FactCheck.org, for the first time ever, has named a “King of Whoppers“. As they put it, “In the 12 years of FactCheck.org’s existence, we’ve never seen his match.” And that’s saying alot, as this has been a “banner year for political whoppers.”
You can probably guess the Master of Mendacity, it’s Donald Trump.
Not only is he the ultimate at untruths, he is unparalleled at doubling down on his deception, like “when he claimed to have seen nonexistent television coverage of “thousands and thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey cheering the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11 — and then topped himself by demanding that fact-checkers apologize for exposing his claim as fantasy.”
The have a (long) list of his whoppers. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that he is just warming up.
Not only that, but Trump has appeared on Fox News more than twice as much as any other candidate.
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Politifact
Facts are hard, gut feelings are easy. In a political climate where facts are discounted, if not simply dismissed, it’s all about the feelings. Shoot the messenger, wag the dog, divide and conquer. Where debate has been reduced to shouting monologues and tweets, how does a democracy survive, let alone thrive, without a healthy debate of established facts to provide voters with reasonable policy and leadership choices? But in Trump World, and on Fox News, the sky is always falling and it’s all Obama’s (or Hillary’s) fault, if not immigrants of late. This is a recipe for disaster, not only for the Republican Party, but potentially for us all. Democrats have also demonstrated a history of fallibility when left unchecked and solely to their own devices (lest we forget the lessons of Vietnam). Though I’ll take my chances with them over any of the wackos running from the right these days.
The richest country in history, with more guns per capita in history, turns out the be the most paranoid, frightened and perhaps misinformed in history. How ironic is all that? But I digress.