Suppose I Told You….

Suppose I told you “I have the greatest memory of all time.”  Suppose I told you this over and over again.  

Suppose I told you  “I know more about ISIS than the generals do.  Believe me.  I would bomb the [bleep] out of them.  I would just bomb those suckers.  And, that’s right, I’d blow the pipe, I’d blow up the re - - I’d blow up every single inch.  There would be nothing left.  And do you know what?  You will get Exxon to come in there in two months. They will rebuild that sucker brand new, it will be beautiful…and then I would take the oil.”

Suppose I told you “I’m the only one that matters, because when it comes to it, that’s what the policy is going to be.  You’ve seen that, strongly.”

Suppose I told you “You know, people don’t understand.  I went to an Ivy League college…I was a nice student.  I did very well.  I’m a very intelligent person.”

And if you are beginning to wonder about my mental stability, let me tell you straight out:  “Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart….I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star….to President of the United States (on my first try).  I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius…and a very stable genius at that!”  Suppose I told you this about me at every opportunity?

Suppose I told you that I lied to Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.  I informed him that the US is running a trade deficit with Canada without knowing whether it was true or not (it isn’t).  But since it worked on Trudeau, I’m now using the same line with all the rest of you.  I’ve lied about a lot of things—and offered alternative facts—while continually bashing the media as being fake news.  So far you have swallowed it hook, line and sinker. 

Suppose I told you these things not once, not twice, but over and over and over again.  Would you believe me?  Would you get sick of hearing it?  Or would you become convinced that I was speaking the truth?  Suppose I told you all this?

Comedian Stephen Robert coined a new word about ten years ago—“truthiness,”—while criticizing the Bush administration.  He said, “We’re not talking about the truth, we’re talking about something that seems like truth—the truth we want to exist.”    “The Wikipedia entry for the word characterized it as a truth ‘known’ intuitively by the user without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.”  Are we living in a new world of “Truthiness?”

The Myth of Narcissus