Summary: In a democracy, truth is essential for a functioning society. Scarlett Lewis’s testimony during the Sandy Hook defamation case highlighted the dangers of political lies, particularly from MAGA Republicans. The media, tasked with reporting facts, often fails by truth-washing blatant falsehoods. Voters hold the ultimate power to punish deceitful politicians, yet many continue to re-elect them, diluting the majority’s voice. To combat this, shame can serve as a powerful tool for accountability. By reminding politicians of their dishonesty, the electorate can reclaim the truth and strengthen democratic values.
Key Words: Truth, Democracy, Accountability, Media, Voters, Lies, Shame, Sandy Hook, MAGA, Political Integrity
Comment: We need concrete ways of fighting back against the #GOPDystopia that will descend upon us. How can we resist the oligarchs and become dissidents in our own country?
- The Destructive Force of Lying and the Necessity of Truth
- The Two Guardians of Truth: Media and the Electorate
- Shame: Our Super Power
- Shaming the Truth Out of Them!
- Image Attribution
The Destructive Force of Lying and the Necessity of Truth
Way back in August of 2022 during the Sandy Hook defamation case against Alex Jones, Scarlett Lewis delivered a gut-wrenching testimony that struck a chord. She looked directly at the libelous craven sadistic snake-oil salesthing, and said, “Truth – truth is so vital to our world. Truth is what we base our reality on and we have to agree on that to have a civil society.“
She went on to say, “Jesse was real. I am a real mom…I know you know that, and that’s the problem.”
It was even more damning to him and the entire lying apparatus of the MAGA Republican propaganda machine was when she added, “I know you believe me and yet you’re going to leave this court house and you’re going to say it again on your show.”
The Two Guardians of Truth: Media and the Electorate
In one day’s testimony, she laid bare in microcosm the entire problem with our country: one of our political parties is willing to lie to get what it wants regardless of who it hurts. Without a shared commitment to truth, society crumbles. It’s like we’re the Three Little Pigs, waiting for the explosive diarrhea of falsehoods spewing from the Orange Caricature to blow our houses down.
The For-Profit Press Truth-Washing Republican Lies
The question now becomes, how do we get the MAGA Republicans to stop their relentless lying? Relying on the for-profit press has proven itself a fool’s errand in futility. They invite them on their shows and at best do some performative fact-checking and then some ham-handed “outrage,” but Republicans will be back next week on the same show telling the same lies.
Their lies will be truth-washed with equivocating words and weak excuses. The best example was CNN’s headline reporting that Trump was just repeating a Fox News story that claimed the New Orleans truck-driving terrorist was an undocumented immigrant having crossed the border at Eagle Pass.
Truth-Washing Trump’s and Fox News’ Lies about the New Orleans Terror Attack
Take CNN’s headline that read: Trump falsely links New Orleans terror attack to migrants after erroneous Fox News report. “Erroneous?” Please. Everyone knew it was a blatant lie, yet the media opts for truth-washing instead of calling it out as the conscious deliberate attempt to deceive that it is.
In a democracy, we have two guardians of truth: the media and the electorate. The media should be reporting facts. When one side is knowingly lying, the media is professionally bound to report it as a lie. Instead, they truth-wash it and twist the other side into pretzelized Gordian knot to bothsides it.
The Electorate Rewarding MAGA Republican Lies
The electorate, on the other hand, holds the power to punish politicians for egregiously and knowingly lying. For example, no voter in North Carolina should be voting for a Republican for the next generation for their lies about FEMA after Hurricane Helene, their blatant gerrymandering to nullify the votes of dissenters, and their outrageous attempt to strip constitutionally granted powers from the governor after a Democrat was elected. All of which is dishonest and acting in bad faith. They have shown that they cannot be trusted to uphold our democratic values and are willing to lie for political gain.
Shame: Our Super Power
In a democracy, the voters are the ultimate arbiters of truth, but instead of holding faithless officeholders accountable, we are rewarding them by re-electing them. These bad actors have engineered a system that dilutes the voting power of the majority, allowing the will of the minority to prevail. What’s the majority to do, when the system has been so thoroughly rigged against us?
Enter shame—our secret weapon. Remember when Jeff Bezos FAFO for refusing to give time off to an Amazon employee injured in a terrorist attack? Public shame compelled him to act.
Shaming the Truth Out of Them!
So, how can we, as an electorate, wield the power of shame against the habitual liars in politics? One simple strategy is to flood their offices with friendly reminders of their deceitful behavior:
If you’ve got more ideas on how to shame our lying politicians into better behavior, drop them in the comments! And if you love the notion of holding MAGA Republicans accountable, stay tuned for more ways to join the fight.
If you enjoyed this little foray into being a dissident, then consider doing one or all of the following:
- Share this post with someone you think will enjoy it.
- Like or rate this post using the stars before it or the like button after it.
- Comment on other methods we can use to shame our lying faithless elected officials into upholding our democracy.
- Follow the blog or join our email list
Image Attribution
The image was made by me using Microsoft PowerPoint and turning it into a jpeg. It is unlicensed. Share it as you will.
The Psy of Life 
I’ve been holding the state senators and congressmen’s feet to the fire for years now. I always call out when they are lying, tell them I know they are, THEY know they are and that they need to stop. So far, one resigned…one went from congress to senate and still lies………the others? they’re all still lying and I am permanently banned from the offices of my supposed representatives.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Howdy Suze!
Permanently banned?!? Now, there’s a story behind that, I’m sure. But, how can a constituent be permanently banned from a representative’s office. It seems anti-democratic.
I don’t know that I make my points completely or clearly in my posts. One of my thoughts is that we need mass civil disobedience on a scale that will strain the system. I don’t think that will happen because it would mean hundreds of thousands of people willing to go go to jail multiple times. I don’t know that we have that many people willing to disrupt their lives to that degree.
But, flooding, and by flooding I mean thousands of these messages arriving at Congressional offices every day, seems like it would disrupt the offices and force some attention to be paid to the message and issue by the media.
If we are going to succeed in resisting the oligarchy, we’re going to need to get creative in how we get their attention and express our discontent. Partly, because I fear for the fairness and representativeness of our elections in 2026.
And, lastly, the directness of the message without citing any specific lie focuses on the act of lying itself. It doesn’t invite argument over nitpicking interpretive details and the mind of the receiver automatically goes to lies knowingly told. It will require cognitive effort to overcome the. dissonance.
I don’t know that I adequately brought those things out in the post or had even thought them through that far when I posted it. I am, however, working on a series on mass civil disobedience. For example, I would love to see hundreds of trans people using capitol bathrooms everyday, looking for all the world like bearded men are in the women’s room and nicely made-up curvy women are in the men’s room. If they were confronted daily — I know every Congressional office has its own private bathroom (really? that’s a thing that’s deemed necessary?) but it would break through some of the dissonance and it would garner media attention.
Fight On, Sibling!
Jack
LikeLiked by 1 person
it is most anti-democratic to ban people from the offices..their excuse is that I am a political agitator….LOL..yea a five foot 180 pound grandma scares the bejesus out of them. LOL
LikeLiked by 1 person
It shows how easy it is when you’re speaking truth to power. Unfortunately, many of us don’t have the courage to do it.
And, now we have to live through and rebuild LA.
Jack
LikeLiked by 1 person
The news today, which you’ve likely already seen, is that META is ending political fact checking on FaceBook and Instagram. Zuck says that the fact checkers were “too biased”. Sorry, Zuck (since you are zuckking up to the Great Leader) is that it has not been the fact checkers who were biased, it is the facts. The platforms are going to be more like “X”.
So, it will be the users who will have to call out the liars, exposing themselves to the flying monkeys in the “Community Notes” feature.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Howdy Bob!
German industries and companies were appalled by Hitler, but still played ball because that was how the game was to be played. They’re in it to make profits and so they need the government to continue doing so. Utterly, not surprising to see corporations and billionaires lining up. They understand that it is the price of doing business.
The question really is how much are we as individuals willing to suffer in our defiance of the oligarchs? How often are we willing to be jailed and fined? Beaten by the secret police forces? Teargassed? Audited by the IRS? Investigated by the FBI or local police? Taken in for questioning?
I think that is the level of struggle that we are heading to and the sooner we all resolve to engage in it, the more likely we’ll be in succeeding.
Huzzah!
Jack
LikeLiked by 1 person
I fear you ‘re right, and that far too many will try to hunker down and keep a low profile for too long. That said, with TFG and Elon both looking increasingly manic and delusional, and aiming to enact things that will devastate their voters and break every promise, there is still some hope the whole project will crash and burn.
It is clear from his most recent ramblings that Trump is not aiming at being Dictator, or even King. He’s aiming for Emperor.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Howdy Bob!
I think that the plan is to destroy the world’s economy so the billionaires can buy up the pieces at fire sale prices. I think that is the extent of the plan. It will end up destroying them, but take the rest of us with them.
Jack
LikeLiked by 1 person
The theory of Creative Destruction, like any over-generalization, can work at some range of scale, but becomes fatal at too large a scale. Some essential systems, once broken, cripple any rebuilding.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A lot of the viral memes I’m seeing on a number of subjects, most notably currently on the health insurance scam, boil down to “They Are Lying.” in some form. Well, since most of the MAGA and MAGA- friendly faithful are not going to see those in their feeds, or will troll back at them when they do, it is mostly a case of preaching to the choir. Admittedly, in these times, the choir does need a bit of encouragement and agitation.
This is different. It seeks to cut through the excuses, the “lies in the service of a higher truth”, and “I have to say this because it is what my voters want to hear.” sort of justifications. But, it has to be repetitive and in each instance tied to a particular utterance. They have to get it that they are being watched by many eyes all the time in everything they say. I will be sharing this idea with my Indivisible friends.
It occurs to me that one of the tactics in the type of lying we are talking about is the mixture of truth and lies. It is difficult to fight because calling out the lie will be accused of “taking it out of context”. The answer to that is that , no, it is the lie that sets the context of the statement.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Howdy Bob!
One of the advantages of using a blanket, “You’re lying” accusation is that it lets the receiver think of their lies. You can’t help it when someone accuses you of lying. You think of the topic they’re addressing and if there is no topic, you think of your most memorable lie. It is an anchoring effect.
It’s like being scared of the dark and possible demons, going to hell, and wanting god to save them. In the light of day, we’re fine and don’t believe that nonsense, but at the stroke of midnight we are relying on our deep cultural beliefs. We all know lying is a sin. We all know about George Washington.
The other point of using the mail or even email is to disrupt their offices. Tie up personnel. If thousands of these card were arriving everyday, someone would have to deal with it. It would get news coverage. And, disruption is the key to our fight. I don’t think many people realize that yet. We can’t just resist, we must be disobedient and actively disruptive.
Huzzah!
Jack
LikeLiked by 1 person
I see it. We don’t have to tell them what they are lying about. They know, and far better than we do. They know their private lies and secret hypocrisies. They know the things they don’t even want to tell the priest at the confessional, the impure thoughts that must not be spoken. What they don’t know when they get the messages is how much of that we know.
Self sticking envelopes and stamps are wonderful. There’s no need to lick them and leave your DNA. And, those exam gloves we used during COVID are cheap.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Howdy Bob!
Sounds like a plan. Now if only I had the time and money.
Jack
LikeLiked by 1 person
It has to be viral. All we can do as individuals is put the idea out there.
LikeLiked by 1 person