Four years into a war fought to eliminate a nonexistent threat, we all have renewed appreciation for the power of the Big Lie: people tend to believe false official claims about big issues, because they can't picture their leaders being dishonest about such things.
But there's another political lesson I don't think has sunk in: the power of the Little Lie - the small accusation invented out of thin air, followed by another, and another, and another. Little Lies aren't meant to have staying power. Instead, they create a sort of background hum, a sense that the person facing all these accusations must have done something wrong.
A blog for the politically curious, angry American. "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." - Goethe "It's never too late to become the person you might have been." - George Elliot
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Big Lies, Little Lies
NYT's Paul Krugman gives us a kick-ass editorial via TruthOut about the power of the repeated "little lie" which lends credence to BushCo propaganda.
And then there's the grandaddy of all kinds of lies, wherein George Bush tars his opponents with his own failings - most recently, "How dare Congress take a vacation without sending me a war funding bill to sign?" (a day before his own vacation starts)
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