The Lies Were Always the Point
If Adam Serwer is correct and the cruelty was the point for Trumps Republican Party from 2016 to 2020, then post-2020, it is possible that the lie has become the point. Incubating, amplifying, and polishing lies is now the full-time occupation of much of the GOP. Faced with the choice between governing and lying, they have decided to be purveyors of fiction.
Back when Donald Trump was the main one telling lies and his boosters were scrambling all around him to make it so, there was a certain comic quality to it all: What was the point in distorting weather maps or crowd sizes just to flatter a weirdo narcissist? Experts in authoritarianism were warning that this type of manipulation was how strongmen cling to power, sure, but it seemed easy enough to push it away and assume that once he was no longer president, the persistent flattery and adjusting of reality for his benefit would stop. But its now clear that the falsehood itself is the endgame. As historian Timothy Snyder cautioned after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. Without agreement about some basic facts, citizens cannot form the civil society that would allow them to defend themselves. If we lose the institutions that produce facts that are pertinent to us, then we tend to wallow in attractive abstractions and fictions. Thats why debates about whether Trumpism can exist post-Trump or why the GOP has refused to abandon Trump miss the point. The point is that the GOP has abandoned truth. Trump himself is ancillary to that move.
The temptation has always been to try to sort the Trump lies into the hilarious ones and the pernicious ones, but that, too, misses the point. If the lying itself is the objective, the difference between the clueless whopper and the sly distortion is immaterial; in fact, the clueless whopper can be more potent because it offers up greater spectacle and affords more opportunity for performing loyalty. As recently as the second impeachment, the clueless whopperabout peaceful protesters and false flag antifa activists at the capitollived largely in the fever swamps. A few months later, it is being parroted by Trump and members of the Senate. The Big Lie, however absurd it might be, can overtake reality so fast the only trick anyone need master is the patience to ride it out. That means the only strategy needed for liars is to repeat the lie. Trump, who had little mastery of most skills, was always a wizard at this move.
For years, Trump used the phrase many people are saying to essentially mean someday people will be saying. He did so understanding that if you say such things enough times, someone somewhere will parrot it as a fundamental truth, and then your initial statement will be true(ishmany people will be saying the untrue thing). Many people are saying [this lie] was always code for if we get people to say [this lie], it will seem true. Trumps admission of that principle at CPAC on Sunday gave away the game. He confessed, about polling numbers, that if its bad, I say its fake. If its good, I say, thats the most accurate poll perhaps ever. The lie thus goes from a fiction in the lizard brain of a dangerously delusional man to headline news to gospel for people who have been trained to invert whatever they see from the news. In which case why wouldnt Rudy Giuliani advise Trump on election night 2020 that he should simply lie and claim victory? That had been the game all along.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/the-lies-were-always-the-point/ar-AAM7shH?ocid=DELLDHP&li=BBnbfcL
Alice Kramden
(2,168 posts)K&R
Jarqui
(10,130 posts)Rudy had 20 days from June 24th to request a hearing for being suspended from practicing law (for lying) in New York State which DC embraced. It's nearly 28 days and I can't find a media report that says he requested a hearing.
https://tinyurl.com/3sekp9hz
The ultimate purpose of any disciplinary proceeding, however, is not to impose punishment for breaches of the Rules of Conduct, but rather "to protect the public in its reliance upon the integrity and responsibility of the legal profession"
Rudy can contest the disciplinary hearing that triggered this suspension. But the reason the court suspended him immediately is because this court feels Rudy lied - like it is undebatable. So Rudy has a real uphill battle should he bother to contest it. And in doing so, he exposes himself to things coming out that could compromise the lawsuit by the voting machine companies and the criminal investigations against him.
Evidently, he didn't feel up to proving to this court that he did not lie.