Perhaps we’re just dreaming and what we think is real is just one more chapter from George Orwell’s “1984.”
Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts,” however easy it is to joke about, is a very scary version of Orwell’s Newspeak. White House staffers and cabinet members, most with unprecedented ignorance of their roles, show their loyalty to the president by simply repeating what he wants them to say.
Newspeak, Orwell’s political language from “1984” is “designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.” President Trump’s version of Big Brother lives by slogans such as “ignorance is strength.” He uses the term “fake news,” first used against him, now used by him to punish the media.
Political lying has been around for eons, usually used to protect reputations. But our country is currently witnessing an overabundance of obvious hyperbole, intentional disinformation and compulsive lying since the 2015-16 presidential campaign began.
The president repeatedly declares his inaugural crowd to be second in size only to President Obama’s. Who cares? But it bothers him enormously, so he keeps bringing up the subject.
The more repetition used to deliver this type of aggressive propaganda, the more familiar it feels — and the more familiar it feels, the more truthful it sounds. Familiarity most usually wins over logic to these believers. This phenomenon is the “illusory truth effect,” (Temple University 1977 study on Referential Validity).
Lies repeated so often are able to hold greater influence and power over those with similar political beliefs. Even with glaring proof to the contrary, it’s difficult to get those believers to see it as the lunacy it really is.
“When we are in an environment headed by someone who lies, so often, something frightening happens,” The Guardian’s Nick Cohen writes. “We stop reacting to the liar as a liar. His lying becomes normalized. We might even become more likely to lie ourselves.”
Cohen adds, “Our sense of truth is far more fragile than we would like to think it is — especially in the political arena, and especially when the sense of truth is twisted by a figure in power. A leader who lies constantly creates a new landscape, and a citizenry whose sense of reality may end up swaying far more than they think possible.”
An intimidating autocratic style is being used by the president to repel questions. He has taken on the entire media as the opposition. He doesn’t seem to want to answer to anyone. Wonder how freedom of the press will play out, or checks and balances in a one-party system.
“After decades of … small lies of largely harmless politicians, mainstream journalists are unable to cope with the fantastic lies of the new authoritarian movements. When confronted with men who lie so instinctively they believe their lies as they tell them,” Politico’s Maria Konnikova writes.
Konnikova continues: “When we are overwhelmed with false, or potentially false, statements, our brains pretty quickly become so overworked that we stop trying to sift through everything. It’s called cognitive load — our limited cognitive resources are overburdened. It doesn’t matter how implausible the statements are; throw out enough of them, and people will inevitably absorb some. Eventually, without quite realizing it, our brains just give up trying to figure out what is true.
“Here’s the really bad news for all of those fact-checkers and publications hoping to counter Trump’s false claims: Repetition of any kind— even to refute the statement in question — only serves to solidify it.
“If you claim that the president did not have the second-largest inaugural crowd, or try to refute the claim with evidence, you often perversely accomplish the opposite of what you want. Later on, when the brain goes to recall the information, the first part of the sentence often gets lost, leaving only the second. In a 2002 study, Colleen Seifert, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, found that even retracted information … can continue to influence our judgments and decisions.”
With all the mess going on now regarding Russia, it’s not the time to sit and watch it unfold. This president has actually helped groups of resistance gather in numbers and grow powerful for peaceful demonstrations across the country. Resist. Bring back democracy.
— Questions or comments are welcomed at marylin.olds@gmail.com.
