Asshole of the year, 2016

In the Age of Trump, I nominate this man for "Asshole of the year, 2016", Cam Harris, who published fake political news, including one article, on October 1 fabricating a claim that tens of thousands of Clinton ballots were found in a warehouse in Ohio. The site is down, but an archive copy is here: https://archive.fo/5lfHH and all the snopes fact-checking is here http://www.snopes.com/tag/christian-times-newspaper/

Here's an article with a video interview of his confessions.
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/19/major-fake-news-operation-tracked-back-republican-operative/

Its worth hearing his interview (18 minutes). I most despise his nonanswer to the question (@14:20) "This was posted on ChristianTimesNewspaper, do you consider yourself Christian. Doesn't this go against Christianity?"

Cam answers: "I have a religious background. I grew up in a church. ... That's a question much too large for me to answer."

Maybe we can say it is now Obama's fault than young men no longer know the difference between right and wrong. But perhaps that's the whole problem with abstraction, when all the harm is in people you don't know, people who were already screwed up anyway, deporable, irredeemable? Messing with irredeemable people can't be a sin, right?

Perhaps Cam's conscience could be raised if his lies were done in person, like perhaps talking to a neighbor who believed the local minister was a child-molester because he had that kind and gentle sort of voice that child-molesters have, and not knowing if it was true, but knowing this he needed some money, and offering some supporting evidence, hoping he could get some cash out of the neighbor.

Maybe the question of morality wouldn't be "too large" to answer? What is the cost of admitting wrong action is wrong?

And I also wonder who started that rumor about Clinton running a child prostitution ring underneath a DC pizzeria? And eventually leading to a would-be-hero to find the place with a gun and demand that those innocent children.
http://www.politico.com/armed-man-arrested-near-dc-pizzeria-targeted-by-fake-news

Cam is right that his little fake news couldn't have alone changed the election in favor of Donald Trump. So if he can convince himself that Clinton would have lost in any case, he's off the hook in his mind. What's the harm in preying on gullible people?

And Cam's public confession feeds his own narcissism, showing how clever he is, at understanding people's weaknesses, and exploiting them.

And this is the slippery slope the modern world brings. Ideally fake news makes people wary to believe "news" presented outside the fact-checked world of main stream media. But in reality, fake news appears to be a force of chaos, and our minds are not good at dealing with lies, and a million small lies can add up, and Trump said "Crooked Hillary" so it must be true, at least our "inner child" says.

It would be much simpler to face an angry mob about to stone you and have Jesus walk up and say "He who is without sin may cast the first stone" and when the self-righteous mob disappears, Jesus can say "Go and sin no more." and you're free.

Maybe Cam needs to go back to Sunday school? I like Catholics better than Lutherans (except for the burdens to the poor priest) but there at least you have to confess your sins to a real person before you're forgiven. Its too easy to lie to yourself, rationalize and refuse to listen, when your conscience is telling you things you don't want to hear.

I'd suggest the same for Trump, catholic confession, but I can't see it. A person who can't see his own contradictions can't possibly find a moral voice to guide him.

Trump would probably even enjoy shocking the priest with his exploits, and all the confessions he'd make would be fabrications, while skipping the real ones which were less entertaining. Trump would never dream of the priest staying quiet, and will hope the priest will share the stories in front of the nuns, to shock them of course. That's what Trump would do, if he was a priest.

It's so hard to imagine any limit to Trump's disability and ours.

The clueless showman needing an intervention

Does Donald Trump lie? The media has been trying to deal with that question, and it seems like fruitless mission, that is, if every lie can be covered up by 3 new lies, then its like the hydra, where you can cut off one head and three more popup. At least you imagine why a direct approach won't work.

The whole problem with calling something a lie is that it suggests conscious intent to deceive, while I do think there are unconscious defense mechanisms to cover up and rationalize contradictions and avoid cognitive dissonance.

We can point out contradictions to a person's statements, past and present, and ask them to explain that, but that explanation will likely be a rationalization they're making to themselves in the moment, to avoid the contradiction. And even if you tell them of the deception, they won't let go of the rationalization.

So its like we have opportunities to "wake up" and see what's real, and we can do that when faced by contradiction. We can reflect, but a mind that doesn't want to reflect can choose to deflect, and refocus elsewhere and avoid the contradiction.

I recall psychologists have done experiments, like asking someone to choose on list of preferences, each between two things, A or B, and later ask them to explain their choice, say A, while actually telling them they chose B, and most of the time, people will skip right past that deception, assume the choice was real and come up with an explanation that never existed before that moment. We can call that lying, but it is also rationalizing,covering up ignorance with a false narrative.

This is related to the "choice supportive bias", which also can explain why Trump voters will continue to support him long after the evidence suggests it was a bad idea, like they can continue to be glad that Clinton wasn't elected for all her faults even though that's irrelevant to the current situation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choice-supportive_bias

I tend to think this is how much of Trump's mind works, and at a level he's not in control over. I'm sure it would be possibly for a psychologist to help him see such false narratives arising, and question them, but in any kind of public setting, no one wants to do that, least of all someone who does it chronically, to avoid awareness of shame.

I recall seeing bumper stickers "Don't believe everything you think" and it's a profound reversal to the original "Don't believe everything you hear [from others]." Until you admit to yourself that your mind makes things up continually, and its rationalized on the spot, the question of lying won't even make sense.

There may be times when Trump is aware of his "lying", and times when he isn't, but when this habit is strong, it seems that sort of awareness only comes out when faces by someone who has power over you, and knows what's true, and won't let you get away with anything, and ultimately only God has that power. Parents or authority figures can sometimes break through this and force issues, but you have to be very sure of your own facts.

Children who learn to try to deceive parents or authority figures quickly learn "theory of mind" that considers "What does the other person know?" And by modeling another mind, they can try to create a consistency between known lies, and evidence available to parents. But a person who is not good at keeping such clever track of facts and deceptions, he will get caught, and still has to learn how to avoid punishment. So then there are other tricks - either being a victim, redirecting blame elsewhere, or being a bully, refusing to admit the other person has any authority at all to judge them, and can seek to punish the judge. And the more status, power, and wealth you have the more you can get away with, and the more you can play people off each other, and try to convince yourself and others that another is the true bully or villain, and we are just defending ourselves. And the more these tricks work, the harder they are to break, and the more painful it becomes to admit the truth, when you can't avoid facing your own responsibility for a situation. And worse, people with guilty consciences might themselves hyperfocus on the deceptions of others, and as long as other people are "more guilty", one's own bad behavior can be justified as minor in comparison, even when the exact opposite is true.

I don't know how to face the question of public figures in the media except to repeat the contradictions of facts or declarations without presuming intention, and let the reader decide their own interpretation.

In Trump's case, I'd call it a permanent disability that makes him unfit for the presidency, like Keith Olbermann tried recently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv28Hnx9uCg Still Supporting Donald Trump? This Message Is For You | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann | GQ

Trump needs an intervention. Being clueless might be acceptable as a billionaire surrounded by yes-men, but it is deadly for someone with real power over life and death of others.

I don't expect a 70-year old man will get what he needs, if he's made it this far in his ways. So for those close to him, it'll always be more of care-taking role, covering over the contradictions and agreeing with his enemy imagines take keep responsibility elsewhere.

A determined senate still might oust him with an impeachment, but its hard to see what it'll take for that to happen.

We have less than 2 weeks for his inauguration.

About the only advice I have is to consider facing my own advice, and pay more attention to my own coverups, and distractions that avoid responsibility, avoid keeping my word, avoid following through with what ought to be done, when its annoying or anxiety producing, or whatever.

I can sort of see my own mental tricks I'd call strategic procrastination, that is keeping some awareness of what MUST be done soon, and what the consequences are for not doing it, and yet that process fails when consequences can be avoided, or at least more of increased risk, a slippery slope of chaos, where when you leave enough glass on the floor, eventually you'll trip over some of it and get cut.

Joe Biden told Trump to "Grow up" and surely that's what we all have to do. But who is our keeper? Who will call us out when our defense mechanisms have been carefully constructed to avoid awareness of things we don't want to think about. And perhaps that's the fault everywhere, when systems are setup to manage complexity, and eventually you forget the reasons the rules existed, and cut corners, all without consequence, until something unexpected happens, something that is predictable as a possibility, but not timing, and then you're not prepared for it.

So Trump is the broken glass. Trump is the black swan, and its almost like voters unconsciously decided to throw glass in the dark, because other people will get hurt, and eventually start paying attention to things that need attention.