That is the final line of A Lie by Any Other Name, today’s powerful New York Times by the magnificent Charles M. Blow.
He is not afraid to use the word that the Times finally used in a headline yesterday, that far too many in the media have been reluctant to use. Their justification has been that Trump maybe actually believes his bloviations, which would make him dangerously removed from reality. Which he may be.
But I am sorry, I agree with Blow, Trump knows what he is doing. If he deliberately ignore information that contradicts what he wants to believe, it is still a lie.
Blow begins like this:
This is not a presentation of “alternative facts,” whatever that may mean, as Kellyanne Conway, President Trump’s mistress of misdirection, posited over the weekend.
These are lies; good old-fashioned lies, baldfaced and flat-out lies.
And that is about as mild as any statement in this powerful and pointed column. Consider this”
Donald Trump is a proven liar. He lies often and effortlessly. He lies about the profound and the trivial. He lies to avoid guilt and invite glory. He lies when his pride is injured and when his pomposity is challenged.
and what immediately follows, this:
Indeed, one of the greatest threats Trump poses is that he corrupts and corrodes the absoluteness of truth, facts and science.
There is this:
Trump is in a battle to bend the truth to his benefit.
Responding to Sean Spicer’s attempts to pick a fight with the press over their contradicting Trump Blow is quite direct:
No, sir, the default is to call a lie a lie; lies are negative because they are the opposite of the truth; and Trump continuously lies. Also, he who is devoid of morality is immune to demoralization. You can’t wring water from a rock.
The bone you have to pick is not with the press but with the “president.”
Blow says of Trump that his
inclination is never to admit a mistake, and instead to redouble his self-righteousness even in the midst of his wrong. This statement weakens our democracy and strengthens voter suppression efforts.
That was made in the context of the obvious falsehood of 3-5 millions people illegally voting, and all against him.
Blow concludes with this paragraph”
We all have to adjust to this unprecedented assault on the truth and stand ready to vigilantly defend against it, because without truth, what’s left? Our president is a pathological liar. Say it. Write it. Never become inured to it. And dispense with the terms of art to describe it. A lie by any other name portends the same.
WOW!.
unprecedent assault on the turth
pathological liar
Blow has, unlike most of the other media, never strayed from this direct confrontation with Trump.
This is a magnificent column.
Read it,
Tweet it.
Email it.
Put it on your timeline.
It is that good.