What is to be said?
Why Bother?
The revelation that the people at Fox News detest Trump as much as I do was not really a surprise. These people aren't dumb. The surprise was that they were so egregiously lying to their audience by giving credence to popular conspiracy theories.
Let's be honest - by giving credence to bald, barefaced lies.
I know that when you have to persuade people to do what you want the temptation to lie is large. Even Joe Biden has been caught by fact-checkers saying things that aren't true.
I cut politicians quite a bit of slack. They have to be pleasing to very diverse constituencies. Often those constituencies have conflicting interests. It's a hard job - not only to get elected, but also to govern.
We can't expect everyone in power to agree about policy and legislation. But I think it's reasonable to expect people in power (like politicians and media and business people) to at least be sincere.
That's what the revelations from Fox show. They weren't sincere at all. They were pushing a line they privately knew was false and actively disliked because it was profitable.
It's said that a thief thinks that everyone is a thief. I think liars - especially serial liars like Trump or Santos - thinks that everyone is a liar. Of course, thinking that everyone is a liar means that your mind is closed to rational persuasion. These days we have people who think that doctors are liars and women who need abortions are murderers.
What is to be said to them?
What do you think? I open the floor
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.