Worse than the blatant lying during the campaign of 2024 is the acceptance of the lies. It's fair to say that politicians lie, but the magnitude of the lies during this presidential campaign season has been off the charts.
Haitian immigrants are stealing and eating people's pets! The U.S. government directed Hurricane Helene to hit North Carolina to chase people off their property so the government can seize land in a secret effort to mine and control lithium! The government is taking FEMA money away from Americans hit by hurricanes and giving it to illegal immigrants! This is the worst economy in history. ALL of the aforementioned stories are outright lies with zero evidence to back them up, but yet, many Americans believe the lies to the point of condemning anyone who does not accept them, and they are promoting these lies as the truth.
Believing unbelievable lies has been so prominent during this presidential campaign that I wanted to talk to an expert about why so many Americans are willing to suspend common sense and believe ridiculous campaign lies that have all been proven to be factually untrue.
My conversation with Professor Phil Napoli, Professor of Public Policy at Duke University and author of the book, "Social Media and the Public Interest: Media Regulation in the Disinformation Age" was quite enlightening.
Professor Napoli said that the truth today is defined as what FEELS true rather than what IS true. He said that the general lack of trust in the media has led to Americans accepting any source as credible. Today, there is no requirement of proof or evidence or any claim, therefore, Americans are allowed to believe anything they feel like it's true to them.
In the past, there was a requirement of evidence to support the truth, but now the absence of evidence is used by many as a way of proving something might be true. If there is no evidence proving something false then it must be true. Standards for proving what is true have changed and Professor Napoli said that political polarization is used as a threat and used to demonize the other side.
The point is that history will record the campaign of 2024, and I have no doubt that one thing that will stand out in history is the fantasy-like lies that defined the campaign and why so many Americans were willing to believe the unbelievable.
A civilized society is held together by the truth that is actually backed up by facts.
Enjoy this enlightening conversation with Professor Phil Napoli talking about the incredible lies that some Americans are gullible enough to believe - in the audio player above.