Photograph: Consultant George Santos. Public area.
The seemingly countless string of lies advised by Consultant George Santos has been capturing headlines for weeks, and it’s simple to see why. Every fabrication appears bolder and extra absurd than the following, and but he refuses to surrender the congressional seat he gained by way of fraud. And now, he’s truly being given committee assignments by Republican management! The truth that he might be appointed to those our bodies, versus being unnoticed altogether, is an indicator that strain on him to resign is easing up.
It’s proper for folks to be outraged on the wanton deception displayed by Santos. To call a couple of examples, he lied about the place he went to highschool and faculty, made up a faux profession in finance at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, pretended to be the grandchild of holocaust survivors, and seems to have even arrange a fraudulent animal charity whereas he was going by the identify Anthony Devolder. Calls are circulating for Santos to be investigated for monetary crimes contemplating that he claims to have one way or the other lent his marketing campaign $700,000 within the run as much as the election, regardless of reporting solely $55,000 in private earnings in current tax filings.
However amongst ruling class politicians, George Santos is an beginner in the case of telling lies. All through U.S. historical past, highly effective people and teams have unfold falsehoods which have destroyed lives and full international locations. Mendacity is the best way the U.S. authorities features. Think about simply 4 examples from the current previous that places Santos to disgrace.
- Iraq has weapons of mass destruction
Some of the notorious lies within the historical past of U.S. warmaking, the false notion that Iraq was in possession of chemical, organic or nuclear “weapons of mass destruction” was the precept rationale for the invasion. It was repeated endlessly by President Bush and different prime administration officers, together with an notorious episode the place Protection Secretary Colin Powell used a prop vial of mock anthrax to hammer house his level when talking earlier than the United Nations Safety Council.
However no WMDs have been ever discovered. All alongside, the U.S. authorities knew that they didn’t exist. Proof that emerged after the invasion just like the Downing Road Memo and revelations from ex-officials like former high-ranking CIA officer Tyler Drumheller revealed that as a substitute the choice to launch the battle was made first, after which intelligence companies went on a search to concoct “proof” that may justify it. The end result? Over a million Iraqis have been killed, many hundreds of thousands extra have been terribly injured or grew to become refugees, 1000’s of U.S. service members died, and Iraqi society was destabilized by violent political discord that continues to this present day.
- A wave of teenage “superpredators” is chargeable for crime
A profoundly racist and ludicrously false idea first put ahead by educational John DiIulio took maintain within the Nineteen Nineties {that a} layer of youth who lack “accountable adults who train you proper from improper” have emerged as “tremendous predators” who “place zero worth on the lives of their victims” and are chargeable for a rising tide of violent crime. It was at all times closely implied, if not outright said, that the “superpredators” in query have been younger Black males. There was in fact no precise proof to help this idea, it was a lie designed to attraction to and stoke racist fears.
And but the concept of tremendous predators was embraced by the political institution and shaped a part of the justification for the mass incarceration insurance policies of that period. In 1996, as an illustration, Hillary Clinton gave a speech the place she mentioned the necessity to “tackle … the sorts of children which are known as tremendous predators. No conscience, no empathy. We are able to discuss why they ended up that means, however first we’ve got to carry them to heel.” Thousands and thousands of individuals have been affected by the “powerful on crime” insurance policies that emerged from this racist hysteria, incarcerated and subjected to merciless and dehumanizing situations within the jail system.
- A military of Russian bots on Twitter swung the election for Donald Trump in 2016
Shocked at their defeat within the 2016 election to Donald Trump, the Democratic Get together institution determined guilty Russia as a substitute of their very own unpopular program of anti-worker “centrist” politics. No proof has emerged proving the conspiracy idea that Russian intervention, principally by way of the nefarious use of social media, led to Trump’s victory regardless of countless Congressional and judicial probes into the matter. What these investigations did produce have been alleged operations so miniscule or simply plain bizarre that the notion that they had any impact on the election’s end result is laughable. Simply this month, a New York College examine discovered that “there have been no measurable adjustments in attitudes, polarization, or voting habits” as a consequence of “Russian bot” exercise on-line. However nonetheless, this lie has been used to each dismiss proponents of left wing politics as Russian dupes and push a tremendously harmful international coverage that places america and Russia on a path to battle.
- Joe Biden might be “probably the most pro-union president” in American historical past
The Biden marketing campaign put an excessive amount of effort into convincing union members that he would defend their pursuits if elected. On the day earlier than the election, Biden promised whereas talking in a city exterior the previous industrial hub Pittsburgh that he would “be probably the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.” Concretely, this was understood to imply at minimal help for the Defending the Proper to Set up Act, a proposed regulation that may make it far simpler to type a union. However upon taking workplace, having obtained hundreds of thousands of union members’ votes, Biden utterly deserted the PRO Act and finally ditched even his personal signature social program enlargement that may have been of nice profit to union staff and the entire working class.
If there was any doubt that Biden was mendacity about being “probably the most pro-union president”, it vanished following the federal intervention towards rail staff on the finish of final 12 months. The rail unions have been getting ready to go on strike to finish outrageous scheduling insurance policies and different inhumane office situations that made it subsequent to unattainable for workers to dwell a traditional life with their households. After staff in key rail unions voted to reject a proposed contract brokered by his administration, Biden crushed the strike earlier than it occurred by getting Congress to unilaterally impose the phrases of the rejected settlement.
It’s the peak of hypocrisy when different elite politicians attempt to separate themselves from Santos and posture as champions of ethical integrity. They know full nicely that their system of sophistication rule would come crashing down if the inhabitants was not fed a gentle food plan of lies.
