As the notorious george costanza noted... "It's not a lie... if you believe it."
IMO, A "lie" is a moral judgement.... determined by one's culture, society and theology about something in the real world.. The impact of a lie varies... from nothing to profound.
So.. we experience the real world by perception.. the article notes... that people can set aside their belief "Its a lie" perception when they get paid cash... basically something real happens to them if they perceive the real world accurately.
Another quip from the election... "Regular people take trump seriously and not literally. Elites take trump literally and not seriously"
Take the events of 14 years ago concerning the Iraq war.
So... Trump BELIEVES he opposed the Iraq war from the beginning. This is not a fact and is documented. His supporters do take him seriously and not accurately.. and agree he opposed the Iraq war. The FACTS don't matter. AND THERE IS NO COST to them for this view or payoff.
Now consider the underlying issue about the Iraq war.... Was the Iraq war sold on or based on the basis of a Big lie existence of WMD? Again, we have the facts and the perception of the facts by the left is YES while the right perceives these facts as NO.
The FACTS have never mattered with respect to the war... Calling Bush/Cheney LIARS based on your moral/ethical/theological/cultural foundation or TRUTH TELLERS based on the same made no difference.
What DID make a difference was the actual costs of blood, treasure and wounded warriors. FACTS that impacted your or your families life. Support went from for to against in 4 to 5 years.
Given this reality Facts don't matter... Have you ever persuaded someone on the basis of FACTS?....
Personally.... my answer is NEVER.
New game question for you ... Obama's recovery act was max 2 year shovel ready projects... aka Keynesian stimulus of 1/3 building 1/3 temp tax cuts/ and 1/3 other stuff for 900 billion or so.
Trump proposes about the same... Now called Infrastructure rebuild for about the same amount of money... but longer term.
The fact is both are Keynesian stimulus programs. WHAT were the LIES about Obama' program... What will be the LIES about Trump's program. Sadly, the facts again won't matter. The unfortunate fact of life is... the PERCEPTION of the lie is much stickier in your memory then the hard reality of the fact. Human nature is human nature. Lying and believing Lies has survival value.
Irony is relabeling lying as political correctness... Political correctness obscures "the truth" Both sides get to deploy this one.
So. the American solution ... the history of slavery/native american policy gave rise to our unique non democratic (small d) constitution and electoral college. In the long run.... the facts tend to win.... but the costs are steep and as they say... in the long run... you are dead.
