Kevyn

Judi Ketteler, author of “Would I Lie to You? The Amazing Power of Being Honest in a World That Lies"
What do you say about a person who lies by dismissing the danger of something only to succumb to it? I’m thinking of radio host Rush Limbaugh, who died this week at age 70 from lung cancer after denying that cigarette smoke was a serious health threat (it “takes 50 years to k**l people, if it does,” he said) and smoking for decades. Limbaugh consistently sought to bend facts about public health to the reality he wanted to live in, and thereby endangered the listeners who believed him.

His downplaying of the dangers of smoking was merely a warmup for his participation in PolitiFact's 2020 “lie of the year”: C****-** denial. Limbaugh’s repeated lies about the c****av***s included everything from conspiracy theories involving Dr. Anthony F***i to his suggestion that the v***s was nothing more than a stunt by people opposed to President Donald Trump.

But it goes from tragic to mind-bending when one of the purveyors of these lies — someone as knowledgeable, media literate and savvy as Limbaugh — seems to believe the very falsehoods they are spreading, lives as though they are true and then gets stung by them as a result.

When people believe something about themselves, they don’t want to give it up, even in the face of evidence against their belief. One of the key aspects behind this phenomenon is our use of “motivated reasoning.” The definition of motivated reasoning I like best is writer Tim Harford’s, from a fascinating piece detailing how the world’s top authority on Dutch painters managed to convince himself a forged Johannes Vermeer painting was the real thing when it so obviously wasn’t. “Motivated reasoning is thinking through a topic with the aim of reaching a particular conclusion,” Harford explains. You know what you want to be true, so you let the outcome you desire guide your thinking.

Cuda2020

Very true, it is a clear tale of Hans Christian Andersen, Emperor's New Clothes, and we all, who... like the child see the naked man are waiting for the child(person) in the GOP to shout out to the rest who will believe him, "But the Emperor has nothing at all on!" I believe we still hope this will happen, and the light will shine, but this group has no one else to put their faith in, so they continue on their trek and we will stay divided.

son of witless

Motivated reasoning sounds a lot like G****l W*****g.

Cuda2020

Another concept difficult for you to grasp?

Peewee Loc: San Antonio, TX

You have zero class. Dancing on the grave of a dead iconic hero to many. Your just a nasty ball of h**e and you lie a lot. You just didn't like or agree with his speech and influence. Too bad, you'll never reach his level or be loved as much as him. You basically suck as a human being.

trashbaum

Your last sentence is true of almost every Democrat. " You know what you want to be true, so let the outcome you desire guide your thinking" (Poor Kevi)

Army

woodguru

I happen to see people who die of the thing they blow off as a strong sense of karma and justice, the pastors who preach their "god is in my corner I am safe from C***d" nonsense and then die serve as the best form of setting people they are influencing right. Trump needed to die of C***d, but a wise god would have left him alive to set the record straight that he had turned loose on so many of his believers...which he unsurprisingly wouldn't do.

We just saw two sheriffs in Colorado die of C***d, one who was 33 years old...I would have been sympathetic for a young guy with kids dying at 33 and thought what a shame...but he was a rabid anti v**xer who influenced who knows how many other people into threatening their own lives the same way...that leaves a person who would normally be sympathetic to say good, he deserved to die so as to serve as an example of stupidity and ignorance. No sympathy for the stupid that deserve to die.

To the idea that people see something about themselves, the mind of a conservative can be a weird thing, the person that is a liar as a fact, they lie about things on a regular basis...when people look to them they like to think they are about integrity and honor because that is how they like to think people see them, they see themselves like that, and they are the ones that get the most angry about being called what they are, because they don't like to see themselves like that.

Call a liar a liar and you'll get a reaction, punched in the right circumstances. When a liar calls someone who is not a liar they don't react because they know that is incorrect, they shrug and say wh**ever, then the liar acts like it must be true because they didn't react.

Nobody in social media uses the word liar as much as the party that lives and breathes lies. Look how often right wingers call a "l*****t" a liar when they are posting about something they read...that happens to be fact. Instead of saying you have that wrong, it's always an accusation of being a liar.

woodguru

Trump supporters, the results are there, you are truly special in the mentally incapacitated way used for r****ded people. It cracked me up when trump tweeted to his followers that stormed the capital that they were truly special, I thought yes they are, yes they are.

woodguru

How does that apply to wanting to believe the e******n was s****n? Not about dems for sure.

Army

The Demon- crate Party has became the Marxist C*******t , Socialist Party of Total Government Totalitarian control (period) .
If your so stupid to not know care or understand your Psycho to. They don't hide it an haven't for years and will use you an k**l you to after there done.
The Republican Party is a co- conspirator both Parties being Traders of Treason to the true Constitution of the United States . This set up will cause us not only be took over from the inside out but the outside in created security risk that has all but been defeated already by subversion. Pretty sad but no one will not pay as we see an intimate with your life by agree or disagree no matter.
We are all Lambs being led to Slaughter. People wake up an for you all think a joke of words here the joke is on you all. You can be woke or not think it's a game of words and pronouns . It's demoralization the destruction of the family .

Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Obviously, it was not reasoning that motivated you to post this.

"Hi, I’m Judi. I’m a writer. I help companies tell stories. I tell a lot of my own, too.

I’ve been in the (official) business of telling stories since 1998, when I sold my first piece to the local paper. Unofficially, I’ve been a storyteller my whole life. I have boxes of fairly hilarious evidence from childhood to prove it. Storytelling claimed my soul long before I claimed it as a career."

son of witless

It's not the concept that needs grasping. I easily understand the concepts behind the theory. Like Critical Race Theory, Socialism, C*******m, Class Warfare, etc. G****l W*****g Theory is not rocket science or brain surgery. If it was, it would not be so easy to sell it to dufusses. Superstition masquerades as science today.

In ancient times, when there were famines, droughts, and plagues scapegoats and witches had to be found to blame. Today it is CO2, even though the weather for the most part is better than it has ever been.

Wait until, inevitably it really does get bad. We are due for bad weather. We will get it, whether or not we cut Carbon emissions. The folks selling you guys this hogwash know that historically we get weather disasters, so sooner or later they will be right, even though they are wrong.

Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Speaking of lies, the one you tell here is a whopper. And, you believe every word of it, don't you?

trashbaum

Yes huh!