The person you can most easily convince about anything is yourself because you are susceptible to your own emotions – your own bias and beliefs. Some people are more prone to believing their own bullshit than others. In this instance, l refer to the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Some can consider these susceptibilities when speaking or writing about different subjects like politics, for example. Others have it in varying degrees, while others have no control over it at all.
It can be infuriating when listening to a politician answer a question (or most likely not answer), and you know the words they are using belong to a question they would have liked to have been asked.
You know what I mean. It goes backwards and forwards (you know, the answer) until the interviewer goes on to the next question. Your frustration builds while your respect diminishes.
The best tactician in this regard is the Prime Minister himself. He uses what l call the ‘conlie‘, where he simply denies any association with what he might have said.
You know it’s a con, but you separate the hustle from the lie. Then the argument is discussed in terms of the differences between the deception and the falsehood rather than the lying itself.
This week he used this technique regarding what he had said about electric cars during the 2019 election campaign.
Yes we're updating the Morrison Dossier of Lies right now.
Morrison says the claim that he campaigned against electric vehicles in 2019 is "a Labor lie."
Here's the video of him ridiculing and campaigning against electric vehicles in 2019.https://t.co/iSpCoRWQJN
— Bernard Keane (@BernardKeane) November 9, 2021
It’s akin to saying that life is about perception. Not what is but what we perceive it to be. Or people see what they are thinking and feeling, seldom what they are looking at. Morrison appeals to those who have reasoned by virtue of their feelings that they are correct, and it is totally futile to appeal to their logic.
That is why (if my previous remarks make sense to you) most people from the left at least have no hesitation in calling our leader a liar, and I think it’s safe to say he now surpasses Tony Abbott.
In 2019 during the election campaign after Labor announced its EV Policy, Morrison said that it would; “end the weekend”, and incorrectly stated that the vehicles in question wouldn’t “tow your trailer.” Then he questioned how people in apartments would charge them.
A reporter asks the PM about his remarks on EVs in 2019: "What about all these charging stations, how much will that cost…are you going to run the extension cord down from your window?" Morrison says "there has been a massive change in technology" since then. #Auspol @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/AUyY2gtlLw
— Naveen Razik (@naveenjrazik) November 9, 2021
His policy for this election, it seems, is to set up how the vehicle would be charged. It came with a rather ridiculous scare campaign on utilities.
Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers, appearing on RN Breakfast, labelled the U-turn an embarrassment:
“How humiliating for a prime minister who said electric vehicles would end the weekend,” he said. “[He’s] now trying to pretend, all of a sudden, because we’re on the eve of an election, that he cares about electric vehicles.”
Writing for The Monthly today Rachael Withers asked the question:
“So how exactly does Morrison intend to pull off this brazen backflip, from claiming EVs would ruin the Australian way of life to spruiking his own highly insufficient EV plan? The answer is with a shamelessness that outstrips many of his earlier instances of barefaced lying.”
When asked about his “end the weekend” comments at Melbourne’s Toyota hydrogen production centre, he classically did what I said he does. He conlied:
“I don’t have a problem with electric vehicles … claiming his issue was only ‘with governments telling people what to do, and what vehicles they should drive, and where they should drive them,’ as he alleged former Labor leader Bill Shorten had wanted to do.”
Again, he is lying by omission and twisting words. He went on to say things that Shorten had never spoken:
“Even when a reporter argued that Morrison couldn’t honestly say he hadn’t attacked EVs back in 2019, Morrison claimed he could “because that’s true.”
One cannot help but pick up on the likeness, style, and technique Morrison shares with former US President Donald Trump. “I didn’t say that,” when it is clear that he did.
Quoting Rachael Withers again:
“Morrison wilfully misrepresenting the Opposition’s policy as a “mandate” (it was a target, with incentives to boost uptake, which experts and the Electric Vehicles Council say is what’s needed), while suggesting it is Labor that is fibbing. “That is just a Labor lie,” he said, speaking of comments he made on the public record.”
I get so frustrated when Morrison does this. Indeed, it isn’t too much to ask that in a democracy that our politicians at least tell the truth. I, like most Australians, want to be proud of our Prime Minister and the work they do.
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We would be a much better society if we took the risk of thinking for ourselves unhindered by the unadulterated crap served up by the government the media and self-interest groups.
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Morrison’s falsity is written all over his face. It is commonly accepted amongst writers that he is a liar, and I could never trust anything he says – the man’s an inveterate liar.
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To say that we are ambivalent about our politicians is an understatement. Now we are ashamed.
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I have been flipping through a new book by former Rudd advisor and Monthly Today columnist Sean Kelly, titled, The Game. Kelly observes that:
“Morrison never feels, in himself, insincere or untruthful because he always means exactly what he says; it is just that he means it only in the moment he is saying it.”
When one thinks about it, the way Morrison lies might mean that there is some truth in it.
Unfortunately for Morrison, his insincerity on climate now just comes over as old fashioned bullshit, or he is conlying.
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My thought for the day
Leaders who cannot comprehend the importance of truth as being fundamental to the democratic process make the most contribution to its demise.
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