The coronavirus crisis has shown everyone who isn’t ignorant and gullible that our Liar-in-Chief bluffs his way through everything with mendacity. For his Kool-Aid drinkers, mendacity not true.
He is ignorant of most subjects except one: he is a master liar and con-man: One of the best our nation has ever seen.
He’s mastered what the Nazis called The Big Lie.
This is Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda and one of Adolf Hitler’s key henchmen.
Anyone who studies Hitler and his murderous Nazi movement in the World War Two era eventually gets to this question:
How did the German people allow this monster to rule and ruin their country?
It’s a question many sane people in this country are asking about our current President and his brainwashed cult.
A key tactic for both men is what Hitler called The Big Lie. It’s a strategy for advancing an extremist agenda by telling such a large fabrication that people would conclude no leader could make such a wild claim unless it’s true.
In his infamous manifesto Mein Kampf—My Struggle—Hitler said:
“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”
(Here are some Trump quotes showing his use of “witch hunt” Big Lie repetition:)
“(But) the entire thing has been a witch hunt.”
“Just so you understand, it’s the single greatest witch hunt in American history, probably in history, but American history. It’s a disgraceful thing.”
“Are you talking about the witch hunt, is that what you mean? Is that what you’re talking about? I hear it’s a joke.”
Despite his evil depravity, Hitler was right about the key to effective propaganda. Tell big lies and tell them often.
The Nazi leader considered lie-filled propaganda so important he elaborated on how to do it effectively.
“…the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success (Hitler wrote in a letter) unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”
Does this sound like anyone you know? Do you know any leaders who lie about the same issues over and over and over?
(Here are some Trump quotes showing his use of “fake news” Big Lie repetition:)
“You are fake news.”
“You can talk all you want about Russia, which is all, you know, fake news fabricated deal to try and make up for the loss of the Democrats and the plus, press plays right in to it.”
“By the way, that is a lot of fake news back there.” (Trump pointing to the White House press corps to loud applause)
Hitler’s Big Lies were faithfully spread by Joseph Goebbels, his Minister of Propaganda. This depraved disciple found 1930s state-of-the-art ways to drill the Big Lie in to the heads of gullible Germans, who weren’t that different than gullible Americans.
Goebbels once said: “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”
Goebbels was quick to recognize the propaganda power of radio, which was a relatively new communications technology. Television and the Internet hadn’t been invented yet.
Hitler’s speeches were broadcast on radio. But there was a problem: many Germans didn’t own a radio.
Broadcasting Hitler’s lies and propaganda were deemed so important Goebbels made consumer radio accessibility a Nazi priority. He pushed German manufacturers to create a low-cost radio to ensure the Fuhrer’s words could be heard throughout Germany. He succeeded.
To ensure Hitler’s Big Lies were not missed by people who were out and about on the streets,
Goebbels hit on the idea of using loudspeakers mounted on light poles on public streets to ensure the German people didn’t miss any of the Nazi leader’s bold falsehoods.
It was the audio version of today’s Jumbotron screens.
William Shirer, a CBS radio correspondent in Berlin before the war, wrote an epic history of the Hitler era.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich contains exhaustive details about all aspects of the Nazi regime.
Shirer wrote: “As the years went by, Dr. Goebbels proved himself right, in that the radio became by far the regime’s most effective means of propaganda, doing more than any other single instrument of communication to shape the German people to Hitler’s ends.”
Our President didn’t have a Joseph Goebbels, but he had the next best thing: a ruthless student of Nazi propaganda and a master practitioner. His name was Roy Cohn.
Cohn made his name in the 1950s whispering in the ear of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a reckless hunter of phantom Communists in the U.S. government. McCarthy ruined many people before he was exposed as truly un-American.
Cohn went on to become perhaps the nastiest, most feared lawyer in New York. He frequently stepped over the line of the law and his goal was to win at all costs.
He and the wheeler dealer son of shady real estate mogul Fred Trump became friends.
The title of a recent documentary entitled “Where’s my Roy Cohn?” refers to the President’s complaint that he didn’t have the late lawyer advising him in the Oval Office. Cohn was disbarred before he died of AIDS and his protégé took office.
The log line for the Cohn documentary says, “If you were in his presence, you knew you were in the presence of evil.”
The Occupant of the White House was in the presence of Roy Cohn for years.
(Here are some Trump quotes showing his use of “hoax” Big Lie repetition:)
“It’s a hoax. It’s a hoax, everybody knows that. It’s a, it’s a complete hoax.
“So Obama’s talking about all of this with the global warming and a lot of it is a hoax. It’s a hoax. It’s a money-making industry, OK? It’s a hoax.”
“And after three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead.”
“This is the new hoax. We have lost nobody to coronavirus in the United States.”
In the fall election the Liar-in-Chief will fib his ass off. It will be a desperate attempt to remain in office and hold on to power.
If he loses, he’ll have another lie ready. He’ll claim the election was rigged. That it’s a hoax. That it’s fake news.
Then he’ll get a lucrative gig on cable, where he will whine every day that he’s a victim, just like his cult of Kool-Aid drinkers. You can count on it.
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