Bernie Rabik: Hoax trumps the truth – The Times

By Bernie Rabik| Special to The Times

The Trump era is the hoax era. But not in the way he or his cheerleaders claim.

Dictionaries agree that hoax is an act intended to trick or dupe: something accepted or established by fraud or fabrication.

Donald Trump has shouted hoax hundreds of times, about everything from climate change, to Supreme Court rulings, to impeachments, to the pandemic, and to the 2020 election for president. At this point, his myriad of claims about hoaxes add up to a hoax. And through the history of his use of this single word, we can see how he has fooled his biggest fans but failed to persuade almost everyone else.

The word hoax is one of the Trump worlds weapons. According to linguist John McWorter, Its the quintessence of Trumpian self-expression Hoax is an angry and mean word. Hoax carries an air of accusation, of transgression. The hoaxer is being accused of deliberately hoodwinking the public. Hoax just calls out as malevolent."

Before running for president, Trump used the word to dismiss global warming. It is a total and very expensive hoax he tweeted in 2013. He continued to shout about global warming hoaxters in 2014; then dropped it for a while. Fake news became his mantra after the 2016 election.

Factbase, a database of the presidents tweets, speeches, and interviews, confirms that in the first year of his presidency Trump cried out hoax! 18 times; in 2018, 63 times; and in 2019, a whopping 345 times. It was a logical leap for a pathological president who indulged illogical conspiracy theories and led a war on truth.

Having no truth to tell the public, ever, Trump has set people against each other, stirring up strife. He has told the public not to believe their own eyes and ears; and, he thought he could get away with it; because, arguably in his own reality he always did. Dont believe what you read. Journalists are enemies of the people. What youre seeing and what youre reading is not whats happening. That was the biggest hoax of all.

Trump dismisses all criticism as just part of an info op against him, a hoax where the content of the criticism is just a cover for manipulation by some vast, murky conspiracy.

The problem is obvious. Close-mindedness and ignorance have become core conservative values, and those who reject those values are the enemy, no matter what they may have done to serve the country.

The politicization of everything inevitably creates huge tension between conservatives and institutions which try to respect reality.

The modern GOPis no home for people who believe in objectivity. Right-wingers have gone all-in on ignorance, so they are bound to come into conflict with every institution, including the military who has traditionally leaned Republican.

We must heed the poignant advice of Dr. Jonathon Holloway, president of Rutgers University, when he opines that if we Americans listened to one another, perhaps we would recognize how absurd our discourse has become. It is our own fault that political discussions today are hotheaded arguments over whether the hooligans storming the halls of the Capitol were taking a tour or fomenting an insurrection.

There are many problems in America, but fundamental to so many of them is our willingness to learn from one another, to see and respect one another, to become familiar with people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds and who hold different political views. It will take work to repair this problem.

Do we feel good as Americans? Are we better off? Is America?

Bernard J. Rabik, a Hopewell Township attorney, is an opinion columnist for The Times.

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Bernie Rabik: Hoax trumps the truth - The Times

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