“How can you tell when a politician is lying? ... Their lips move!”
That’s a classic politician joke, classic; it speaks to the inherent dishonesty in politics… it’s also a stupid unfair, misleading joke… I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I don’t like that joke because it is unfair to politicians! (wait for the lightening) The joke implies that politicians are inherently dishonest and lie all the time for no reason other than that they exist… it’s such a dishonest joke that I feel a politician made it up during an election campaign.
Politicians do lie, (who doesn't) but they don’t do it all the time, nor do they do it for no reason.
Politicians lie for three main reasons:
· They lie for votes
· They lie to cover up the lies they told for votes
· And last but by no means least they lie because that is precisely what WE demand of them.
A far more accurate version of that joke would run something like this,
“How can you tell when a politician is lying? … When they’re telling you what you want to hear!”
Using that metric it’s easy to know when they’re telling the truth too.
This is just something I like to keep in mind while I complain about the current state of affairs.
Nala (The $2 Philosopher)