Dissembling the truth in the Age of Bush
Crazy claims hit us every day: lies brazen, bold, and breathtaking in their degree of misrepresentation; assertions that are perfect inversions of what is true; claims so implausible that believing them would require a level of ignorance that no one who reads the daily newspaper could possess; analysis so twisted, it is a wonder that anyone could spout it without laughing.
We hear versions of these every day, though public-spirited writers of left and right labor to expose them. And yet, refuting these lies is like shooting fish in a barrel. Hundreds of stories from around the world appear every day that debunk the bunk. What is startling is how the claims keep coming back, as if the people who promote them have no regard for the truth at all, and have no shame whatsoever about mouthing falsehoods again and again.
How is it that the relentless liars on US foreign policy and war are not outed and disgraced? Why are they permitted to socialize in polite company? Why are their columns carried in reputable newspapers and why do the networks continue to interview them as if they were serious voices contributing to the public dialogue? Why are they not shunned and rebuked the way systematic liars in private life are avoided and discredited?
The crucial difference is that they are lying on behalf of power. And not just any power. We are talking about the greatest centralized power on the globe, the world's largest, most well-armed, and most dangerous government, the only government to have ever used nuclear weapons against civilians and the government that has invaded more countries than any other in modern times.
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