House of Eratosthenes

…and…no possibility whatsoever of actually getting away with it. I recall wondering about this two decades ago, give-or-take, with Mr. and Mrs. Clinton. Maybe it was the being named after Sir Edmund Hillary thing. It could’ve been something else, there are more than a couple of examples.

It’s been rattling around in my head ever since, bugging me, so I appreciated reading this (from Linkiest).

They lie when the truth would suffice, and they hold on to that lie, even doubling down on it, regardless of what evidence to the contrary comes to light.

When President Obama’s “If you like your plan you can keep your plan” lie was finally and irrefutably exposed, he didn’t apologize or explain why he’d lied. He just said he was sorry people got the wrong impression from his words, which, of course, could not have been clearer.
:
Why put out obvious untruths when the truth would have sufficed? Are they sociopaths? Are they so insulated from contrary opinions in their sycophantic inner circles that they believe these lies? Or are they just so used to getting away with it that they throw caution to the wind knowing they will ultimately be given a pass because they have the media in their back pocket? Your guess is as good as mine. Whatever the answer, Republicans need to prepare themselves now for boxing a shadow in 2016 because whoever the Democrat nominee is it’s pretty clear he or she won’t be bound by past deeds, words, or even reality.

I hope a lot more people start reflecting on this. A “national dialogue” on this would do some good. The behavior is just weird.

It’s like they have to go to a liar’s-meeting every week or so…and get threatened with public spankings with a big wooden paddle, or perhaps expulsion, if they don’t have any stories to share about big lies they told lately.

Which ++chuckle++ when you think about it, I suppose those would have to be documented.

It’s the same thing that causes a kid to spend far more time and effort in cheating on a test than it would take to actually study for it, or makes a caught criminal spend all his time later planning on how to get away with the next crime, rather than how not to do it again. The explanation for all is simple, and fairly old: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.”

If you build a habit and an instinct for something, you will act that way when on mental autopilot – and for such smooth, practiced liars, that’s what’s become the default. Defending oneself afterwards by deflecting blame to the person who caught them – think Homer’s famous line “It takes two people to lie: one to lie and one to listen!” – is part of that. And on top of that, there’s the narcissism that says that one can never be wrong, nor in doubt. All three added together mean the inability to say “I don’t know” or “I was wrong.” That’s what elevates all this to the realm of brazen shamelessness. It’s like the perfect storm for constant monster waves of Bravo Sierra.

It’s not nearly as calculated as Mr. Hunter supposes. I mean, it would be for us because we would have to think it out beforehand and try to pinpoint the holes in the story and practice what might happen when things veer off-script. We might then come to the conclusion that, apart from any morality, it’s just too darned hard to keep all that straight and we’re better off in sticking to reality. There’s no such calculation going on here, obviously, or we could reasonably expect that they’d be better at lying, what with all the practice they have at it. Instead they’re terrible at it because they’ve made it so unthinkingly reflexive.

In a way, our protection from their wickedness is that it has gotten too wicked, and thus obvious and laughable. They’ve lost the residue of goodness, such as forethought and consideration of others, that would make their lies really convincing and thus much more dangerous. If the President and his cadre weren’t already in charge they’d be fairly powerless. They certainly don’t further their cause any more with all this nonsense, not when their own colleagues and supporters immediately roll their eyes and call shenanigans on them.

Of course they often support them anyway… but that’s a different sort of reflexive behavior, for a different conversation.
- nightfly | 06/17/2014 @ 08:01
….and the scorpion sad “I couldn’t help it. It’s in my nature.”
- CaptDMO | 06/19/2014 @ 18:34

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Lying When There’s No Benefit to LyingMonday, June 16th, 2014

Lying When There’s No Benefit to Lying
Monday, June 16th, 2014