A year of unprecedented deception: Trump averaged 15 false claims a day in 2018 - Polidicks

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/30/year-unprecedented-deception-trump-averaged-false-claims-day/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f77f978f93cd President Trump’s year of lies, false statements and misleading claims started with some morning tweets. Over a couple of hours on Jan. 2, Trump made false claims about three of his favorite targets — Iran, the New York Times and Hillary Clinton. The fusillade of tweets was the start of a year of unprecedented deception during which Trump became increasingly unmoored from the truth. When 2018 began, the president had made 1,989 false and misleading claims, according to The Fact Checker’s database, which tracks every suspect statement uttered by the president. By the end of the year, Trump had accumulated more than 7,600 untruths during his presidency — averaging more than 15 erroneous claims a day during 2018, almost triple the rate from the year before. Even as Trump’s fact-free statements proliferate, there is growing evidence that his approach is failing. Fewer than 3 in 10 Americans believe many of his most-common false statements, according to a Fact Checker poll conducted this month. Trump began 2018 on a similar pace as last year. Through May, he generally averaged about 200 to 250 false claims a month. But his rate suddenly exploded in June, when he topped 500 falsehoods, as he appeared to shift to campaign mode. Trump’s midsummer acceleration came as the White House stopped having regular press briefings and the primary voice in the administration was Trump, who met repeatedly with reporters, held events, staged rallies and tweeted constantly. In one of his more preposterous statements of 2018, Trump labeled the Palm Beach Post as “fake news” for blaming him for traffic jams across the nation — when an article about the effect of low gas prices on driving habits never mentioned his name.

Lying seems to be a very efficient way to get stuff done, even if people call you out on how much you do it you seem to be able to get away with it.

http://www.clydefitchreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Trump-Pinoccio-nose-e1525375877287.jpg accumulated more than 7,600 untruths during his presidency — averaging more than 15 erroneous claims a day during 2018 His nose would've already reached past Pluto's orbit.

That's a lot of alternative facts, alright.

Literally brainwashed

you can't fool all of the people all of the time but hey if you gerrymander right you only need the some of the people you can fool all of the time.

I honestly think it stems from people being unhappy and insecure to the point that they need something to blame or believe in that alleviate things that they otherwise don't have the emotional skills to rationalize. I didn't lose my job, it was stolen by mexicans! Our country isn't bad, it's the immigrants bringing it down! I didn't waste my vote and make tons of false statements and assertions, it's everyone else that is against trump! etc. It's like a case of buyers remorse, except they never accept the remorse. They're afraid of it. Just my theory. And of course some people are just stupid in general.

unpresidented*

If only there was some kind of legal repurcussion for politicians making empirically proven false claims Because as above posters have expressed, calling them out on their lies simply isnt having any kind of consequence for them.

Is this one of those averages where there's a day-to-day of only like, 6 lies, but every once in a while he goes on a massive liestorm and skews the average way up?

If you have access to their TV and internet, block Fox, Breitbart, RT, etc. Tell them it was a virus.

The phrase “unprecedented deception” would imply that he’s fooled anyone. the only people who believe his lies are the ones who were ready to accept anything that came from their cult leader’s mouth anyways.

Ok, what's the better alternative - them not getting any information from these fucked up sites or them feeling like their suspicion was confirmed when all their favourite sites mysteriously got blocked?

All I can say to that is, don't give in, keep fighting their stupidity with your knowledge.

Ironically the same people who swallow his shit are the same ones who would hashtag "Facts don't care about your feelings"

It helps when you have the entire GOP to shield you from consequences

I feel it's going to take ages to repair the damage done when Trump is finally out

They'll be angry and confused for a while, but over time they should come back down to reality once they have no other alternative.

I feel like Trump is only the start and it's just going to get worse if the institutions propping people like him up aren't torn down.

I really wish that were true. My other two older brothers are pro-Russian and fairly far right and they slowly indoctrinate my parents every time they come over for lunch, which is two or three times a week. So I feel like it’s unavoidable.

The GOP will definitely be doing their part to make sure as much of it remains as possible. Remember, Tiynhands isn't the problem. It's the GOP's complicity that's the problem

Yeah but also consider that Trump personally caused the Washington Post fact-checkers to have to invent a new rating on their Pinocchio scale of falsehood: The Bottomless Pinocchio, a rating assigned to falsehoods persistently being stated even after being firmly proven false and wrong. A huge amount of his lying is repeats, like tweeting that, oh I don't know, something like Democrats want to remove all border security entirely so anyone can enter whenever they want, on seven occasions in three consecutive days.

Also his insistence that he had the largest inaugural crowd ever. And he continues to insist this despite all reason, evidence, logic, and fact demonstrating that his claim is bullshit. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/133737/b665ec98-9afa-4f34-8858-e922beea1198/image.png (Source) https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1058781668151050240

If it's any consolation, as far as I know people have always been ignorant and that hasn't gotten worse. What has changed in the past few years and decades is that the internet has allowed the ignorance to condense and bubble up, and then politicians and alternative news outlets have started exploiting this factor. There's now enough unregulated information to entirely fill the average person's news flow with false information that cyclically reinforces itself. And also people like you and me have gotten more politically aware, and that gives the illusion of things getting worse.

Admitting that there is a problem is the first step towards solving that problem. That awareness is what will help our nation recover from this condensed soup of lies and back-alley deals. Sunlight is the best disinfectant -- and when America's finally ready to rip the curtains open and really take a look at itself that's when we'll be able to finally start to throw out all the garbage that we've let pile up in the darkness.

The problem was you replaced one propaganda machine with the other and they were not prepaired for what a free open press would do in regards to the west's own biased media. I grew up seeped in a world of fox news and conservative radio, but there were other news stations, other channels, now its like torture to get my family to watch cnn or litterally anywhere else. their first instinct is rush limbaugh and fox news. breaking story: go to fox news, oh wait there's more to the story than what they're reporting? nope just fox news. its more credible than you because you're biased. They don't care to notice the obvious things fox does to appeal to authoritarianism like how their anchors are shot in aggressive poses, from the waist on up, seated center camera, head fixed straight at the camera for the entire segment. its all made to evoke the journalistic traditions of walter cronkite but its all written to serve an agenda.

He can't go 2 hours without lying about something.