Hi Paul

If powerful media interests support the liar, then holding the liar to account is harder, but not impossible. Nowadays we have thousands of alternative outlets, and many credible (though not universally impartial or accurate) fact-checkers, to help hold liars to account. I suspect the problem is partly confirmation bias – we tend to believe lies that accord with our prejudices and preconceptions – and partly a post-truth disregard for once-accepted norms of reasoning and evidence. There is also some interesting (though depressing) research which suggests people distinguish between “facts” and “truth”. So, for example, in the USA many people who know that Trump is wrong when he accuses migrants of eating pets nonetheless don’t consider it a lie because it points to a “deeper truth” about what they consider to be the negative effects of migration. To paraphrase, Trump supporters don’t think migrants are bad because they eat pets; they think that eating pets is the kind of thing migrants might do because they are bad.

You may find this interesting:
http://www.colorado.edu/today/2024/03/04/facts-ignored-truth-flexible-when-falsehoods-support-political-beliefs

It helps to explain the (to me) baffling phenomenon of Trump’s continuing popularity.

It is extremely hard to counter this kind of reasoning, but I think censorship will make it worse, not better. Even if it were possible to stop politicians lying, trying to do so will leave peoples’ “deeper truths” unchallenged, and may even reinforce them

Hi Rhian,

You are correct, but there has to be a balance, and responsibility with ones words. I hark back to our "dear old friend" Adolf in the 1930's and I assume a total lack of accountability in Germany in those days for ranters and ravers, men like the Fuhrer and other extremists (Communists) as well, and whoever had the best lying propaganda and the most muscle won the day, in the end that was the Nazi's. Of course social conditions have to be right for extremists to come to the fore. Still, I am hesitant to give even moderate governments too much power of control, because we don't know what's around the corner.

Good to hear that there will be no more free flights out of Lebanon after tomorrow for people who ignored government warnings to leave.

“The importation of this tribal animus into Australian civic society is the most disturbing ….. It found fertile ground among progressive intellectuals mired in Western self-loathing and fixated on race, gender and identity.” (Nick Cater).

Spot on.

New arrivals should abandon their existing loyalties and adopt those of their hosts, or not come here are all. Being one of the most multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-faith countries in the world is tearing us apart. Our basic laws and values are disrespected and hated by some imports who should never have been brought here. And we don't have the leadership to sort it out.

“Once tribalism takes hold, it is almost impossible to thwart this ancient narcotic or to prevent it from destroying the centuries-long and much harder work of establishing multiracial nationhood and citizenship.” (Victor David Hanson)

In its submission Victoria police stated the criminal
rate for overseas groups was lower than for the crime rate
for Australian born.

According to the ABS - and Institute of Criminology migrants
on the whole are less likely to commit serious offences
than the Australian born population.

Australia doesn't record crime rates by ethnicity but it
does record the country of birth of prisoners. This allows
the Australian Bureau of Statistics to identify the rates
of incarceration of each migrant group.

Hi Foxy
Those are interesting stats. Unfortunately, they are strongly affected by our shockingly high rates of indigenous incarceration - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people account for 3.8% of the total population but 33% of the prison population. This does not make your point wrong, and my back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that migrants are less likely to be in prison than non-indigenous people born in Australia. But the gap is quite small.

Prisoners as % population:
Indigenous_ _ _ _ _ 1.41%
Other Australian _ _ 0.12%
Total Australian_ _ _ 0.19%
Non-Australian _ _ _ 0.10%
Total _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 0.16%