by Craig Colby
The intruders were jubilant as they retreated from the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021. They had come to right a wrong and felt they had. It didn’t matter that what they thought was right was completely wrong. They arrived on a path of lies much longer than the walk from the stage near Lafayette Square to the Capitol Building.
Trump was their chief deceiver, filling their heads with false ideas of voter fraud. He’s a well documented liar, with about 30,000 spun since taking office. Far less people would have believed Trump if everyone had called him out. Because that didn’t happen, January 6th did.
Liars Need Supporters
The mountain of falsehood was supported by people who knew he was lying but saw an advantage in enabling him. Fox “News” carnival barkers supported him to get viewers. Republicans propped him up to avoid his wrathful tweets. Right up until the end, Republican politicians supported his lies about the election to gain support from his base.
The erosion of truth didn’t start here and isn’t the sole property of Trump or his lackeys. Society has played fast and loose with facts for a long time. The police in Buffalo said a senior who approached them fell down. A video later showed he was pushed. My industry, television production, has aired shows suggesting extinct sharks still exist, that valuable treasures lurk within almost every storage container and that the couple really is going to buy one of the houses at the end of the program. In case you don’t know already, the shark is long dead, the treasure was planted, and the couple bought one of the houses before they were booked on the show. Television producers also created a show that portrayed Donald Trump as a thoughtful business mentor. We now know how false that image is. I don’t know anyone in the industry peddles falsehood or doubt because they like it. They do it to get people to watch so they can keep working. They think their actions are inconsequential.
They aren’t.
The Consequence of Doubt
The lies add up. When the truth gets out, it creates doubt. People don’t know who or what to believe. A relative told me Bigfoot has to be real because she saw a documentary about it on National Geographic. Other relatives consume right wing propaganda, not just because they can’t tell the difference between it and the news, but because they don’t trust the media at all. Mistakes or poor judgement in reporting is assumed to be willful deceit. So why not just read choices that feel right?
When people don’t feel like the facts are reliable, they go with their feelings. That’s a problem. Feelings are easily manipulated. Hostage negotiators use “tactical empathy”. If a negotiator makes a criminal feel like they are understood, the criminal is far more open to suggestion, like “maybe you should let those hostages go.” Trump told his followers “I understand your problems and it’s not your fault. It’s the a) immigrants b) Democrats c) people who disagree with me.” It sounded good and felt good, so people believed it. Then they believed him, all the way to violence.
Once people think you are the sole source of truth, you become the rainmaker. People will believe you over the facts. That’s why the truth is important, even small ones. We don’t start with the big lie. We work our way up on a long stairway of small ones.
We Can All Make a Difference
All of us can help shore up this truth deficit. First, we have to actively seek out the factually correct content, not just gobble down the information that makes us feel good about what we already think. That’s the equivalent of eating every meal at McDonalds. All of us need to learn to read the news responsibly because people are trying to deceive us. We must seek multiple, credible sources. People who were duped by Trump need to take responsibility for their willful ignorance.
We can insist on accuracy at work. When we know something is wrong, we have to say it, even if it puts us at risk. If you don’t, you will be in the crosshairs when the truth comes out. I’m looking at you Facebook and Twitter.
Most importantly, we can call out serial liars. That’s how they lose credibility. And supporting them is always a losing game, because their lies are always acts of self interest. As soon as you no longer suit their goals, they’ll lie about you too. Trump abandoned his biggest sycophant, Mike Pence, when he wouldn’t perpetuate his lies about the election. It didn’t matter how much Pence had enabled him before.
The violent march to the Capitol Building was long, but it was also predictable, the inevitable result of all those lies.
We need to demand accountability. We must look past our immediate needs to a bigger picture. As the American philosopher William James said in one of my favourite quotes “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”
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Craig Colby is a television executive producer, producer, director, writer and story editor. He runs a storytelling consulting and production service for businesses. He can be reached at craig@colbyvision.net for consulting, training, writing or production.