Simply discounting Trump’s lies as not worthy of reflection is a huge risk for all of us. The point to Trump’s lies is completely divorced from whether there is even the slightest kernel of truth to them. Many of them are flat out made-up from thin air.
Trump uses lies to get a pass to say and plan for outrageous conduct. Trump lies are valuable to Trump in many ways. First, and foremost, Trump uses his lies as a way to get people to take actions to make his lies true. If the coup attempt had succeeded Trump would have become president and shown that the reported election results did not indicate who would be the next president. Thousands of people acted based on his lies.
He lies to get people to act in the way they would if the lie was true. On a simpler note, after Trump took a sharpy pen to a weather map to claim a hurricane might extend across Florida into Alabama how many people in the Sharpie zone prepared for the hurricane? More than zero. How many told their friends how lucky they were that even though it was windy and might have been a hurricane in their neighborhood they were OK thanks to Trump’s warnings?
He lies as a litmus test. Loyalty means repeating those lies over and over. Loyalty means either taking action (passing laws) or proposing action in response to those lies.
Trump’s lies drive MAGA action. Often horrible action.
Believe Trump when he speaks. He is telling all of us, especially his MAGA followers, his plans for action. His lies are an important part of his plan. Taking real action against imaginary demons is a primary mover for the MAGA community and we need to pay close attention to the lies they tell to prepare ourselves for the next round of MAGA action.
