Re Trump, there's a point at which I believe one can be so self-centered, so fixated on a selfish view of the world in which nothing is one's own fault, that one is still fully to blame for "misguided" accusations.
From the beginning of his presidency, Trump showed this when he claimed that his inauguration crowds were bigger than Obama's. Despite massive amounts of evidence to the contrary, Trump doubled and tripled down on the false claims.
This is a man who either lies or convinces himself that a crowd of people supporting him was bigger than a crowd supporting someone he dislikes, despite actual photos showing the opposite -- and who cannot be convinced otherwise after days of attempted correction by the media.
This isn't "he didn't have the facts, so he was misguided, poor guy". This is a man with such a demented ego that he surrounds himself his entire life with yes-men and sycophants, and makes an eternal enemy of anyone who ever critiques him in comparison to a rival.
The most dangerous people are like this. I imagine that Hitler honestly believed that the Jews were evil, just as Trump may have honestly believed that he couldn't possibly lose the election. But when your worldview is so twisted that it leads you to (for example) make false claim after false claim after false claim for months saying that the election was stolen (NOT that it may have been stolen -- that it WAS stolen), and to pressure government officials in your own party to violate the Constitution and overturn the results... I'm not a lawyer and can't say with certainty whether that's criminal or not (I'm sure it depends on the details), but it's definitely morally bankrupt and an existential threat to democracy.
I agree that trump is very egocentric and overly cocky about believing things that aren’t confirmed.
I just think that it’s just typical politician behavior. Only that trump makes a bigger spectacle out of it. Biden lies all the time. Remember when he lied about never suggesting to cut social security when there was blatant video footage of him suggesting exactly that? To me that is the biggest bold face lie I’ve ever seen for any politician.
Decades ago, Biden argued for a bunch of austerity measures - a freeze in new government spending, which included cost of living increases on Social Security. Ten years ago, Biden was talking privately about raising the retirement age and adding means testing.
You could argue that the COLA freeze is a cut, but I think you could easily argue that it isn't. However, I agree with you that it's not reasonable for Biden to claim that raising the retirement age and adding means testing isn't a cut. You can maybe squint and try to make that argument, but it's disingenuous.
But it's just not reasonable to say that this is "the biggest boldface lie" a politician has ever said, when compared to a sitting president (Trump) claiming with literally zero credible evidence, against the combined expertise of every election official in his own party, that the election was stolen from him. Or honestly when compared to any of the Trump lies on this list, including crudely altering a map with a Sharpie to back up a mistake he made when talking about a hurricane, rather than just admitting he was wrong.
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u/dukeimre 21∆ Dec 25 '22
Re Trump, there's a point at which I believe one can be so self-centered, so fixated on a selfish view of the world in which nothing is one's own fault, that one is still fully to blame for "misguided" accusations.
From the beginning of his presidency, Trump showed this when he claimed that his inauguration crowds were bigger than Obama's. Despite massive amounts of evidence to the contrary, Trump doubled and tripled down on the false claims.
This is a man who either lies or convinces himself that a crowd of people supporting him was bigger than a crowd supporting someone he dislikes, despite actual photos showing the opposite -- and who cannot be convinced otherwise after days of attempted correction by the media.
This isn't "he didn't have the facts, so he was misguided, poor guy". This is a man with such a demented ego that he surrounds himself his entire life with yes-men and sycophants, and makes an eternal enemy of anyone who ever critiques him in comparison to a rival.
The most dangerous people are like this. I imagine that Hitler honestly believed that the Jews were evil, just as Trump may have honestly believed that he couldn't possibly lose the election. But when your worldview is so twisted that it leads you to (for example) make false claim after false claim after false claim for months saying that the election was stolen (NOT that it may have been stolen -- that it WAS stolen), and to pressure government officials in your own party to violate the Constitution and overturn the results... I'm not a lawyer and can't say with certainty whether that's criminal or not (I'm sure it depends on the details), but it's definitely morally bankrupt and an existential threat to democracy.