To understand Trump, understand the philosophical and strategic concepts behind the art of "lying":
Life is struggle. Struggle against the elements, struggle against other organisms. Those other organisms process information. Feeding them false information is therefore an act of war against them.
Lies are a weapon. A weapon that is easily made, that can be used for surprising victories, but that can also let you down and lead to surprising defeats.
As lies are a weapon cheaply and easily made, it is the weapon of choice of the weak against the strong.
Why would a strong being lie to the weak being? It has already the upper hand for now! The answer is:
While the weak being uses the lie as a tactical weapon in the here and now, the strong entity uses it to lay the groundwork for future interactions. The strong being uses lies not not with the goal of victory: It already has won, otherwise it wouldn't be strong. The strong being uses lies as a means of dominance.
That leads us to two different kinds of lies: believable lies and unbelievable lies.
Consider the following scenarios:
Scenario 1: US-soldiers are fighting Nazis in WWII. They are faking the existence of additional troops with props.
That is a believable lie, in an attempt to gain the upper hand here and now.
Scenario 2: US-soldiers are fighting Nazis in WWII. They dress up as ghosts by putting on bed-sheets and try to scare the Nazis into retreat.
That is an unbelievable lie, in an attempt to gain the upper hand here and now.
Scenario 3: An army of US-soldiers has defeated an army of Nazis in WWII. As the two sides meet to arrange the capitulation, the US-army keeps up the illusion of additional troops with the purpose of future dominance.
That is a believable lie, in an attempt to gain dominance in the future for as long as the lie goes undetected.
Scenario 4: An army of US-soldiers has defeated an army of Nazis in WWII. As the two sides meet to arrange the capitulation, the US-army dresses up as ghosts by putting on bed-sheets.
That is an unbelievable lie, in an attempt to gain dominance in the future for as long as the lie goes undetected.
Scenario 4 doesn't make sense. It hinges on the lie not being detected, while everybody is aware that the lie has already been detected.
And this exactly the kind of lies Donald Trump and his administration are telling.
They are not using lies as a weapon for victory.
They are not using lies as a weapon for dominance.
They tell lies that they know will not be believed.
They do not bother with telling believable lies to ensure victory or dominance, because they already have those two things.
When they are not telling the truth, this not-truth is technically not a "lie", because it has no purpose.
It's a calculated insult.
They are not lying to you to defeat you or to rule you.
They are telling the not-truth to insult you.
And that's how the US ends in situations where the White House Press Secretary tells absolutely unbelievable lies to the media that can be disproven within minutes. And gets away with it without any outrage or repercussions.
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/21/1623311/-Trump-campaign-goes-further-off-the-deep-end-claims-largest-inaugural-audience-of-all-time#read-more
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/secret-service-slaps-down-white-house-claim-that-magnetometers-shrank-inaugural-crowd-size/
- Spicer said that inauguration-audience was the largest ever... Except that the crowd and the TV-ratings were as a fact lower.
- Spicer said that the crowd looked so small from above because for the first time ever floor-coverings were used to protect the grass... Except that the same floor-coverings were used 2013.
- Spicer said that the crowd was so small because the Secret Service needlessly prevented people from attending with its magnetometer-checkpoints... Except that the Secret Service didn't use magnetometers. (Wait. Small? I thought this was the largest crowd ever!)
Why is nobody outraged that the White House Press Secretary so brazenly lied to the public?
Because everybody recognizes that his not-truth serves not the purpose of a lie.
It's is no attempt to convince you.
It's an attempt to insult you.
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