Anatomy of a Lie
An illustrated guide for the perplexed
The American media has had extreme difficulty using the word “lie” to describe times when a politician fails to tell the truth. There’s a lot of leeway given, and one might wonder why. Some suppose that perhaps the politician merely misspoke, or was confused, or his comments were taken out of context.
Certainly, one might think that if a certain politician is known to lie over and over and over, well beyond the period where the lie has been thoroughly debunked, that further comments from this politician would be painstakingly scrutinized.
One would be wrong.
But let’s talk about another “lie” by another politician, one that made headlines almost a year ago and reappeared this past week (for reasons that will become painfully clear).
Now, was this a lie? Um…
Obviously, since Trump has already sent soldiers to DC and is planning more excursions into fascism this way, the answer now is “no.” But that was also the answer a year ago.
You see, a lie is an untrue statement with the intent to deceive (thank you, Merriam-Webster). When Harris made her statement, it was unclear whether the statement was true or not, because the event had yet to occur. It was a prediction. Now, had the headline said, “Harris makes bold prophecy,” or even “Harris makes wild claim,” that would be OK—it’s an opinion. But it wasn’t a lie then, and certainly not now.
Compare this to other lies like:
“I won big in 2020.”
“Gas is $1.99 per gallon.”
“We’ve cut drug prices by 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 1,500%. I don’t mean 50%. I mean 14-, 1,500%.”
And my fave:
“I broke into Los Angeles, can you believe it? I had to break in. I invaded Los Angeles, and we opened up the water, and the water is now flowing down; they have so much water they don’t know what to do. They were sending it out to the Pacific for environmental reasons.”
No lie—you can subscribe to Mike’s Substack for free, here:
One more example
Earlier this month, Speaker Johnson made an outrageous claim that Donald Trump was an informant for the FBI in the Epstein matter, saying:
“He’s not saying that what Epstein did is a hoax. It’s a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself. When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.”
Now?
Funny way to say “lie,” huh?
Comment?
No lie, Mike!