Stumbled across this and thought it deserves being passed on because ultimately YOU are the solution (and not each candidate in who it appears must lie because that is the only way they can possibly be taken seriously enough to win… )

Knowledge is power and when you know how YOU think, you can sometimes second guess yourself out of making those wrong decisions which your first instinct is to jump into with both feet…

who-lies-more-a-comparison

So why do they lie?  Those of us who have made the Internet their home must wonder over the audacity or ignorance of these upstarts who think their lies simply will go unchecked forever… So why then would they lie and why would anyone follow someone who lies so much?

According to one human scientist, Jim Taylor (Phd), there are many reasons and here briefly are the top six.

Many politicians are narcissists. … Most would agree. “Narcissists are arrogant, self-important, see themselves as special, require excessive admiration, have a sense of entitlement, and are exploitative, ” which, like it or not, causes them to believe that they are right and, even if they are not, they think they’re too smart to be ensnared inside any consequences.

Politicians know their followers will believe them, even in the face of irrefutable evidence to the contrary. Here, Facebook, blogs, and journalistic comment sections have certainly confirmed this to be true.  One reading through their comment streams can readily see how supporters flat out refuse to look at any evidence remotely throwing shade upon their candidate.

People don’t want to hear the truth…  “no one wants to hear things that threaten their existence, their beliefs, or that will make them uncomfortable. It is decidedly better for politicians to tell people what makes them feel comfortable. Why should politicians be the purveyors of bad news (and decrease the likelihood of getting people’s votes) when they can tell fairy tales with happy endings (which, of course, everyone wants) and come out the victor.”  When ones entire livelihood depends solely on people liking you more than they do someone else, deliberately putting salt in someone’s wound is not a good technique for self survival..

The Internet never forgets.  We tell this to our children to keep them from posting images they later regret.  But that adage cuts both ways… Whereas the truth is always out there when you do wrong, so are those lies always following you close each time you do right.  Unlike human reasoning, nothing ever gets settled on the Internet…Someone can stumble across and false flag without seeing all the evidence pointing it out as such, and BAM! That controversy starts all over again; it’s become the 21st Century equivalent of a “sucker being born every minute…”

Cognitive biases. “The human mind engages in many cognitive tricks to help people be more efficient, reduce confusion and anxiety, and keep life simple and coherent”. Across our evolutionary survival we developed the overall tendency to reinforce what we perceived as having always worked for us, instead of rushing down every new alternative path opening up our way.  The very valid fact that we are still here as a species, is pretty damning evidence to its effectiveness…

If a lie is told enough times, people will assume it is true.  “People expect that lies will be disproved and fade away. So if the lies continue to be heard (over and over and over) people assume they must be true.”  “If there is smoke, there must be fire”  Prior to the technical age, there were physical limits on a lie’s speed and reach. One could only talk to a limited number of impressionable people per day… and often many would retort back with contrary evidence dispelling the lie immediately upon its hearing. Now, lies reach millions in a second, drowning out those individual replies dispelling them. Checking out each statement’s validity has become tediously time consuming, during which multiple repetitions of the same lie continue, making its effectiveness all the more believable…
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With knowledge now stored as 1’s and 0’s we enter a new age in which our age old defenses against mis-information are no longer valid. Hence charts like that at the top of this post become very important… All it means is that “someone” out there checked and rated each of these candidates on issues ranging from “truth” to “pants on fire”…. and made this determination… something we are no longer capable of doing ourselves.

As always, your best bet is to go with those who won’t steer you wrong… That is lesson true in life, as it is in politics….