The Poison of Postmodern Lying

Townhall.com ^ | January 30, 2014 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Kaslin]

All presidents at one time have fudged on the truth. Most politicians pad their resumes and airbrush away their sins. But what is new about political lying is the present notion that lies are not necessarily lies anymore -- a reflection of the relativism that infects our entire culture.

Postmodernism (the cultural fad "after modernism") went well beyond questioning norms and rules. It attacked the very idea of having any rules at all. Postmodernist relativists claimed that things like "truth" were mere fictions to preserve elite privilege. Unfortunately, bad ideas like that have a habit of poisoning an entire society -- and now they have.

Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis was recently caught fabricating her own autobiography. She exaggerated her earlier ordeals, lied about the age at which she divorced and was untruthful about how she paid for her Harvard Law School education.

When caught, Davis did not apologize for lying. Instead, she lamely offered that, "My language should be tighter." Apparently, only old fogies still believe in truth and falsehood -- period. In contrast, Davis knows that promoting a progressive feminist agenda is "truth," and she only needs to be "tighter" about her fabrications to neutralize her reactionary critics.

[Sir Napsalot]

(As Wretchard said before)

Things (the cogs and wheels) will run along, until one day the math stops working. There’s no avoiding the math.

After that, it is anybody’s guess.

Some people have been doing some ‘educated guess’ a long time now.

[Travis McGee]

(If he was speaking from his heart.)

[Kaslin]

Wretchard?

[Kaslin]

But he didn’t

[circlecity]

Hanson hits the nail right on the head with regard to the post-modern relativism of contemporary society. This makes it much easier to understand how the horrors of the French Revolution or Nazi Germany could have happened - we are seeing it all around us today.

[bert]

-——things like “truth” were mere fictions to preserve elite privilege.——

It turns out untruths or in reality flat out lies, are the promoters and preservers of elite privilege.

The punishment for the changers must be severe.

They must not be merely deprived of their position, they must be made examples by depriving them of normal life in society. They must be stripped of their elite privilege and caused to grovel in the urban gutters they have created

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

The Postmodernism Generator. Utter nonsense, click refresh to see new nonsense.

http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/

[blueunicorn6]

Hanson is, of course, right. But, what about the people who believe the lie? We, as a society, sit back and take the easy route and think that Democrat voters are gullible innocents. I don’t buy that. I think this whole “Democrat politicians lie to further what they believe to be noble goals” thought is in itself a facade. It’s an act of misdirection to distract from their real goal which is to access the public treasuries in order to loot them. And I don’t, for even a moment, believe that Democrat voters are gullible innocents. They vote Democrat expecting to be rewarded for doing so. The Democrat party puts on a nice production where they portray themselves as having pure intentions and innocent members. They are, in reality, a bunch of thieves out to loot the public treasury. You want to know why the Democrats are losing it in public? It’s because the game is up.