Trump’s lies are outrageous
I find lying fascinating. We say it’s a terrible thing, and yet we do it all the time. We create laws and codes that make it illegal, and we lie to protect individuals who violate those laws. Call someone a liar and their indignation is palpable, even if the accusation is true. We elect politicians who lie with utter impunity, and yet if we agree with their stand on the issues we find ways to ignore the discrepancies.
Indeed, many of you reading this will say to yourselves, “I never lie,” which of course is a lie. We have elevated lying to a high art in sports, finance and the law. The old adage that it’s only a lie if you get caught turns our quiet contempt for veracity into a casino game. We are all liars. To deny such is a lie. And yet despite all of these truths, we are driven mad by the lies of our current president.
The majority of media coverage begins and ends with Trump’s myriad lies. We gnash our teeth and give ourselves ulcers when we read the litany of Trump’s lies. And let’s be clear: Trump is the king of liars. His lies are often so outrageous and absurd that we cannot tell if we’re reading an actual transcript of his words or an issue of The Onion. Some might argue that having a liar of Trump’s magnitude as president is a bad thing, but given that every president lies and given that Trump’s lies are so laughable perhaps that lessens the punch of such an argument.
In the end, our propensity to lie, while in the very same breath calling lying a moral and ethical outrage, is just another example of how twisted humanity is as a species. I must admit I find it depressingly hilarious that all of the world’s great religions preach about the immoral nature of lying, and yet look who’s in charge of so many of those institutions. Gotta admire us humans. We are something else.