Progressive Groups Lie Because Lying Works

[m.knox]

Lefties love to be lied to.... That's why it works. It's all about confirmation bias for the cultists.

https://www.joshbarro.com/p/progressive-groups-lie-because-lying

Demsas, Cohen and Yglesias would all like the lying to stop, and so would I. But I don’t think any of the three of them quite put their finger on why these groups lie. The unfortunate truth is that they lie because lying works — and it works because big, bold, scary lies are helpful for these groups as they try to claw their way to the front of the line when governments run by Democrats parcel out our country’s constrained fiscal resources.

As Matt notes, the lies mostly work on people who are already inside the tent:

The problem is that it’s about a million times easier to persuade a highly engaged member of your team of something than it is to persuade a swing voter (who is probably skeptical, cynical, and not that engaged with politics) or a member of the opposition (who instinctively assumes you’re lying about everything). So when you put something out there that’s false or misleading, you’re about a million times more likely to confuse people who are friendly to your cause than to actually persuade anyone worth persuading.