Bush is the "good kind of liar"

Bush has positioned himself as the "good kind of liar." He acts like a salesman, cheerleader, and parent -- all categories of people who are allowed to lie. He also treats knowing the facts of an issue as menial labor, as if knowing whether an enemy country is seeking nuclear weapons is something best left to "bean counters." Bush is a superb liar. That is what makes him such a dangerous little man.

I doubt calling Bush a liar has any affect. It's like calling a salesman a liar, just as likely to provoke admiration as disapproval. We expect salesmen to lie. We forgive them a lot, particularly those who sell the products our employers produce. Bush wasn't exaggerating the WMD case for war in Iraq (an unthinkably irresponsible and rotten thing to do). He was "selling."

And then there is Bush the cheerleader. A cheerleader yells a rehearsed "We've got the power to fight, fight, fight. We've got the power to ... win." We don't call the cheerleader a liar, even when our side is down 54 points in a football game. Bush isn't "lying" when he paints a rosy scenario of the crap he is making of everything he touches. He's cheering for our side.

Bush used the "parent" pose when he got caught hiding his DUI. He simply couldn't tell the children the truth. It would be bad for them! It's like that guy in "Life is Beautiful." Bush wasn't covering up dirt in his past to protect himself, so stop saying that. He was protecting the delicate sensibilities of the children.

Bush isn't the Bobby Fischer of lying, but he is damned good at it. It isn't a talent for politics per se, but a talent for the dishonest part of it. Maybe Bush is America's karmic payback for slavery and the conquest of the Indians. Maybe it's just America's bad luck to have a stupid, reckless fool with a talent for dishonesty as president.

Long before he became a monster to me, even back in the debates with Al Gore, I noticed that. He's one of the least convincing individuals I've ever observed; it's like watching a juvenile delinquent trying to explain why he pulled the fire alarm to an interrogating principal. Arthur Miller said that Bush was a poor actor who could barely remember his lines.

I really laughed my ass off in the months prior to the war in Iraq. I couldn't believe anybody was buying it.

It depends on how you judge lying I guess. I think you judge the quality of a liar based on whether and how they get away with it, not merely the acting. Bush is a bad actor but a really good liar.

Yes but his pants are still on fire.

It's his method of "triangulation."

--IMM

It's apparent he rarely tells the truth. It's all over his face and body action.

He always sounds like a not very creative kid getting caught in a blatant lie. He makes some stupid off-the-cuff remark with a shit-eating grin when he is trapped by any fact, and it always falls flat and embarassing.

That's why he is given scripts to read as much as possible, or at worst confronted only with friendly questions wherever he goes.

What he does is spout pre-fab nonsense to people who want to be lied to. That's the key: people who want to be lied to. Republicans.

He's expressing a Higher Truth.

This Truth is above mere conformity with fact.

Praise Jesus!

Bush (with help from our times) is like a catalyst for transcending rationality. Praising Jesus is a higher truth in reality, but to Bush, Jesus is just a product to co-brand with his politics. It's like spraying Wizard in the bathroom.

while working tech in summer theater.
My instructor once gave me a back handed
compliment.

He told me that my staircase technique
was among the worst he had ever seen
work, and that it only worked because
the character was so engaging, the
audience *wanted* to see a staircase.

Bush has just that advantage. ~50% of Americans do *not* want to see the The mighty all-powerful Oz as an absurd little huckster who pulls levers, and talks into a can.

He is not a good liar. In fact, I sincerely doubt there is anything
he is actually good at. He rises to medocrity in his peak moments.
What you are seeing is the work of arch-sociopath Karl Rove.

but not because he is that good at it. It's overlooked or lost in his vagueness and poor speaking skills. I think his lack of deep intelligence or curiosity helps too, makes it easier to persuade himself that what he says is "true". People so willing to accept him don't look to close.

I know some good liars and bush doesn't come close. One of the best is cheney! Now that is a good liar. During the debate he made so many outright lies or false insinuations...with "dignity", calm and composure. If you don't know the facts he can be easy and comforting to believe. I was astounded by how smoothly he lied even about things that would be easy to check.

I feel an shallowness and slime to bush and a cold "evil" from cheney, but many find bush warm and sincere and cheney wise and grandfatherly. I feel their lies that way too, bush giving shallow, slimy lies and cheney cold and evil lies. But to me bush sounds like he's lying and cheney sounds like he is telling the truth.

It's the honorable and Christian thing to do in these troubled times.

Any of this seem familiar?

http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/SU/lying599.html

Physicals cues believed to be associated with lying include an increased incidence of leaning forward, licking the lips, touching the nose, averting the gaze and handling objects. An insincere smile, characterized by lack of movement of the wrinkle lines around the eyes is another well know indicator of lying. People who are lying also often reveal themselves verbally. Verbal cues include the increased use of verbal qualifiers or modifiers, the use of expanded contractions (e.g. I did not rather than I didn't), stuttering, throat clearing and speech errors.


http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/detecting.html

Are appearances deceiving? The evidence is mixed. DePaulo and co-author Wendy Morris, a psychology graduate student at the University of Virginia, conducted a meta-analysis into the possible predictors of deception for "Deception Detection in Forensic Contexts" (forthcoming from Cambridge University Press). They warn readers that detecting deception is an inexact science, but note an association between lying and increased pupil size, an indicator of tension and concentration. Second, they find that people listening to liars think they seem more nervous than truth-tellers, perhaps because their voices are pitched higher. And liars are more likely than truth-tellers to press their lips together. On the other hand, they note, liars don't appear to be more fidgety, nor do they blink more or have less-relaxed posture. According to DePaulo and Morris, only when liars are more highly motivated--when the stakes are higher--do they seem unusually still and make notably less eye contact with listeners.

Facial expressions aren't the only clue. Because deception is a social act involving language, researchers are also studying liars' verbal and written output to find distinctive patterns.

DePaulo and Morris say that liars take longer to start answering questions than truth-tellers--but when they have time to plan, liars actually start their answers more quickly than truth-tellers. And they talk less. On the whole, to other people, liars seem more negative--more nervous and complaining, and less cooperative--than truth-tellers, they say.

(snip)

"Liars' answers sound more discrepant and ambivalent, the structure of their stories is less logical, and their stories sound less plausible," they say. Liars also use fewer hand movements to illustrate their actions but are more likely to repeat words and phrases, they add.

Bush is the lying cheerleader for their agenda. So they coverup and explain away his lies.

the coordinated political/media symphony that will say anything to further the right-wing cause.

he lies, and it's obvious, but somehow the media says "it's not a lie" or "ok, it's a lie, but lying is ok" or "what a genius he is to lie in this situation", ANYTHING but criticise him for lying. you know, the sort of thing they do when a democrat is president.

in short, he lies, but when he lies, lying doesn't matter, or at least isn't a bad thing. that doesn't make him a good liar. it makes him good at controlling the media, or at least, good at taking advantage of the media's cooperation.

We need to be pointing out the similarities at every opportunity.

• “If you overspend, it creates a fundamental weakness in the foundation of economic growth. And so I'm working with Congress to make sure they hear the message -- the message of fiscal responsibility.”-- 9/16/02

(Less than 6 months later, Bush proposed a budget that would put the government more than $300 billion into deficit.)

• “Having been here and seeing the care that these troops get is comforting for me and Laura. We are -- should and must provide the best care for anybody who is willing to put their life in harm's way.”-- Walter Reed Army Hospital, 1/17/03
(That same day the Bush Administration cut off access to its health care system from approximately 164,000 veterans.)

• “We're dealing with first-time responders to make sure they've got what's needed to be able to respond.“--

3/27/02 (Bush said he was proposing $3.5 billion in “new” money for first responders, but he actually tried to rob more than $1 billion from existing grants to local police/fire departments to fund his proposal. In August 2002, Bush rejected another $150 million for grants to state and local first responders.)

• “We're working hard to make sure your job is easier, that the port is safer. The Customs Service is working with overseas ports and shippers to improve its knowledge of container shipments, assessing risk so that we have a better feel of who we ought to look at, what we ought to worry about.”--

6/24/02 (Bush’s 2003 and 2004 budgets provide nothing for port security grants. In August, he vetoed all $39 million for the Container Security Initiative that he specifically touted.)

• “A secure and efficient border is key to our economic security.”--

9/9/02 (Bush promised more INS/Border Patrol staff and facilities, but provided no funding. He vetoed $6.25 million for promised pay upgrades for Border Patrol agents, and his 2004 Budget slashes “Border and Transportation Security” by $284 million.)

• “We've got to do more to protect worker pensions.”--

8/7/02 (The Bush Administration proposed new rules so employers could resume converting traditional pension plans to new ‘cash balance’ plans that can lower benefits of long-serving workers.) “Companies favor these plans because they can slash a worker's pension benefit by 20 to 50 percent in one fell swoop.”-- Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-VT.)

• “A reformed and strengthened Medicare system, plus a healthy dosage of Medicare spending in the budget, will make us say firmly, we fulfilled our promise to the seniors of America.”--

1/29/03 (Bush’s 2004 budget proposes 85% less than what would be needed to meet his goal, and would leave 67% of the total $400 billion pledge to be spent after 2008.)

• “I want to thank the Boys & Girls Clubs across the country…The Boys & Girls Club have got a grand history of helping children understand the future is bright for them, as well as any other child in America.”--

1/30/03 (Bush’s 2002 budget proposed eliminating all federal funding for the Boys and Girls Club of America.)

• “Clear Skies legislation, when passed by Congress, will significantly reduce smog and mercury emissions, as well as stop acid rain. It will put more money directly into programs to reduce pollution, so as to meet firm national air-quality goals. ...”-- Earth Day speech,

4/22/02 (Actually, the Clear Skies law delays required pollution emission cuts by as much as 10 years, weakens the states' power to address interstate pollution problems, and allows outdated industrial facilities to avoid costly pollution-control upgrades.)

So while the big lies about the war are exposed to the light, the Bush team is quietly working in the shadows-chipping away at programs for veterans, the young, the old, and the poor-funneling every possible dollar into their giant war machine so it will eventually end up in the pockets of friends and family. That is compassionate conservatism at its best.

There's a suggestion in this that that it's one reason he appears so dumb. His little brain is so busy coordinating and constructing falsehood that it has little time for syntax. Perhaps it's also why he has such little tolerance for challenges to his logic or decisions, especially in public.

Frankly if I were to construct a huge set of triangulated falsehoods, the last thing I would want would be to defend them in front of a critical crowd. I know I couldn't do it. But to be a booster is so much easier for a liar -all one needs to do is repeat (and reinforce) the conclusion while ignoring the weak links that lead to it.

Of course, having poor thinking skills and being intellectually lazy doesn’t help. I don’t recall that he ever studied debate, law, or philosophy. I’m not sure if it’s lucky for us he didn’t. Would it make him a better liar or a better thinker? Would better thinking skills have kept him from being a Republican?

And come to think of it, he didn’t seem to feel the need to switch into ‘parent pose' (spare the poor children) when bragging he had never read a book.

Great set of posts.

However, your post makes a good underlying point (sorry, no pun intended):

If the RW believes that some kinds of lying are OK, then they are great proponents of something they pretend to decry:

Situational Ethics!

(edited to correct subject-verb agreement!)

evident....

Bush lies and his supporters lie and they get away with it all the time. And that's what people who are trying to live honest lives can't fathom. How can this be happening? Why do so many accept being lied to? Are there no standards?

Interesting statement, gulliver. You have put this phenomenon in terms that make it easy to grasp--how Bush uses those images of "acceptible" dishonesty to give a familiar feel to his dubious public pronouncements. And also true, how he always uses an implied disdain for anyone armed with "the facts". All it seems to take is that little sneer and air of impatience and dismissal, to block all questions. And his incredible arrogance adds the necessary confidence--he feels he is entitled to run roughshod over any and all objectors.

The salesman, cheerleader, parent--I'm going to link those to Bush's statements in future. (Right, Cheney is a different kind of liar--the cold, ruthless mastermind we generally do NOT accept ...but he does his stuff behind the scenes). Bush is the salesman in the front office. But I think you are right, gulliver, the question is WHY so many Americans are "buying." They're not all fundies.

So is the acceptance of Bush's lying because we as a culture have a more "flexible" attitude toward lying now? Do we live in an "ends justify the means" culture that supports cheating at any level? We see it in the media, in business, in legal affairs, as well as politics. I recently read the book, "The Cheating Culture--Why More Americans are Doing Wrong to get Ahead" by David Callahan. Callahan shows how cheating begets more cheating...until you have a situation where the whole group just looks away.

From the book: "Cheating is up...some of this cheating involves violating the law; some does not. Either way, most of it is by people who, on the whole, view themselves as upstanding members of society. Americans who wouldn't so much as shoplift a pack of chewing gum are committing felonies at tax time, betraying the trust of their patients, misleading investors, ripping off their insurance company, lying to clients, and much more."

This situation--where right and wrong have been homogenized--puts a large burden on those of us who feel we know what wrong is. Are we so afraid of conflict and beaten back by the current powers that be, that we have no will to fight? Certainly it takes resources to fight, and we are constrained by that, and the fact that many ethical problems are not investigated and serious violations are not enforced. Professional review panels are a joke. How does the average citizen fight this ethical decline along with everything else?

They feed into it because it is what they really want to believe, they find it extremely hard to accept the truth because it is so very, very ugly and they were a big part of why it was allowed to continue and happen. They then become the liers as well and they just will not think that way about themselves. In the end, they are lying even to themselves.

:kick:

They feed into it because it is what they really want to believe, they find it extremely hard to accept the truth because it is so very, very ugly and they were a big part of why it was allowed to continue and happen. They then become the liers as well and they just will not think that way about themselves. In the end, they are lying even to themselves.

:kick:

but the spin machine that immediately leaps into action is a superb liar on his behalf, twisting the selected and often distorted excerpts of his words to fit more attractive archetypes including those you describe. Without this media manipulation, he would never have made it in politics as he has never made it in anything else. He's a pathetic little swinish sociopath, and it shows.

giggles when he lies!