There are a number of readily available examples of lies that take on the aura of truth over time. The defamation of the Swiftboat Veterans has progressed to where the term “swiftboating” is used to describe a malicious and falsely based smear – despite the fact that the Veterans were not found to be inaccurate. The Palin crosshairs map has also been paraded as proof of violent rhetoric that instigates murder, despite a similar map available from the Democratic Party promoting their targeting in the campaign. The gun control debate gets into this as well where some are absolutely convinced that it is guns that cause crime.
This phenomena is also behind much of the wikileaks support. That anti U.S. and anti-capitalism belief system also shows in such things as “Russian Journalist: ‘Violence Is the Price of Freedom.’ Statistics: ‘Uh, No.’”.
Dennis Prager provides a summary of this phenomena in Libeling the Right, The key to the Left’s success.
People are awakening to the crucial fact of left-wing success: The only way the Left can succeed in America is by libeling the Right. Only 20 percent of Americans label themselves liberal, let alone leftist. How, then, do leftists get elected? And why don’t more Americans call themselves conservative, when, in fact, so many share conservatives’ values?
The Left rarely convinces Americans to adopt its views. What it does is create a fear of the Right that influences many Americans to align themselves with the Left.
Prager describes several examples where he thinks Lincoln’s “can’t fool all the people all the time” idea may be surfacing in terms of political integrity. We can only hope he is right.