I wish there were more people in the mainstream media who explained Trump’s pathological lying in such clear terms. In her October 6th letter, Richardson discussed Trump’s lies claiming, “ They are part of a well-documented strategy to overturn democracy by using modern media to create a false political world. Voters begin to base their political decisions on that fake image, rather than on reality, and are manipulated into giving up control of their government to an authoritarian.”
Richardson links Trump’s lying to Vladimir Putin’s use of falsehoods in his rise to authoritarian power in Russia. Putin, with his KGB training, understood the power of disinformation in a world where it can easily go so viral. The professor asserts that Putin and his henchmen created a false narrative around an election or other event that enabled them to control public debate. She states, “Essentially, they perverted democracy, turning it from the concept of voters choosing their leaders into the concept of voters rubber-stamping the leaders they had been manipulated into backing.”
In Richardson’s view, anti Democratic forces here in the United States copied Putin’s teachniques, using disinformtion as a means to win elections and sway public opinion. Right-wing leaders like Trump have spread disinformation to divide the American people. While “misinformation” is simply false information—which we all spread innocently and correct with accurate information—“disinformation” is a deliberate lie to convince people of things that are not true.”
Trump’s top acolyte in spreading lies is pardoned felon and grifter Steve Bannon.
Thanks to the October 2 filing by special counsel Jack Smith, we know that Trump was in almost daily communication with Bannon as he pushed the big lie that he won the election.
Though most Americans, even MAGA supporters, know Trump lies, millions of them do not see Trump’s lies as part of a Russian inspired systematic effort to destroy democracy. If reporters presented Trump’s lies as part of a system, average Americans would clearly see Trump’s lies as part of a broader pattern of deliberate disinformation.