The Cultural Problem with Deception

Deception has major advantages for an individual, assuming the lie is believed.

The problem is when a culture of deception develops.   Then people start to actually BELIEVE the lies.

In someways it works for the betterment of culture.   When you declare something wrong or illegal and people pretend to believe in it, over time, the belief becomes real.  Slowly people move from mouthing statements to believing them.  It doesn't happen overnight.  It takes generations.   But when you have teachers telling kids that that blacks are equal, some of them believe the lies.

The problem is it doesn't work just for good.  The same effect happens when you lie for evil.

When the republicans lie and claim things like the Democrats are communists, some of the younger, more impressionable people will believe two things:

1) That such blatant lies activity are acceptable 

2)  That it is true.


This country needs a loyal opposition.  It is the heart of what makes a democracy work.  Without people that disagree with you, your get sucked into group think.   Imagine if the liberals had a free hand?  Now think about if the conservatives had one.  They recently lost an attempt to declare birth occurs at menstruation.  MENSTRUATION.   Not conception, MENSTRUATION.

I know of almost no one that isn't horrified by the idea of doing this.

A loyal opposition is needed.   The key to having a loyal opposition is that you can NOT vilify the enemy.

You can vilify their practices, their theories, their claims, their beliefs, their politics.   But you can not vilify them.  You can't vilify the group or the individuals. You HAVE to admit that they have the best interest of the nation as their goal.  

The GOP has repeatedly moved beyond vilifying their politics to vilify the democrats as a whole.   When people make the kind of claims that Glenn Beck used to, that Rush Limbaugh still makes, that certain un-named GOP congressman made about communists, then they are attacking the very core of democracy.

Because without a loyal opposition, we just have a dictatorship, not a democracy.