politics

I'm still dumbfounded by the sheer number sycophant and adulator that keeps believing the everchanging nonsense he is peddling.

Despite being proven a liar on a regular basis and destroying the lives of even his closest so called allies and friends.

I just wonder what their daily lives are like to be so gullible and never realising that they are being lied to or being taken advantage of. On the contrary, they insult/trample/lash out against anyone trying to help them or even just trying to understand them.

Well, I have given them all the empathy I could muster (amongst the handful of people I knew).

Lying to more than, let' say, 100 individual (simultaneously to an audience or separately the same lie to different persons) should entail concrete consequence. For example, being confined to their home for a certain amount of weeks/months without access to TV, internet and other means of electronic/immediate information/communication so as to let them simmer in their thoughts for the duration. Whether they are the president of a company/country attempting a subterfuge or a edgy 13 years old trying to impress their classmates.

Having immediate consequence for proven lies would have solved so many past and current problems and impending crisis (from climate change, antivax, cults, PFAS/pesticides to the subprime mortgage fiasco, tobacco/asbestos disinformation, Libor rate, Enron, Theranos, Boeing 737 MAX, Volkswagen emissions, the ongoing cryptocoin/NFT craze, the list is truly endless... ). Small lies eventually leads to bigger and bigger lies until it's too late.

Obviously, some lies are sometime necessary to still perform what most would consider to be in good faith. For example, preparing a surprise birthday party for someone and everyone participating having to lie to keep them in the dark until moment is right to reveal the surprise. Or, parents making stories to reassure their children in a difficult or unexpected situation.

In the majority of those "in good faith" situations, the number of people being lied to are limited to less than 20 individual and usually only for a known limited period of time. Hence, my undocumented 100 person treshold. If one has to convey the same lie to more than 50 people they should rethink whatever they are up to.

... Welp, I got sidetracked again ...

Politician who blatantly lie to get elected would have never been an issue. They can be "mistaken" or "misremembering" until they are proven incorrect. Which they will have to rectify and therefore cannot continue to peddle the same lie or would be locked at home without any means of outside communication for a non trivial amount of time.

The profusion of misinformation will be the downfall of our societies, before even the climate crisis ruins us, if not dealt with in time with the seriousness it requires.