Last night on Real Time, Bill Maher took on Republican sleazebags (excuse the redundancy) for their non-stop spewing of Zombie Lies (so named because these lies never die).
“Remember ‘fracking doesn’t cause earthquakes?’ Zombie lie, so stop
saying it. ‘Voter fraud’? We studied it. It’s not an
actual problem. Stop zombie-lying about it. Their entire economic
philosophy — cut taxes for the rich and it trickles down — is a zombie
lie. And all these zombie lies are still out there, roaming the
countryside, neither alive nor dead — like Dick Cheney. Hungry for
brains — like Dick Cheney...”
“They said Obamacare would use death panels. It doesn’t. They
said it was a government takeover, and the insurance industry is making
record profits. They said it covered illegals. It doesn’t. They said it
was a job killer. It hasn’t been.”
Republicans keep spitting out these zombie lies over and over, even after the lies have been disproved. Bill Maher compared these zombie lies to President Obama's lie about being able to keep your doctor after you've signed up for Obamacare:
“He stepped up and said, ‘You’re right, my bad,’ because he understood there’s this thing called ‘observable reality.’”
Personally I think the same truth-in-advertising standard — whatever that standard would be — should apply to all political speeches and all advertising, whether it's commercial or political. When a consumer falls for a deceitful commercial and buys a shoddy product, the company gets sued and suffers a PR disaster. Millions of voters are conned into voting against their own interests, and nothing happens; nobody is held accountable.
Lewis Black already ranted about this a few years ago, and it rings true now more than ever.
Many more people hear the lie than hear it refuted. Thus the lie lives on, and the stupid people believe it.
ReplyDeleteMaher is still the man. Funny but also righteous and tough.
ReplyDeleteJerry: That's true, unfortunately. The lie itself reaches millions of people. When the media reports that the lie was just a lie, the story is buried on page 37 of the Saturday paper.
ReplyDeleteJim: You're right, he's all of those things.