Lying and deception are perennials of politics. Machiavelli argued in the 16th century that sometimes a leader must act as a “great pretender and dissembler.” It’s easy to see such politicians as fundamentally cynical. They seem to lie in a Machiavellian attempt to win power and control. Often, no doubt, that’s true. But cognitive science suggests the possibility of something more disconcerting at play: You really can believe your own lies. Insight into the nature of memory, based on experimental work, suggests that your awareness of the truth can bend over time. Lies can feel like the truth and so, to you, they are the truth. You’re no longer deceiving others. Instead, your brain is deceiving you.
Quoting from memory: "Fascists spend most of their energy convincing themselves of their own lies". This made a lot of things click into place for me. I was confused because on one hand, they...
Quoting from memory: "Fascists spend most of their energy convincing themselves of their own lies".
This made a lot of things click into place for me. I was confused because on one hand, they seemed geniue, but at the same time, they seemed highly aware that their arguments were bullshit. And I couldn't make these two aspect fit together.
I always assumed they just build echo chambers for "debating", then while Alice knows she just lied to fit in, Bob and Cecil take it as truth. Then, Bob lies to fit in, while Alice and Cecil take...
I always assumed they just build echo chambers for "debating", then while Alice knows she just lied to fit in, Bob and Cecil take it as truth. Then, Bob lies to fit in, while Alice and Cecil take it as truth...
Before long, Alice hears her own lies from someone else, slightly rephrased, and so figures it must be true after all.
When I was in high school I worked for my dad's business, which was located in the back of a strip mall. One of the guys from the tattoo parlor in the mall kept a General Lee parked in the back...
When I was in high school I worked for my dad's business, which was located in the back of a strip mall. One of the guys from the tattoo parlor in the mall kept a General Lee parked in the back near our workshop. Apparently he had been paying the landlord for the right to park it there for years but one day he stopped and after a while the landlord decided he'd had enough (or maybe he was still paying and the landlord just rescinded permission? Idk). I stood with our office manager, an older lady named Paula, and watched a tow truck come and take it away. A couple days later one of the tattoo parlour guys came down to ask us if we'd seen anything and Paula told him, very emphatically, that we hadn't. I worked there for years after and the General Lee would come up every once in a while, and Paula would always insist that she hadn't seen it be towed even when she and I were the only ones in the shop.
I gently tried to point out once that she had been standing right next to me when it happened, but she just went on about how she didn't know anything about it and was so surprised to find it gone one day. So I guess Paula was no snitch, but she honestly seemed to have no memory of something that caused quite a bit of discussion the day it happened.
An interesting read. While it's certainly believable to have false memories about a video you watched or a yield sign that never existed or even a bigger real-life event that ultimately had not so...
An interesting read. While it's certainly believable to have false memories about a video you watched or a yield sign that never existed or even a bigger real-life event that ultimately had not so much bearing on your life, I find it entirely improbable that you could misremember or believe your own lie that your mother was in one of the towers on 9/11
Oh shit, just a tad! Yikes, not sure how I managed that one. Same with the typo in the initial tag. Thank you @mycketforvirrad for fixing my mistakes, this is what I get for posting articles while...
Oh shit, just a tad! Yikes, not sure how I managed that one. Same with the typo in the initial tag. Thank you @mycketforvirrad for fixing my mistakes, this is what I get for posting articles while I working.
Quoting from memory: "Fascists spend most of their energy convincing themselves of their own lies".
This made a lot of things click into place for me. I was confused because on one hand, they seemed geniue, but at the same time, they seemed highly aware that their arguments were bullshit. And I couldn't make these two aspect fit together.
I always assumed they just build echo chambers for "debating", then while Alice knows she just lied to fit in, Bob and Cecil take it as truth. Then, Bob lies to fit in, while Alice and Cecil take it as truth...
Before long, Alice hears her own lies from someone else, slightly rephrased, and so figures it must be true after all.
When I was in high school I worked for my dad's business, which was located in the back of a strip mall. One of the guys from the tattoo parlor in the mall kept a General Lee parked in the back near our workshop. Apparently he had been paying the landlord for the right to park it there for years but one day he stopped and after a while the landlord decided he'd had enough (or maybe he was still paying and the landlord just rescinded permission? Idk). I stood with our office manager, an older lady named Paula, and watched a tow truck come and take it away. A couple days later one of the tattoo parlour guys came down to ask us if we'd seen anything and Paula told him, very emphatically, that we hadn't. I worked there for years after and the General Lee would come up every once in a while, and Paula would always insist that she hadn't seen it be towed even when she and I were the only ones in the shop.
I gently tried to point out once that she had been standing right next to me when it happened, but she just went on about how she didn't know anything about it and was so surprised to find it gone one day. So I guess Paula was no snitch, but she honestly seemed to have no memory of something that caused quite a bit of discussion the day it happened.
An interesting read. While it's certainly believable to have false memories about a video you watched or a yield sign that never existed or even a bigger real-life event that ultimately had not so much bearing on your life, I find it entirely improbable that you could misremember or believe your own lie that your mother was in one of the towers on 9/11
You have a small typo in the title, was very confused for a moment
Uh, I think you may have got the title a tad off. 😅
Oh shit, just a tad! Yikes, not sure how I managed that one. Same with the typo in the initial tag. Thank you @mycketforvirrad for fixing my mistakes, this is what I get for posting articles while I working.
No worries!