ community member is going to “hurt” my way of life? I can’t think of anything, but I can think of a hundred negative things that could happen to me and mine should people with a Nazi mindset take over positions of power in our local, state and federal governments. Why can’t people see that these two situations are NOT equal in impact?
Repetition, repetition, repetition leads to feeling numb. It’s so common we ignore it. Consider our news media and how monotonous they have become. They say the same things over and over again — once every hour; regardless of the channel. There is no fresh voice in the news. The person I was speaking with had heard Nazi’s at CPAC was the same as progressives going to an event that supports gay rights so much, that they no longer questioned that core concept. They were not intellectually curious enough to check it out. They are too busy and rely on unreliable sources for their news and understanding of current events.
This is no surprise to you, either?
Here’s something that might be new to you. The Mental Health Tie-In.
It’s one thing to “know” why people believe lies. It’s proving it that is the hitch. We all have seen articles telling us about the latest study that “suggests” one thing or another. There are at least 60 studies done within the last few years that ponder why people believe demonstrably false beliefs. Just about everyone of them calls for more study on the subject. Perhaps it is the researcher’s confirmation bias that leads them to call for more study rather than accept what they already found to be accurate.
My hypothesis centers around the idea that people are conditioned from birth to accept lies as truth. It’s starts innocuously with Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. People raised inside a faith are taught how to not let stubborn facts get in the way of observing their faith. What’s the difference between Daniel in the lion’s Den and Jack and the Bean Stalk? As children we are told Daniel’s story is true, while Jack is a fantasy. To a 5 year old, both stories are fantastical. Accepting lies as truth is a learned behavior.
People who are not religiously observant, but who are surrounded by people of faith see how to ignore uncomfortable facts. People of faith often work in secular business. People see how their religious peers are rewarded for ignoring inconvenient facts and for being hypocrites in business every day. Accepting lies as truth is a learned behavior.
The base line for people is to be in a mental equilibrium. Part of that equilibrium is the need to belong to a group of people where they get positive reinforcement. Generally, people in better mental health tend to avoid pain, both physical and mental. Is it that difficult to see that people choose to join groups and avoid other groups simply based on their gut feelings of where they feel “good” or feel “bad” regardless of facts? Accepting lies as truth is a learned behavior.
Repetition drives the message home.
Mental health workers see people struggling with their past every day. Some clients take drugs and/or alcohol to be numb. Numb to the pain, numb to the memories, numb to the past. Numb to anything that makes them feel pain or uncomfortable. Some clients are able to dissociate from their situation without drugs or alcohol.
The Body Keeps The Score is a great book that goes into great detail how people with traumatic events in their past cope. It goes over how EMDR works and leads clients to be able to recall the traumatic event(s) in their life without the pain, resentment and drama. Used with CBT and DBT techniques, people with Complex or Chronic PTSD get a great deal of relief. With a couple modifications, it brings a lot of relief to people with OCD, too. The key to success is to take an ugly past memory and exchange it for something more reassuring. The important concept here is that the exchanged idea must be true, feel true, ring true to be believed as true.
For instance, an adult that has hypercritical parents may have a particular, painful memory of being disciplined in front of a large group of people. They learn to exchange the embarrassment and shame for a stronger position of “I have boundaries now.” “They know they cannot do this to me now.” “I know they were wrong to do that. That was misplaced criticism, I wasn’t perfect, but I was good enough.” It introduces the idea of what’s “good enough”. We strive to be number one so often, that we forget that “good enough” can be just as effective or is the better goal for us at that point in time. No, I didn’t finish first, but I did cross the finish line of a 26k marathon, which is a [good enough] accomplishment for me.
Cynical people have hijacked this sound mental health technique and perverted it. Maybe they knew exactly what they were doing. Maybe they pulled it out of their ear. Maybe our current environment where we speak “our truth” is a natural outcome of the last 40 years of “positive thinking”, validation and creating supportive environments.
For an abuse survivor to grow to be a thriver is to trade the self-view of being powerless to stop the abuse with, “I made the best of this bad situation”, “I learned how to set aside painful memories”, “I did the best I could with having no power”, “Those experiences prepared me for how the world really works”, “I know what I can change and what I cannot change”, “Those experiences taught me how to protect myself today”, “I knew how to teach my child how to protect herself”, “I’m getting the best revenge by living well”. These exchanges are somewhat imperative in order to go from victim to thriving. Please note that ALL of these exchanges are truthful. A 3 year old is powerless to stop the abuse. They were 3 years old and did not have the smarts, maturity or experience necessary to thwart their abuser. They did do the best they could in a bad situation when they were 12 years old. That 14 year old grew up and coped as best they could. The victims may have eventually sought help and were guided to look for the positives. With practice and perseverance those early, unfortunate experiences taught us a pattern that we eventually learned to recognize and thwart. Again, these exchanges are all truthful.
What the cynical disinformation specialist does is take this healthy concept and pervert it to spread lies. The Big lie has become dogma among MAGA enthusiasts. In 2016 after HRC’s loss the Dems knew something happened, but not what. Now we know a combination of voter suppression reduced participation in many markets, voter apathy created undervotes for HRC in key states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. Analysis showed Dems have to turn out 10-15% more of the vote to overtake the GOP gerrymandered advantage. The studies informed the Dems for 2020 to push for greater turn out and where greater turnout was most important. They also had to communicate what undervotes do to help the GOP. They had to show a goal of creating an oasis of political competence to replace the chaos of the Trump years. This strategy worked. Biden won.
The GOP didn’t learn diddly.
What the GOP did after their 2020 loss was proclaim the Dems somehow cheated and got GOP controlled voter boards to go along with making Biden President. Arizona, Wisconsin and Georgia were the focus of these efforts. January 6th was the result of the Big Lie becoming dogma. A perversion of a healthy concept of exchanging a negative outlook with a positive to taking some bad news and normalizing denial to make believing election fraud is both believable and respectable. In this up is down world, for the GOP, The Big Lie is only them speaking their truth. Again, a perversion of turning a helpful, healthy concept into an unhealthy, corrupted concept.
The 2024 Outlook
Lies in public spaces is as old as dirt. There are thousands of documents throughout history that highlight the mobs of the world believing lies and forcing their politicians to act on lies. Call it the Barabbas effect if you’d like. Getting everyday people to believe lies and manipulate them to act toward a political goal is the current cynic’s guide to politics. Pizzagate, January 6th, Benghazi, her emails and the current issue where the GOP was for border control until they got it and now they are against it, only because a doddering old white man candidate (well past his best by date) says he doesn’t want it because it would be a political win for Biden…. it’s enough to make a sane person dizzy. What the sane person needs to say is that cynical behavior is ultimately self-defeating. If you want border control, then you are for it even when your political rival offers it to you, but that would be in a world where the average conservative isn’t cynical or conniving or too trusting of their party or… [please feel free to fill in this blank in the comments].
How sick is it that an entire political party who clamors for border security will forgo legislation that would fulfill some of their dreams simply because it would benefit a political rival? How sick is it for political party members to say the rival party is full of traitors, child molesters and murderers? How sick is it for a political party leader to say she is dedicated to “eradicating” less radical members of her political party for a lack of…. zeal for the “right” political actions? What idiot will go along with a party that wants to stop recreational sex? If we can’t as liberals use fun sex as a voting motivator, we… well [fill in another blank here, I’m too busy cursing]. The pernicious hive mind is more than dangerous. It depends upon their members to become numb and immune to the stubborn facts there for all to see. It depends upon their tacit members to lemmingly accept the party line. It depends upon mindless obedience to false goals.
People believe lies when it is expedient to do so.
Then, there’s dissociation. That’s where painful thoughts are suppressed to the extent where they don’t exist. Serious cases need treatment. Dissociation is a mental process of disconnecting from one's thoughts, feelings, memories or sense of identity. The dissociative disorders that need professional treatment include dissociative amnesia, depersonalisation disorder and dissociative identity disorder. I’m not talking about these serious disorders. I do receive care for PTSD and I am doing well with it. I am not dissociative, but I do know what it is and I do know how and why it appeals to me to deal with flash backs and nightmares. I have been taught how to set boundaries and mental compartmentalization. I call it dissociation light. My therapist cringes at that, but agrees that’s probably how it feels to me. Boundaries and compartmentalization are helpful. Full blown dissociation is not. What I’m seeing within the right wing cult is a bunch of people playing with a technique they don’t really understand.
Dissociation in the GOP is where the party of TFG finds the inadequacy and flaws of their preferred candidate to be acceptable. The emotional pain of confronting the reality that TFG was found liable for sexual assault seize on the fact that he’s liable for it, not guilty of it. This allows them to disregard E. Jean Carroll’s defamation for sexual assault claim. You see, he’s not guilty of rape, he’s liable for sexual assault — like that’s any better? But, in their minds, that distinction is all they need to believe what they want to believe; that TFG isn’t guilty of rape. The emotional pain of accepting the idea that TFG is a irresponsible, feckless businessman that oversaw multiple businesses fail is too much. Too much so, that it is better to point out his prolificate spending on conspicuously consumptive goods and denial of the disgrace of the current state of Ivana Trump’s grave. You see! He’s still flying around on his private jet. He’s got tons of money! Mention that his team just said he doesn’t have the money to pay up on the $400 million+ disgorgement order and they fluff you off. My response is, 1. The condition of that grave site is a disgrace. and 2. It’s too bad he’s not paid his share of taxes over the years — that probably would have funded a day care or 5 over those same years. 3. This FG doesn’t pay his bills. How is that honorable?
Lying about abortion care is how anti-abortion folks got the casual Republican to sign on to these absurd anti-abortion laws that have interfered with the FDA, basic standards of care during pregnancy and is now endangering IVF infertility treatments. They focused on later abortions. A very small amount of abortions, 1% occur after the 21st week of pregnancy. They lied about later abortions. They got Chris Christie to repeat their deceptions over and over again. Chris, if he could listen long enough, would discover many women in their third trimester wanted a baby; but fate led them to abortions instead (for very legal and sound medical reasons). The news media is numb to these lies. They don’t challenge the lies told by the clergy, anti-abortion activists and politicians looking to survive a primary. It’s too painful to tell the truth about late abortions, so they make believe it’s not what it is, a heart breaking choice. This is denial in practice.
If you have PTSD, disassociation light may be helpful, to an extent. I wouldn’t suggest you go it alone. Get a guide to help you. What we are seeing in the GQP and among MAGA it is not benign. It is a pernicious assault on reality and they are going it alone without guardrails. The average news media source’ reaction to these lies is best described as malpractice, ignorant and a detriment to a healthy society; however, if you listen carefully to their words, they often note the onslaught of lies is exhausting. They are people who are good enough at their jobs . They aren’t perfect, but they are good enough. It’s up to the individual [us] to be 1. Intellectually curious 2. Willing to find our mistakes. 3. Check our gut feelings. 4. Be willing to laugh at our follies and 5. Be fearless in fact finding.
Defy the Allure of deceit, lies and disinformation.
Do the work.
Be critical, but nice about.
The truth really does set you free.
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Update: Thanks for the rescue. Thanks for reading!