Going to keep saying: a society that wants to keep its basic functioning has to discourage lying. rewarding it instead is suicidal - ThreadSky

olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social • 18 days ago

Going to keep saying: a society that wants to keep its basic functioning has to discourage lying. rewarding it instead is suicidal

Reposted from Andrew Lawrence

big lesson for america here: one reason you dont elect people who believe bull shit like "theyre eating the pets" or "theyre putting kitty litter boxes in the classrooms" is bc if they get in power theyll believe bull shit like "tariffs are a tax cut actually"

Comments

grudgie.bsky.social•18 days ago

It’s the single biggest failure of the media imho

minerva1.bsky.social•18 days ago

For the last ten years, we’ve tried everything we could think of to get the media to prioritize truth. And they’ve only gotten worse.

diceprophet.bsky.social•18 days ago

In an ideal world the utterance of “alternative facts” should’ve resulted in complete rejection of their nonsense but…here we are

dankeevy.bsky.social•18 days ago

This is literally why law was developed. The Kings of ancient Sumeria, and other first civilzailtions, were seeing too many vendatta style revenges that was affecting the kingdom.

Honor the honest and hold the wicked to account.

ceu---azul.bsky.social•18 days ago

nothing wrong there, but let's be clear that the current american government DOES NOT want a society that keeps its basic funtioning

d-le-nen.bsky.social•18 days ago

its education, stupid

helios-daedalus.bsky.social•18 days ago

Too bad we've reoriented our entire media (legacy and social) appartus and politics around rewarding lying.

crazyfacedziggler.bsky.social•18 days ago

CNN need to start 'truth checking'. Far easier.

calamityjim.bsky.social•18 days ago

The man who went around saying that Obama was born in Kenya got a full pass.

That should have been the moment we all understood that our national suicide was well underway.

tippingpoint24.bsky.social•18 days ago

This mess started with Alternative Facts - in the first Trump administration

podsekalnikov.bsky.social•18 days ago

The shitty thing is that the kitty litter claim is true, but the school that started it did so because of repeated lock downs for mass shooter threats and thought that students and faculty may need the litter to make a diy toilet if locked down for a long time.

nalanidesjard.bsky.social•18 days ago

#democracyisdying
Don't forget about any of the Americans this regime is trying to make disappear...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/08/mahmoud-khalil-wife-letter?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

nlbray.bsky.social•18 days ago

But how can we get to "don't elect liars" when we can't even manage "don't elect rapists"?

nlbray.bsky.social•18 days ago

I mean, I definitely agree with you and I'm not trying to be a doomer but I just have no idea what to do.

miriamgrace.bsky.social•18 days ago

Americans quite clearly loathe society and feel like a well functioning public existence is unacceptable. They want Somalia, they want North Korea, they want to work in sweatshops and have their children gunned down regardless of educational status.

Make no mistakes. Americans love this.

thegoddamn.icu•18 days ago

To misquote the bible, The Kingdom of Heaven allows violence and the violent rule it through force.

lesphaith.bsky.social•18 days ago

Indeed.

benmorrow991.bsky.social•18 days ago

But but but if we can't lie then ... we have to tell the truth and that's too much work!

slooowfox.bsky.social•18 days ago

yeah they've really let the boys crying wolf run the joint

p0usr.bsky.social•18 days ago

One complication of the immersive unrealities we’re faced with now is it’s not always easy to tell who’s deliberately lying and who’s such a mark that they genuinely believe their shit doesn’t stink. Sometimes it’s the same person when they repeat their own lie enough and can’t break character

p0usr.bsky.social•18 days ago

To SOME degree perhaps we want to allow space for people who were drip fed this shit for years, curated an alternate reality online, and became brainwashed but still have potential to rehabilitate. But man a lot of them DEFINITELY know better and chose this anyways

lucasalami.bsky.social•18 days ago

Its depressing as shit that like the one time people were held accountable is when the voting machine companies sued the shit out of people. Literally the only tool we have is lawsuits backed by millions, nothing else works.

tony-nielsen.bsky.social•18 days ago

Lying was wrong when I was growing up.🤷‍♂️

jaydpauley.bsky.social•18 days ago

And we have to stop dismissing big lies by both-sidesing lies. “But…Biden said the GDP was 1.8 and it was 1.5” is not the same as election denialism, they’re eating the pets, or Obama was born in Kenya.

tkrause.bsky.social•18 days ago

It’s a staggering indictment that this 👆🏻 even needs to be said but this is where 🇺🇸 is at. I hope other nations take this lesson to heart. Never follow in their footsteps. Taking to you 🇨🇦. You have toyed long enough with right wing insanity. Don’t fuck this up on election day.

devans00.bsky.social•17 days ago

Rewarding immoral, antisocial, selfish behavior directly led us to the current state of things. It starts with little things like refusing to hold people accountable and enforcing consequences for behavior. Don’t know how society can turn this around. Seems like those with power biggest enablers.

lizziepi.bsky.social•18 days ago

YES to all! 👏👏👏

I am so tired of this shit! 😥
Can we have a do over please?

melissjpeltier.bsky.social•18 days ago

I believe serial dishonesty as a cultural norm is one of the core malignancies we need to excuse if our nation is to survive.
#MakeIntegrityCoolAgain

delbertgseasons.bsky.social•18 days ago

Yeah part of the problem is that while Trump is the lyingest sack of shit ever, Biden was still a liar and liberals were fine with it. And I’m not talking about quibbles or decimal points, some of his lies were egregious. Also he regurgitated a lot of IDF lies

montrealalix.bsky.social•8 days ago

Excuse? Is that a typo? Excise maybe?

rollforphobia.bsky.social•18 days ago

Unfortunately as a filthy Canadian I think this is just built into absolute free speech. Citizens United et al may have made it explicitly legal, but money always grants more and further-reaching speech, and lies are cheap and profitable while truth takes time and effort.

rollforphobia.bsky.social•18 days ago

Christ knows we have our profound issues, but Trudeau freezing liars’ assets spooked em good.

skuzy1572.bsky.social•18 days ago

Yes we need to go back to publicly shaming grown ass adults who should know how to act and how to discern what is and isn’t real. Stop protecting the feelings for bigots and racists and shying away from calling out stupid and hateful people’s ignorance.

cigarcitypro.bsky.social•18 days ago

#45Lies tried to warn 'em 🤷🏽‍♂️ instead they made him 47 too

olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social•18 days ago

in the same family of thoughts as this very good thread

https://bsky.app/profile/phdhurtbrain.bsky.social/post/3lmceb2ilw22e

optimist-press.bsky.social•18 days ago

phdhurtbrain.bsky.social•18 days ago

🙏🙏🙏

amyshadow.bsky.social•7 days ago

Do you have an essay on this?

premiumsteve.bsky.social•18 days ago

We can never have this as long as American media is three right wing companies all regurgitating each other’s propaganda

shawfest.bsky.social•18 days ago

Yes

edburmila.bsky.social•18 days ago

Ctrl-f BOOK for teeth and that’s me

boldnewme.bsky.social•18 days ago

Completely agree.👏🏻

charles.capps.me•18 days ago

They made themselves immune to shame, which is what led to all of this.

sorayanadiamcdonald.com•18 days ago

I would love to see an Off-Broadway artistic director create an entire season based on this very theme!

scribbledawn.bsky.social•18 days ago

now running on a single policy: every time a politician is proven to knowingly fib they are taxed 5% of their net worth

riverotter.bsky.social•18 days ago

Not disagreeing at all. What is the answer that isn’t WaPo selective “fact checking” ?

kauaihorses.bsky.social•18 days ago

"Just two months into Donald Trump’s second term, we have reached a milestone in US politics: For the first time in US history, we must assume that nothing that comes out of the mouths of anybody associated with this administration is true*.
Nothing!"

https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/from-trump-and-musk-on-down-everybody-in-this-administration-is-lying/

ecarney.bsky.social•18 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/ecarney.bsky.social/post/3lizrqqbdbk2g

wishda.bsky.social•18 days ago

What we are running into is that Red states have been able to operate for decades on fantasy rules, because the federal government and its bureaucrats created a safe space for their nonsense.

Now, they have fired the babysitters and are cleaning the walls with gasoline and blowtorches.

davemaru.bsky.social•18 days ago

These people literally believe in fairy tales

wishda.bsky.social•18 days ago

It would be better if they did.

They believe in self interest and the power of the ever shifting narrative. Their fairy tales do not bind them anymore than the laws do.

And you can't run a modern society with a "What I say goes!" that shifts hourly with the tyrants' mood and finances.

davemaru.bsky.social•18 days ago

They believe in shit like bootstraps, trickle down economics, prosperity gospel, bioessentialism, the invisible hand of the market, rugged individualism, American exceptionalism, and that everybody in the 50’s lived like Happy Days.

wishda.bsky.social•18 days ago

And then they believe something else when the next leader appears and says something different. About a year ago, an American conservative would scream at you for being a traitor for suggesting we leave NATO.

Today, they are like "Fuck NATO. They just steal from us and never say 'Thank you.'"

wishda.bsky.social•18 days ago

The raw anger at anyone who deviates from their current talking points is constant, but these are people who will murder you on Thursday for believing something that they would have murdered you on Monday for not believing.

The wild swings are also classic cult behavior - loyalty over fixed ideas.

endmalcompetence.bsky.social•18 days ago

Exactly, it's a cult: They believe that we have always been at war with Oceania, until Big Brother says the opposite and then we've always been at war with Eastasia.

The only true, consistent belief is in a cruel hierarchy.

matthenry.fyi•18 days ago

You might say discouraging lying is imperative. Like, categorically.

olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social•18 days ago

never go full Kant

timothystamm101.bsky.social•18 days ago

Yeah, but you maybe should go right up to his position and toe that line because lying should rarely be justified.

matthenry.fyi•18 days ago

Agreed. You do not gotta hand it to him.

dbnewtondoors.bsky.social•18 days ago

Reagan imported the Russian Intelligence operation Fox News and the right wing lie machine began turning America upside down immediately. Mitch McConnell cemented, from the Well of the Senate, the "heads we win, tails you lose" mentally that we live under now. Also white is black, left is right.

heyimwalkinhere.bsky.social•8 days ago

This is why the fact that US dollar is currently sinking in the trading markets may indicate a more permanent decline: eroding the rule of law and legal certainty also erodes investor confidence

curtnaus.bsky.social•18 days ago

*stares in AI generated slop*

kazedkaz.bsky.social•18 days ago

Back in 2k8 I wrote a long screed on the faculty listserv about how basically that whole meltdown proved that we'd developed a system that was entirely built on making fraud unpunishable. And here we are. .

kawotter.bsky.social•18 days ago

It is pretty crucial for society that people believe as many true things as possible and as few false things as possible across the board. We have to agree that we inhabit a shared reality with a degree of objectivity and general education needs to instill the fundamentals of critical thinking.

rockmondo.bsky.social•18 days ago

In about 99 I saw stats that 67+% of College Grads said they had cheated on major papers and exams.
Wrote an essay, long gone, that in 20 years, we would not be able to 'trust the numbers' about anything, because Cheaters would control everything, and would have for a generation.

aloysiusfreeman.bsky.social•18 days ago

This is why on my platform, we deputized thousands of math teachers that appear like the Mysterious Stranger in Fallout that appear after any dubious claim and says "Show your work"

And if you don't, well!

beanlump.bsky.social•18 days ago

If my kids can learn that they have to show proper work for credit, grown ass adults can learn to at least look something up before making fundamental claims about society or the universe.

mattcrwi.bsky.social•18 days ago

Maybe calling someone a liar shouldn't threaten bankruptcy in legal costs because of a defamation lawsuit. We've got some perverse incentives built into the system

juizpenitente.bsky.social•8 days ago

Discouraging lying includes rewarding honesty, even when it may be offensive for some people

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