Carman: The truth is drowning in an ocean of baldfaced lies

When Rep. Gabe Evans told his CD-8 constituents that the federal budget bill he endorsed doesn't cut Medicaid, he either was deliberately lying or was so ill-informed he should be removed from office for rank incompetence.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's analysis has found that the bill, now signed into law, will eliminate about $1 trillion in federal Medicaid spending over the next decade and 11.8 million people will lose health insurance.

In Colorado, six rural hospitals are expected to close and as many as 150,000 recipients will lose health insurance coverage as a result of the measure.

Even if he didn't read the bill, somebody should have mentioned all that to Evans before he voted for it.

Meanwhile, two attorneys for the unabashed liar Mike Lindell, the MyPillow dude, were ordered by a federal judge to pay $6,000 in penalties for introducing utter nonsense into the record in Lindell's defense.

Dismissing the notion that the court is supposed to be dealing with the whole truth and nothing but the truth, attorneys Christopher Kachouroff and Jennifer DeMaster's court filing cited cases that never existed and versions of case law that were unadulterated BS.

The filing apparently was the product of artificial intelligence, which increasingly has been found to generate hallucinations when its research fails to produce the users' desired results.

In any case, you have to wonder: Did the attorneys not read the filing before they submitted it? Were they so ignorant of the law that they didn't notice the 30 errors in their motion? Or did they think they could pull this one over on the judge and jury?

You decide.

But wait, there's more.

Social Security recipients this month received an email fulsomely celebrating the Big Ugly Budget Bill, stating that "90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits."

This falls into the category of grossly misleading rather than a blatant lie, although the result is pretty much the same.

The New York Times quotes Howard Gleckman of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center saying the bill does not include a direct tax cut on Social Security benefits. That tax policy, enacted during the Reagan administration, levies taxes on benefits and remains unchanged.

The bill does increase the deductions allowed for certain older taxpayers, which should reduce federal income taxes across the board for some recipients. It does not apply to those under 65, higher income retirees or those whose incomes are so low they don't pay income taxes anyway.

Pro tip: Ignore the cheerleading from the Social Security Administration and consult a tax professional to find out what — if any — difference the measure will have on your tax bill.

And then there's Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose lies and misrepresentations on vaccine safety have directly resulted in hospitalizations and deaths in the worst measles outbreak in 33 years.

The studies he continues to reference suggesting that vaccines cause autism were thoroughly debunked 15 years ago. It's all a lie, but skittish parents who have succumbed to this brainwashing put their children at risk for everything from measles and the flu to polio.

None of this is accidental.

It's coordinated, intentional gaslighting.

Psychology Today defines gaslighting as "an insidious form of manipulation and psychological control." Victims "are deliberately and systematically fed false information that leads them to question what they know to be true … doubting their memory, their perception and even their sanity. Over time, a gaslighter's manipulations can grow more complex and potent, making it increasingly difficult for the victim to see the truth."

We've experienced it before.

For decades, the tobacco industry concealed its own research on the deadly health risks of smoking, perpetrating lies in a cynical international gaslighting campaign to sell its products. As friends and relatives died of lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema, the industry produced a blizzard of misinformation defending their product.

Similarly, the oil industry has known since 1959 that burning fossil fuels is the primary contributor to human-caused climate change and has actively pursued a gaslighting campaign of disinformation to thwart attempts to address the problem. It continues today even as families in Texas bury their loved ones who died in a storm unimaginable except for climate change.

While this isn't anything new, the craven political climate along with widespread use of AI and social media accelerants have created an alternate reality completely disconnected from anything close to the truth.

Gaslighting is so common and insidious that many hesitate to believe anything. They trust no one.

Which is the ultimate objective.

Once we succumb to the seductive mind control, we are rendered disorganized and powerless. Our leaders can — and do — lie with such impunity we don't react anymore.

Even the MAGA faithful acknowledge that Trump is a liar. Fact-checkers estimated that 70% of Trump's statements during his campaign were demonstrably refutable. But for his supporters, they were repeated so frequently and aligned with their political views so comfortably, the MAGA crowd gleefully embraced them anyway.

Still, occasionally a truth-teller emerges to show us a way out.

Enter Pamela Hemphill, a hero for our time.

Hemphill, you'll recall, was the Idaho woman who refused a pardon from Trump for her actions in the Jan. 6 insurrection. She was the only one of the more than 1,500 people given pardons for their convictions in the attack on the nation's capital to refuse to accept it.

In an interview with CBS News, she explained why she blocked Trump's effort to erase her criminal record.

"The pardons just contribute to their narrative, which is all lies, propaganda. We were guilty, period," she said.

"We all know that they're gaslighting us. They are using January 6 to just continue Trump's narrative that the Justice Department was weaponized. They were not. When the FBI came to my home, oh my God, they were very professional. They treated me very good."

Hemphill knew the truth first-hand, and she was sure the others who accepted the pardons did, too.

"How could you sleep at night taking a pardon when you know you were guilty? You know that everybody there was guilty. I couldn't live with myself. I have to be right with me. And with God," she said.

In a sea of lies, the truth is right there if you dare to look for it. Just ask Pam Hemphill.

------------

Diane Carman is a Denver communications consultant.

------------

The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun's opinion policy. Learn how to submit a column. Reach the opinion editor at [email protected].

Follow Colorado Sun Opinion on Facebook.