I haven't touched this blog in almost four years, but I felt a long form rant coming on and, rather than inflict this on the people that follow me on the various social medias, I thought I'd pull the wooden stake from the heart of this blog and set it loose on the innocent townsfolk... that could be bothered click on the link. If you're reading this, thanks. Now, to beginneth the rant:
A lot of people are calling Donald Trump a liar. I know; Shock! Horror! A politician lied, alert the media! That is not, however, why he, and by extension his base, are dangerous. This is: his mastery of true, if irrelevant facts. I will further elaborate with my favorite example.
Donald Trump said, in one of his famous pep rally harangues, that "More people voted for him in 2020 than ever voted for any incumbent President running for re-election in history." If you get into the technicality weeds of the numbers, that statement is 100% true; every word. Now, if you say that, and only that, the average Trump voter thinks that he got the most votes, the election was stolen, etc., etc. There are two large caveats to that statement, however. The first is generational: the number of people that were, at the time of the 2016 election, aged 14-17, was much higher than the number of people that would die over the next four years, Covid-19 notwithstanding. Allow me to use 2019 as an example: even with the increase caused by Covid-19, 2.8 Million Americans died of all causes in 2019. However, over 4 Million Americans were born in 2001 and would have achieved voting age in 2019. (Google my numbers if you dispute me; it's a two minute search.)
Simply put: more people vote in every subsequent Presidential election because there are more people around for every subsequent Presidential election. Trump had nothing to do with it and, if you are a believer in vaccines and masks, you might say he actively worked against it, but that's not what we're covering here today.
The second caveat is simple: He got over 73 Million votes, making his statement, out of context, completely true. Joe Biden, however, got over 81 Million votes.
So, politicians lie. Donald Trump lies, Joe Biden lies, all politicians lie sometimes. You can pretty much tell when they're lying. Sometimes, it's when they're telling the truth that they do more damage; out of context, irrelevant truth.
