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Memories of the 28th Century

To End Political Lies

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Has it become normal and ordinary for people who are demonstrably irrational or delusional or suffering from other types of mental illness to be treated as if they were sane?

From political puffery to conspiracy theories to quack medicine to deviant behavior becoming the norm mental abnormalities are becoming acceptable in general society. In a general sense this is not a new thing; people have been complaining about the lowering of standards of behavior for thousands of years, but it’s a little different when irrational behavior becomes the standard. There have been drunks, thieves, and criminals around for longer than there have been records, but their standards have become the models for behavior for the majority.

Is it simply mental and social entropy, or is there something more going on? I imagine that the time in which one lives seems the most extreme era ever, because one is more likely to know the details of its peculiarities, and that makes me wonder about some other eras.

I'm not not especially old, but I do remember times, when the news that was reported was similar for all sources and political positions. That is that the news was regarded as objective by the people who made it and worked from it. That isn't true anymore. The news that Republicans use is different from the news that the Democrats use, and it probably is different for other political persuasions, and it certainly is different for Classical Liberals, such as myself. Does that mean that the world is more variable than we had been led to understand? Or are some or all of the relevant operatives lying? My impression is that it isn't so much lying, as inability to understand what is going on, and that seems to be especially true for Mr. Donald Trump, who acts and speaks like a child.

In addition to those mental limitations, I think that many people in politics lack the intelligence and education to determine the validity of much of what is reported as news. While most political decisions are made on the basis of political preference, rather than on the facts, the political preferences are not very consistent. If we could look at the Democrat and Republican Party's platforms from 1952 and expect it to be reflected in today's activities, then we could be more confident that the decisions were based on clear and consistent ideas, but the Republicans have thrown out the principles they were running on in 2016. Republicans were fiscal conservatives (at least on paper), and that idea was put forth in Trump's campaign, but that principle has been discarded in favor of increasing debt by more than 4 trillion dollars since Trump took office. The Dems used to be the wasters, but Trump takes second place to none.

I started writing about lies, and the financial problems that Trump has created reflect a huge lie, but in the political newspeak the economy is doing great, except that most industries are not doing well. Interest rates are low but only because Trump has pressured the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low. The political and economic news are reported by liars who are trying to support their positions, rather than reporting facts. The headline figures for the economy look great, because they are not in proportion. Unemployment appears low, because some many people are not counted as being in the labor force. Business profits are up, except among the parts of the economy that are coming apart, such as farming and manufacturing.

We can't expect much from politicians, but it should be possible to teach the young to be able to detect lies. While some of the data that is presented as news is false, much of the basic data is accurate, but it is twisted with marketing lies, which usually use logical fallacies, and it is possible to teach people to spot fallacies. Then there is the problem of finding the teachers, especially here in the U.S.A., where teachers are grossly underpaid.

The easy way to improve government and eliminate political lies would be to switch to a benevolent despotism. Unfortunately, many of the people think that they should run government representative government, and they believe that even after to messes that the last several presidents have made of things.

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