The Big Lie (1a.)

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

An addendum to "why the Big Lie method of propaganda works..."

If a lie is outlandish enough it forces your opponent to mute his criticism because any honest discussion of such a big lie will sound crazy. When the going gets too weird a truth-teller sounds hysterical.

The Iraq War was like that... nobody in politics wanted to be captured on tape questioning the very existence of WMD because the lie was SO big that the plain truth sounded tin-foily. It was not credible to people that any president would start a war for honest-to-god no reason whatsoever. The lie was so big that the public could not imagine anyone telling it.

Sarah Palin is like that. The idea that she should be president is so outlandish that her detractors will sound unhinged. "No, she really is just some bat-shit crazy lady they found somewhere to make president as a TV stunt. Really!"

I wondered this in 2000, whether nominating a developmentally disabled man was an intentional sympathy ploy. The reaction to the debates suggested it was effective. (Who expected to see Al Gore judged the loser of a presidential debate because it looked like he was being mean to a mentally disabled person?)

Obama can not come out and say, "John McCain is suffering from dementia and doesn't even know what the different countires on the globe are even called!" It's true, but it sounds crazy. How could a long term "foreign policy expert" know almsot nothing whatsoever about foreign policy? That would be crazy...

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

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