The Lies That Blind
Why do people believe them?
What to make of the mind-bending revelations of the past week? I can’t have been the only one who has lost track of time.
President Donald Trump was released from Walter Reed last night after being diagnosed with Covid-19 maybe Thursday but possibly earlier. That indicates less information that it might seem: the White House has access to a full retinue of doctors, and so he will receive constant care at home in a way that most patients wouldn’t. How sick was he, how sick is he, and why isn’t the White House better at contact tracing and containing the virus? Viewed from one perspective, it’s at least reassuring that this administration doesn’t provide special treatment its own people. They’re as incompetent in caring for the health of their inner circle as they have been with the American people at large. The outbreak associated with the Rose Garden event celebrating the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court more than a week ago continues to grow. All of this for a nomination that a majority of Americans think should wait until after the election. The hubris of it all.
One thing I continue to be stuck on is the complete misinformation coming from the White House, both about the timeline of his illness and the extent of it. The only reason we found out about Hope Hicks’s diagnosis is that Bloomberg News reported it, and it seems that the Trump administration was trying to keep it quiet otherwise. Since that news first broke on Thursday, every bit that we’ve learned about the president has come from reporters digging into the specious and not quite believable claims made by the White House. But I’m not surprised by it. From the start, Trump’s modus operandi has been to obscure the truth with bluster and misinformation. In part, it’s straight out of the authoritarian’s playbook—exhaust and confuse, so that discerning the truth becomes too difficult and people give up. This is the strategy with his press secretaries, as seen in the exchange with Kayleigh McEnany below.
Jay Rosen, the media critic and New York University professor, has been hammering this home in the age of Trump: One of his biggest tools is the manufacture of confusion. His doctors are doing it, now, too:
That explains why the Trump administration does that—frustrating reporters’ efforts to inform the public—but why do people believe it? Why does this work so well? In late March, when I posted on a local Facebook news group about a nurse returning to work at the local hospital before her quarantine period was over, a friend asked why I hadn’t “gotten the actual factual answers to your questions straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, before posting anything on FB?” I had called various members of the hospital’s administration to request an interview and been ignored, but there’s also no reason to assume that his answers would have been any more factual than any other information I was getting from other people who worked there. It’s this impulse, this trust in authority, that Trump mines for his own purposes. It’s especially strong in patriarchal cultures like the one I’m in, where we’re taught never to question authority, and that submission to authority is the truest path to happiness and Heaven. Everyone, everywhere, though, likes to trust that the people elected to be in charge aren’t purposefully leading them astray. To work against that assumption takes energy and effort, and undermines a sense of stability.
But the truth will always find a way out. This has been my constant reassurance in these troubled times. Last year, I binge-watched the HBO series Chernobyl, which remains one of the most useful television shows of the past few years. “Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth,” was its main lesson. “Sooner or later, that debt is paid.” It is one Americans are paying with their lives, as the Covid-19 toll soars, and as a man who took no precautions is provided some of the best health care in the country, the same care his administration would deny to others.
In the meantime, here is a humbling timeline of Herman Cain’s illness after he attended a Trump rally in Tulsa.
What I’m Reading:
As I was finishing this newsletter, the House Judiciary Committee released a long-awaited report finding the big tech companies of Silicon Valley are monopolies and recommending they be broken up. It also recommends changes to anti-trust policy. This is huge, and years in the making.
What I’m Recommending:
I’ve eaten beans all of my life, and so when the trend of buying Rancho Gordo beans, a mail-order heirloom bean company, started amongst my friends a few years ago I thought it was overblown. Beans are delicious, and you don’t need to buy fancy beans to be able to enjoy them. Since moving home, though, I’ve noticed too many bags of beans I buy at the store have an inconsistent quality. They’re probably old, and sit on the shelves too long. It was too disappointing. So I made a small Rancho Gordo order a few months ago. I’d been so wrong. They’re the most delicious beans I’ve ever had. I also bought wild rice, which is miles ahead of what you can get in the store, amaranth seeds, popcorn, and the most fragrant cumin seeds I’ve ever owned in my life. Sometimes I open my spice cabinet just to smell them. I dream about drinking them straight from the bottle. So worth it.
Cute Animal Pic of the Week:
Someone messaged me a few days ago about a couple of kittens she’d found in her yard. They weren’t doing well. I’d sworn never to take any kittens in again, but I knew she needed help, and I just kept thinking about them. Finally, I broke down and decided to go get them, and figure it out what to do later. They were in rough shape. One died on the way to the vet. The survivor, Gremlin, is a survivor indeed. We will get him the care he needs and adopt him out. If you want to support Gremlin’s journey, you can donate here.
