Journalist Thom Hartmann shows that Trump’s latest ad is an exercise in the Big Lie Technique. It contains vile smears that simple-minded people are likely to believe. It resounds with echoes of fascism.
He writes:
Trump’s people are promoting a new lie-filled fascist advertisement, which even the normally unflappable Frank Luntz called “disturbing.” It follows a fairly ancient pattern of destructive Big Lies that goes back to Renaissance Italy and even the Roman republic and ancient Greece.
German filmmaker Fritz Hippler, one of Goebbels’ most effective propagandists (he produced the infamous movie The Eternal Jew), said that two steps are necessary to promote a Big Lie so the majority of the people in a nation would believe it.
The first is to reduce an issue to a simple black-and-white choice that “even the most feebleminded could understand.”
The second is to “repeat the oversimplification over and over.”
If these two steps are followed, Hippler and Goebbels both knew, enough people will come to believe a Big Lie that it can change the politics of a nation.
In Hippler’s day, the best example of his application of the principle was his 1940 movie “Campaign in Poland,” which argued that the Polish people were suffering under tyranny — a tyranny that would someday threaten Germany — and that the German people could either allow this cancer to fester, or preemptively “liberate” Poland.
Hitler took the “strong and decisive” path, the movie suggested, to liberate Poland, even though after the invasion little evidence was found that Poland represented any threat whatsoever to the powerful German Reich. The movie was Hitler’s way of saying that invading Poland was the right thing to do, and that, in retrospect, he would have done it again.
The Big Lie is alive and well today in the United States of America, and what’s most troubling about it is the basic premise that underlies its use. For somebody to undertake a Big Lie, they must first believe Niccolo Machiavelli’s premise (in “The Prince,” 1532) that “the ends justify the means.”
Hitler, after all, claimed to have based everything he did on the virtuous goal of uniting Europe — and then the world — in a thousand-year era of peace, which he claimed was foreshadowed in the Bible. If you believe that a thousand years of peace is such a noble end that any means is justified to reach it, it’s a short leap to eugenics, preemptive wars, torture of dissidents and prisoners, and mass murder.
Believing that the end justifies the means is the ultimate slippery slope. It will kill any noble goal, because even if the goal is achieved, it will have been corrupted along the way by the means used to accomplish it…
In real life, it’s the story of the many tinpot dictators around the world who quote America’s Founders while enforcing a brutal rule, of fossil fuel executives pushing for lax CO2 rules to “help the American economy,” of the legion of lobbyists who work daily to corrupt democracy in the name of GMOs, pharmaceuticals, and the insurance industry (among others).
Here in the US it was used by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to lie us into murderous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and when there was little consequence to them personally or the GOP, Republicans decided to continue the Big Lie strategy and are using it to this day.
Gandhi, Jesus, and Buddha all warned us about this, as did Tolstoy, Tolkien, Hemingway, and Kafka.
Be it “small sins” like the Green Party and No Labels getting into bed with Republicans to get on state ballots, or “big sins” like rightwing think-tanks working to turn America into a strongman oligarchy with their Project 2025, trying to accomplish a “good” by using the means of an “evil” like a Big Lie inherently corrupts the good.
Now the Trump campaign and its allies are encouraging a new series of Big Lies to assail President Biden and the very idea of democracy itself.
With the smug assurance of damage done to the enemy, Republican governors are rewriting American history (the Big Lie that white children are injured by learning about Black history), criminalizing the LGBTQ+ community (the Big Lie that queer people are “groomers”), and throwing millions of people in Blue cities off the voting rolls (the Big Lie of voter fraud).
They are pushing and celebrating nakedly fascist policies, tropes, and memes.
Most recently, a Trump-aligned group rolled out an ad that strings a whole series of Big Lies together. It says:
If I was the deep state and I wanted to destroy America, I would rig the election with a puppet candidate, one that was so compromised that they would never say a word about it. I would create a false flag that allows for mail-in ballots. I would be in charge of the ballot-counting machines. I would create a false flag to blame all who question the results of the election.
If I was the deep state, I would prosecute anyone that went against me. I would sue and prosecute anyone that spoke up about the fraudulent election. I would use my powers to shut down all your internet businesses and bankrupt you.
If I was the deep state, I would make everyone an example why you should never question a Democrat ever winning an election. I would imprison my foes. I would use my corrupt DAs and blackmail judges to destroy you. I would make sure all crimes I ever committed never happened. I would prosecute my biggest competition. I would make sure they could never run for office ever again.
If I was the deep state, I would convince everyone that Ukraine Nazis were good, and women are men.
If I was the deep state, I would own every politician that mattered.
If I was the deep state, I would push my pedophilia ambitions on you.
If I was the deep state, you’d question your sexual identity, but not the medical establishment.
If I was the deep state, you would fear to ever resist me.
If I was the deep state, you would wish I was really the devil.
If I was the deep state, I would say mission accomplished.
Frank Luntz wrote of it, “This is the most disturbing political ad I’ve seen this year.”
Defenders of the Trump campaign are overrunning social media, defending the lies and threats in this new ad and Trump’s previous, “If you fuck around with us…” statements. They claim that Joe Biden is reviving our economy with “socialism and communism,” and Jack Smith and the DOJ prosecuting Trump and the January 6th traitors is some sort of “deep state tyranny.”
There is no equivalence, moral or otherwise, between the work the administration is doing to punish seditionists and rebuild our economy from the wreckage of the Trump years and these sorts of naked appeals to fascism.
Truths and issues — however unpleasant — cannot be weighed on the same scale as lies, threats, and character assassination, explicit or implicit.
Lee Atwater, on his deathbed, realized that the “ends justify the means” technique of campaigning he had unleashed on behalf of Reagan and Bush was both immoral and harmful to American democracy.
“In 1988, fighting Dukakis, I said that I ‘would strip the bark off the little bastard’ and ‘make Willie Horton his [Dukakis’] running mate,’” Atwater said. “I am sorry for both statements: the first for its naked cruelty, the second because it makes me sound racist, which I am not. Mostly I am sorry for the way I thought of other people. Like a good general, I had treated everyone who wasn’t with me as against me.”
But Atwater’s spiritual and political protégés in the Trump campaign soldier on. He and his GOP allies in Congress are using Big Lies with startling regularity, and old Big Lies are being resurrected almost daily, most on social media, right-wing talk radio, podcasts, and TV.
The most alarming contrast in the coming election of 2024 is between those who will use any means to get and hold power, and those who are unwilling to engage in a Big Lie.
History tells us that, over the short term, the Big Lie usually works. Over the long term, though, the damage it does — both to those who use it, and to the society on which it is inflicted — is often incalculable.
If I was the Deep State, I would say “If I were the Deep State”
Just saying.
I am the Deep State!
or
We are the Deep State!
The Deep State is WOKE
Fear mongering is the main GOP message. I see it in subtle and not so subtle ways in the news on my Sinclair network. In addition to blatant propaganda, there are always violent national urban stories for local consumption where the subliminal message is: Be afraid, very afraid of cities with dark skinned people. The GOP purports to be the law and order team, even though there often is more crime per capita in many red states.
If I were in deep sh—-, I would talk about the deep state
Trump won nearly 3000 counties, biden 477, trump 18/19 bellweather. won fl, OH, IA won house seats and lost to Biden 81 million lol! Clinton would have protested if she really lost 2016 when EVERYONEEEEE in liberal media said Trump lost, trump is a Russian spy, trump is russia that. All lies all the time.
Did you guys not like having no wars, 2.15 gas, lowest inflation, oil 2.20 gallon, jobs coming back, border being built, making other countries pay us for our services?
Josh,
The election is decided by electoral votes, not by counties. A county with a population of 2,000 is not the same as a county with 200,000 people. Did you know that?
Biden got more electoral votes than Trump 306 for Biden vs. 232 for Trump. Although it doesn’t matter, Biden also won the popular vote. (81,283,501 for Biden Vs. 74,223,975 for Trump).
Trump’s lawyers filed 60 lawsuits alleging election fraud; every lawsuit lost, even before judges appointed by Trump. Did you know that?
Even the Supreme Court twice rejected lawsuits to overturn the election. Did you know that?
Trump lost. Did you know that?
Josh, you and Trump often say that you are worried about the country being taken over by Marxists.
Do you think that Donald Trump has ever read a single paragraph written by Karl Marx?
When he speaks about “Marxists,” he LITERALLY doesn’t have any idea what he is talking about.
But that’s true on every other subject too. I’m in my late sixties now, and Donald Trump is the single most ignorant person in American politics whom I’ve ever known about. The man is profoundly ignorant about everything.
He thinks that when we put tariffs on Chinese goods, that China pays them. He thinks that we could send astronauts to the sun. He thinks he could end the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a day. He thought that stealth airplanes were ACTUALLY INVISIBLE, you know, like the one Wonder Woman rides around in.
LOL.
Quite the hero you worship there, Josh, my man. Quite the guy.
I long for the day when Trump makes some moronic comment in a debate about how the Marxists are taking over the country and stole the election from him and this exchange occurs:
MODERATOR: So, you are not a fan of Karl Marx and Marxists, I take it.
TRUMP: Terrible what they are doing to our once great cournty.
MODERATOR: So, let’s dig a little deeper on that. Let’s consider, for example, Marx’s notes on worker alienation under Capitalism. Which of the types of worker alienation identified by Marx, if any, actually occur, how bad are these, and how can those conditions be ameliorated?
DONALD: Well, if you look at what they’re doing down in Venezuela and these statuary cities, I mean, it’s not safe, and they’ve go these toilets they won’t even flush. I wish I was making this up. It’s incredible what they are doing. Incredible.
MODERATOR: The Marxists?
DONALD: Jack Smith, he’s the worst.
MODERATOR: He and Karl Marx, the plumber.
DONALD: They’re both bad. OK? Equally bad. And under my administration, Day 1, they go to jail.
MODERATOR: Jack Smith and Karl Marx.
DONALD: You think I’m bluffing?
MODERATOR: No, sir, I . . .
DONALD: So why’re you laughing? You think I’m joking. I am dead serious.
MODERATOR: Yes. I believe you are. What about the other Marx brothers, Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo, Zeppo, Manfred?
DONALD: You just wait. Just wait and see.
MODERATOR: OK. Moving on, what’s the difference between a hippo and a Zippo, Mr. Trump?
DONALD: Oh, you’re being funny.
MODERATOR. A hippo weighs a ton. A Zippo is a little lighter.
Josh is full-blown Q’Anon.
No bueno!
Excellent analysis. Antisemitism, racism & homophobia are the trio of lies that have historically fueled anti-democratic movements.
So, 70 million American adults were so cognitively challenged that they voted for Don the Con Trump for a second term.
That’s a statistic that bears examination.
What could be the cause of this severe crisis in mental acuity among American adults. A clue lies, perhaps, in these being mostly lower-middle class and working-class whites of middle age or older.
Perhaps there was something in the environment in the South, Midwest, and parts of the West in the 1960s and ’70s that with severe, long-term effects on cognitive functioning.
Teflon from cookware? Asbestos lining of pipes?
As I recall, the most educated districts voted blue in 2016 and 2020; the least educated districts voted red (Trump).
So, a working hypothesis: cheap Teflon-coated cookware sets sold to poorly educated but at that time just barely middle-class Midwestern and Southern white working people in the 1970s chipped off and got into the bloodstreams of these people and crossed the blood-brain barrier, where it caused severe damage to the brains of these people, leading to the voting results in 2020. It’s a thought.
Fascism is already here. Right now the Right believes in taking bites at the Margins, via dictates from the Supremacist Court and Republican led Attorney Generals demanding out of state medical records for women. But come 2024, with more levers under their thumb violence will flow, perhaps only more extrajudicial killings by Police perhaps Proud Boy paramilitary small scale targeted micro violence against “soft targets”.
I think we will see Time of Troubles style violence in America in 2024.
Diane, it is hysterical how you find I don’t understand. you have been lost for 7 years now with lies and propaganda. You believed Russia hoax for 4 years and still do. Believed all the hoaxes and you think I am warped when I have been on the right side. You believed the vaccine were safe and you are probably boosted and bragging about it.
Imagine Trumps chef died mysteriously in mar a lago news 24/7, but Obama shhhhhh, even with a black eye and an injury on his hand.
No stories on the insane Illinois rep who is making illegals allowed to be cops and arrest legal americans lol! clown show!
Josh,
60 courts have ruled that there was no evidence of voter fraud. Some of the judges were appointed by Trump. The Supreme Court, including Trump’s appointees, rejected Trump efforts to overturn the election.
Do you accept the fact that Trump lost the election of 2030?
Yes, I believe the vaccine is safe and effective. I have been vaccinated three times and boosted twice. I also take flu vaccine and shingles vaccine.
I hope you act on your principles and never get vaccinated for anything.
When you take polio, chicken pox, mumps and measles, you do not get it again, that is a vaccine. This vaccine you took is a bioweapon. That is why 18-year-olds like Lebron James son and thousands of athletes are retiring and coming down with myocarditis. I will never accept the 2020 fraudulent election, never seen so much corruption ever.
Our government meddles in nearly all elections trying to put in puppets and globalists in place who follow the deep state (world economic forum). People like nazi george soros and nazi klaus shwab.
Is the flu vaccine also a bioweapon and not a vaccine?
I can see that you believe you are absolutely right about the deep state, and you are certain that they meddled in the 2016 election and that’s why Trump was elected. This powerful deep state only allows those who obey them to win elections, and so I understand that you know they control Trump and the Republicans too. In fact, Trump’s “worldwide” hotels are GLOBALIST hotels — that’s why his brand is world wide!
You must be relieved that someone like Joe Biden, who doesn’t own hotels throughout the GLOBE like globalists do, is the president instead of globalist deep state puppet Trump. The deep state hasn’t gotten to him yet.