The Insistence of a Persistent Lie

If someone tells a lie often enough and for long enough, people just … accept it. I nearly said they believe it. I don’t know if they believe it—actually believe it—or not. But they accept it. They accept it the way they accept other things they’re not sure they believe, or maybe sometimes believe and sometimes don’t. But to the mind, acceptance is tantamount to belief. It is a real thing. Perhaps the mind senses something more subtle and complete (e.g., He says he wants a better future for all humans, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to get him to admit that he is a self-serving asshole and is either delusional, lying, or both.) Or perhaps it gets focused on defeat (e.g., We can’t stop him. No one can. He’s gotten too powerful.) All these things, these thoughts and perceptions happen very, very quickly and near the threshold of conscious awareness. Most will slip by undetected. And this is how a population, large or small, becomes brainwashed by a persistent lie that insists you accept it.

There is more, underneath …

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I do not want to belabor the point so many have made about how we live in a dangerous time wherein folks can just lie and say it’s true, and people will believe it because reasons.

What I want to focus on instead is the counter-lie efforts. We should do our very best—beginning in our own minds—to actively identify and counter things that are not true. This should be a part of our regular daily hygiene.

We have these fuckers right now (perhaps such assholes have always been among us) who are clearly self-aggrandizing, destructive egomaniacs who want nothing less than everything and have deluded themselves and their cultists into whatever propaganda is necessary to achieve that quest for endless more. We must stop them. First, in our hearts, then in our minds (that may work in the reverse order for some folks), and then through our wise actions.

Will you join me in this?

Xoxo,

T