The Power of Lying

What do Donald Trump, the internet, America’s insanely lax gun laws, Black Lives Matter, capitalist greed and the corporate ownership of the U.S. government, the rigging of the Democratic primaries in 2016, Brexit, and what’s currently happening in Gaza have in common?
It’s that we are now living in a world where people will say and do incredibly ridiculous stuff, stuff that would have been unthinkable a few short years ago, and get away with it, which initiates a feedback loop, because the more they get away with it the more they do it.
Consider. When Donald Trump rode down an escalator and made directly insulting remarks to every Mexican, pundits said that was the end of his campaign, but they were wrong. He not only got away with it, it increased his popularity and he was just smart enough to realize that and kept making more and more inflammatory comments, and he totally got away with it. He is much wealthier today, not in jail, and still a political force. On the internet, people say anything they want to and there are seldom real world consequences, which has encouraged right- wingers to go further to the right, and left-wingers to go even further to the left, which I must admit is liberating for me, but it makes for a dangerous and volatile atmosphere. As to the gun laws, I remember some time after Sandy Hook when I read a comment that made so much sense it was frightening. To paraphrase: “After Sandy Hook, the gun argument was basically over. If a class full of 2nd graders being slaughtered wasn’t enough to convince the American people, it is clear that nothing ever will be.” And that’s true. The gun lobby won, because we live in a world where you can get away with anything. After Michael Brown was shot, and the Black Lives Matter movement really took off, I had high hopes that things would change. But, hundreds of murders later, and police are still killing random black people. We’ve got precisely one conviction, which I’m pretty sure is being appealed. The police can still get away with it, and they know they can get away with it, so the problem continues. As far as capitalist greed and corporate ownership of the U.S. government goes, they aren’t even trying to hide it any more. Congress votes tax cuts and giveaways to big corporations without blinking an eye, and they block public health and green energy without even bothering to justify their position, because they can do that. The Democrats rigged their primaries in 2016. When they were caught, they admitted it, and defended it in court by saying (and again I paraphrase) “We can do whatever we want and we don’t owe the voters shit, haha.” So, they did it again in 2020 and here we are.
It seems as if the Tories in Britain (who more and more resemble Donald Trump) and the Netanyahu government in Israel have learned from the U.S. model. Lie, lie, lie, lie right directly in the face of contradictory evidence, and do whatever the hell you want to, and if you have the power you will get away with it.
It is a hell of a state of affairs.