What do we do about this culture of BLATANT lying that could literally DESTROY our country
I was watching this video about the culture of lying: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkl2NoEznqA
Quick Synopsis of the video
The problem
- Many people believe lying politicians because we live in a world of so much blatant disinformation, it’s too much effort to sort through it. They think everybody lies, so they are attracted to leaders who they simply identify with or enjoy the most.
- Politicians have always lied, but many people don’t realize how much things have changed towards extremely dangerous blatant lies, and how character is even more important these days. And one way to determine character is to distinguish between the use of exaggeration vs. blatant lies.
Why the Right Wing lying is the worse
- The shift started in the 1990’s when Newt Gingrich creating an “anything goes” political culture, emphasizing winning over anything else
- Conservatives see an “epic” battle and justify blatant lying. (This is a very slippery slope….)
- The lying media ecosystem (e.g. Fox News is more blatant than others) is very powerful. It’s pure entertainment and manipulation. They are shameless.
- If you call out lying on the Left, they admonish. If you call it out on the Right, they cheer.
The Solution
As with many Subject Matter Experts (SME), they often diagnose a problem well, but come up short on solutions — most of which aren’t realistic. For example, this SME suggests fact checking and having Media organizations that rate people based on this. This is not realistic. You can’t easily police lying. The most effective lies are wrapped in truths (e.g. there are “lies, damned lies, and statistics”). All you will do it spin the hamster wheel faster.
Here is my viewpoint:
People will NOT change their behavior — the portion of the populace who thrive in this environment are addicts, they LOVE the attention and power that social media gives them (or the perception of it). For example, the ones that I know are all isolated and depressed. (I don’t talk to most of them anymore after the election).
You have to start by segmenting the market in groups:
1) Those that thrive in this lying environment. Forget about them. This election has proven it’s largely pointless to even try to discuss anything with them. All you can do it try to understand their problems.
2) Those that prefer deep engagement (i.e. no lying)
a) ACTIVE: Those that deeply engage in topics and are active in discussions with others and/or organizations.
b) CASUAL: Those that don’t have the time or energy for a lot of engagement (for whatever reason).
Start with 2a (ACTIVE) and build tools for them. Join organizations including the local Democratic party, where you can meet people IN PERSON. Online is the cause of this problem, you can’t deal with this problem by focusing first on mostly online relationships. (I tried the Forward party, but they don’t even have any events in Manhattan!!!).
Start off by banding us together, forget about #1. Most of them are too lazy and selfish to engage with anything anyway. And the 2b folks will be naturally attracted to this environment.
Will this work? I hope so. But regardless, at least you’ll meet some new like minded people. Don’t waste your time with #1. These days, it’s important to spend your time and energy on people you respect and care about.
Catch me at https://www.mariakonner.com/
