The Daily Transparent

Have Right Wing Conservative Republicans Mastered the Use of The Lie?

The Lie has a powerful hold on the human psyche. Right wing pundits and Conservative Republicans seem to prefer it to the truth. Only a child whose morality is not yet tainted by the human embrace of the lie and its fear of truth can say loud enough to be heard that the king wears no clothes. And many adults will repeatedly admonish that child to be quiet until the child understands that he or she is not entitled to tell the truth simply because he or she observes it and knows it.

When GOP conservatives and right wing political pundits and media icons speak an outrageous and obvious lie about President Barack Obama as if it were true, none in that group are embarrassed by it. Nor will any attempt to refute it.

Members of repressive groups refuse to reject out loud what is patently false. They may whisper it to a confidant, but not before looking around to make sure no else can hear--unless their intent is to be rude. And if rudeness is the intent, refuting the truth serves us much better than refuting the lie.

Most of us want to avoid public declaration of uncomfortable truths in group to which we belong that are opposed to that truth. More importantly, too many of us seem to prefer the lie to the truth. Rush Limbaugh's minions are testament to that.

Some unchallenged lies are so blatantly false, one wonders if the human preference for the lie is the major flaw in the psychological design of our species and an insurmountable barrier to the survival of our species. Questions about the validity and reality of truth that support ordinary people, who make up more than 99% of our species, are always brought into question by the forces whose agenda is to perpetuate the will of the super wealthy and the politically powerful and in some scenarios to perpetuate the will of evil.

Few dare to question the lie in the presence of repressive peer pressure for fear of being vilified and ostracized. Evil strikes back when it is exposed, but the truth has no force beyond its intrinsic self.

Truth, unlike the lie, has no ugly head to raise in order to give an aura of power on the face of those who speak it and to strike terror in the minds of those who hear it. Truth does not rebel in anger and vengeance when it is exposed. Truth has no fear of exposure or challenge.

The lie, however, is a ubiquitous masquerader. It masquerades first as your friend. Then falsely and glamorously dressed up as that which it despises--the truth--you soon become its trusted servant. Eventually, seduced by its deceit and false promises, you become its jubilant and compliant slave, celebrating the lie and all its false glory.

And America is all the worse for what and who you believe--lies and liars whose only goal is to divide and conquer so that the 99% is its poorer and needy servants who will bend to their will because they have no choice or effectively see no other choice.

Can Men and Women Trust Politicians Who Use Politics and Religion to Control Women?

Women who depend on men and on women who defer to men for their definition of self are not only not properly defined , they are also used and abused. This kind of deference to men has no value for women who want a world where they and their daughters can decide for themselves who they are, what they want to be, and what they do with their bodies.

And if that means that more women need to become more assertive and less deferential to politicians and religious leaders to make that happen, then more women should become more assertive and less deferential to those groups to make this a better America for themselves and their daughters.

But if any woman  let politicians, pundits, and religious leaders convince her that any woman who demands equality in pay and the right to be in control of her person, her body, and her sexual health is not worthy of protection or respect, then that woman has given up the fight to make this a better place for herself, her sisters, and their daughters.

This kind of acquiescence to repressive socialization through politics and religion makes women and girls weak and enable men and boys to dominate and control their emotions and definitions of self.

To be sure, the irony does not escape me that I am a man telling women what they should do. but I believe that men who love women, respect women, and live without the need to control women should speak out. And while this post is directed to women, it's message is not restricted to women,but also to all the men who love women for all the non-sexual ways that men love women.

In this political season, with its mass of divisive issues, every American has a responsibility for helping America decide in what direction the United States of America will take in its treatment of women. We submit the following statements as reminders of what lies ahead of us and behind us.

1. A man's need to feel superior tdoesn't begin and end with other ethnic groups and lower economic groups. It begins with the women in his own group.

2. Men who constantly refer to women as sluts and whores will never love you as much as you would like him to. Nor does he deserve to be the father of your daughters.

3. God never commanded women to be submissive to men. Paul, in his letter that was first sent to the church in Ephesus said: "Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife...Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything."  In that same letter, however, Paul also said: "Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ." Both these have been oft quoted by religious men for reasons which should be obvious. Doesn't make them right.

4. A South Carolina senator suggested that Fetuses are victims. Women who have been sexually assaulted are not.

5. To be sure, even your white grandmothers and great grandmothers had to fight to make beating them illegal. But today the GOP worked to weaken the violence against women act and even expressed a willingness to tolerate some domentic abuse.

6. Any woman who feels morally right to deny other women control over their bodies and sexual health care do so because they think the horrors that require it will never happen to them.

7. Christian women should remember that Jesus Christ did not wage a war on women, abuse women, hate women, or deny them their rights because he deemed himself morally superior.

8. Your white grandmothers and great grandmothers had to fight to get the right to vote. Today you have to fight to get affordable health care.

9. Whether you admit it or not, there is a war on women in these United States of America. And anyone who thinks that the conservative right can continue its assault on women and America remain a great nation is delusional.

10. 75% of civilians killed in war are women and children.