Trump lies. A recent example. Trump claimed this season’s increase in Christmas season sales of 3.4% was the largest in American history. Not so, of course. Before the season began, the National Retail Federation predicted sales increases between 3.8% and 4.2% for the season, noting that for the past few years sales increases have averaged 3.7%.
The Trump tweet. In CAPS: ‘2019 HOLIDAY RETAIL SALES WERE UP 3.4% FROM LAST YEAR, THE BIGGEST NUMBER IN U.S. HISTORY. CONGRATULATIONS AMERICA!’
Congratulations America. Trump lies.
How we started with Trump lies. The crowd at the inaugural. The Guardian reported:
“No one had numbers because the National Park Service, which controls the National Mall, does not put any out,” [Sean Spicer] said, before going ahead anyway to declare that Trump had attracted “the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration” in person and in the world” [Spicer later commented] “These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm for the inauguration are shameful and wrong.”
The Guardian added:
“Crowd estimates can be fraught with difficulty and there is indeed no official figure. But images of the National Mall on Friday contradicted Spicer’s assertions – particularly when compared with pictures from Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 and the turnout for the Women’s March on Saturday.
A time lapse video indicates that the National Mall was never full at any stage on Friday…. photographs show the National Mall packed with crowds just before Obama’s inauguration in 2009 – but much more sparsely covered with people just before Trump’s ceremony.”
We spent some time examining the numbers for Trump’s inaugural Pursuing these lies, reviewing these lies can exhaust critical thinking. The Daily Kos, reviewing Chuck Todd’s Christmas Eve Confession reported:
They agreed to pretend that [Kellyanne] Conway’s threatening phrase, “alternative factws” was just hyberbole, the kind of inflammatory moment that makes for viral clips and partisan bickering. More silly than it was ominous.
In reality she had made a grave announcement. The nature of the Trump government would be propagandistic And as Garry Kasparov observes for us, “The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to minisform or push and agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth” This exhaustion, this annihilation were on their way to the Sunday shows and to all interactions with journalists. That is what Kellyanne Conway was saying that day on Meet the Press. But the people who run the show chose not to believe it.”
Daily Kos’ criticism is for all journalists and for all of us. We cannot keep up. We are exhausted by the lies. We spent days disagreeing about the size of the inaugural crowd. We have spent no time pointing out that the increase in Christmas season sales was below the average of the last several years and certainly NOT the BIGGEST NUMBER IN US HISTORY. It was below the average for the last several years.
Who reported that? Who explained how wrong Trump was? Who focused on his lie? Hardly anyone. We are exhausted. Our critical faculties cannot keep up. We know Trump lies. We just do not expose his lies anymore.