During the most recent US election season (2024), DT1 publicly proclaimed in a Presidential debate that in Springfield Ohio, the Haitian immigrants were eating pet cats & dogs.
This was denied by a fact-checker during the debate. And widely reported as untrue.
So of course, after the election, many struggled to understand how those who voted for DT could vote for someone who is so blatantly a firehose of falsehoods.
I think that those asking the question ‘how can you vote for a liar?’ are missing the point.
Think of it this way – do you believe the fable or fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood?
In a literal sense, of course not.
But is there not some kind of truth, ‘moral’ truth perhaps, that is intended to be communicated by this story? Do we believe this truth?
What is the (moral?) truth of Little Red Riding Hood?
To beware of strangers? To beware of those whom we think we know but who seem to be behaving a little strangely perhaps?
In fact, the truth in the fable of the Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats in Springfield Ohio is surprisingly close to that of Little Red Riding Hood.
Beware of strangers. Even those whom we might consider as neighbours in a physical sense, but who are behaving a little ‘strangely’ perhaps!
This is not to deny the claim of many who loudly proclaim DT is a liar.
No shit! He is lying. So shit-yeah, literally.
But by the same reasoning, so are the tellers of
fairy-tales. They are literal liars.
But it is the ‘moral truth’ behind the lie, the fable, that is important.
And notice, it is a bit harder to challenge the ‘truth’ that immigrants (illegal or otherwise) are doing despicable things in “our” home-country.
This ‘truth’ is reverberating around our world. You’ve heard it no matter which echo-chamber you are tuned into.
Indigenous peoples make this claim about colonising/invading powers.
Modern multi-ethnic nations (UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, etc) make it about their ‘unwelcome’ immigrants (whomever that may be at the moment).
Even more apparently homogeneous nations make it about peoples at their border who have, at times in the near or far past, been considered co-habitants: (Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, China, Taiwan, etc).
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Yes, the literal truth is bullshit.
But the moral truth is stickier.
And so the fairy-tale ends with the US having elected a fairy-tale teller!
But the real problem is that even if we are not getting sucked in by bullshit, we are getting sucked down by it.
And it all started in the nursery where we were encouraged to listen to and learn (absorb? assimilate?) the truth behind falsehoods - otherwise known as fables and fairy tales.
Well, now they’ve come back to bite us on the ass!
Thanks Aesop.
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Here are two links to some infinitely-more nuanced views on the role of bullshit in the world today:
https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2025/01/saying-no-on-power-and-reality.html
https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2025/01/serious-bullshit.html
1 DT refers here to the “once and future” President of the USA, but amusingly, is an acronym in Australia for ‘dick togs’ also known as ‘sluggers’, ‘budgie smugglers’ or sometimes by the brand-name, Speedos: https://sluggers.com.au/products/deetees-little-pricks
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