Why Americans are suckers for political lies

I’m not going to use his name, because I am not looking for a Twitter X war, I am looking for honesty and transparency.

The host of a Philadelphia radio station Wednesday morning stated as fact “most people aren’t in the stock market.”

That statement was used to dismiss Joe Biden’s claim that the stock market keeps hitting record highs, and that the U.S. economy is fine.

The fact is that “most Americans,” 58% of them, are in the stock market. They may not own individual stocks, but their 401k and retirement accounts are invested in the market, according to the Wall Street Journal and other sources.

I don’t think the radio host was lying. He was just misinformed, working off his internal biases.

Another inconvenient fact — the U.S. economy is doing well, far better than other industrialized nations.

Oh, you don’t trust CNN?

How about Business Insider?

As Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

The facts are most Americans are in the stock market and the U.S. economy is zooming.

Does that mean it is the best ever? No. But better than anyone else’s now? Yes.

So why do so few Americans understand that?

Because most Americans are stupid. Oops. I mean most Americans are lazy. Oops again. I really mean — believe it or not — most Americans don’t care that much about politics, and they are fed lies and/or misinformation, such as by the morning radio host.

Most people who do give a crap — a minority — tune to publications and stations that agree with their opinions. They live in information silos and don’t have the time, energy, or interest to seek opposing information. We live in the greatest information age in history, when facts are literally at our digital fingertips, yet we seem as vulnerable to big lies as were Germans under Hitler.

There is a difference between lies and spin.

When Biden says inflation has fallen in a couple of years from 9% to 3.1%, that is true, but does not add that inflation was less than 2% under Trump. 

That is spin, but not a lie. More a half truth.

When Donald J. Trump says the U.S. economy was never stronger than when he was president, that is a lie. It was stronger when Dwight Eisenhower was president, and probably when Ronald Reagan was president, too.

Those are lies because facts are easily available.

When Trump says under Biden the U.S. is a “third world country,” that is rhetoric and spin, but not a “lie.”

What Americans should do is consult more than one news outlet.

At the very least, find a reputable analyst who honestly calls balls and strikes.

That’s why many of you are here,