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Merged Why does Trump lie about EVERYTHING?/Commander in Cheat

acbytesla

Penultimate Amazing
acbytesla
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Dec 14, 2012
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My question is this. Why does Trump feel the need to lie about everything and why do some people ignore this?

Trump is so used to exaggerating, it has become his standard approach to anything. Most people lie from time to time, but they aren't compelled to make things up when there is little reason to.

Any theories?
 
I think it is more likely that he knows absolutely nothing at all about anything, and will simply make **** up that he thinks sounds good.

His head is basically empty, but for the basic reptilian instincts. If it wasn't for his thick skull, the vacuum would drag his ears in. And he has been determined to be profoundly ignorant since childhood. Nobody has ever said NO to him, or forced him to actually pay attention and learn, or made him own up to his mistakes. His narcissism has been fed juicy red meat for all his life.

So his ability to reason out problems and avoid pitfalls based on prior knowledge is zero because he doesn't retain any prior knowledge. Having never experienced negative feedback means he believes anything he says is gospel and profound. So any resistance, any kickback, any questioning is an assault on his narcissistic castle, leading to towering anger and bitter denial.

So it is not so much that he lies all the time so much as he lives in a fairy tale land in his head. He thinks he is all-knowing and thus his truths are the only ones he accepts. When reality bites and shows him he is profoundly wrong, he continues to insist he is right because he has never learned to learn otherwise.
 
acbytesla said:
You think it all comes down to a mental illness?
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I know it wasn't addressed to me, but I want to add a voice of support to what I'm confident SG will say.

I think she has made a pretty good case for it. Yes, I think our president is nuts, and that explains his need to lie about everything. Of course, he doesn't lie about everything, really. He only lies about things that he thinks make him look bad, or make his enemies look good, or make his friends look good if it would make them look better than him. I think SG will state it, and I think she's right.
 
50% mental illness, 50% the actual desire to live in a post-truth world.

I'm not kidding or exaggerating when I say we are staring down the barrel of sizeable number of people desiring to abandon factualness as a concept.
 
Meadmaker said:
I know it wasn't addressed to me, but I want to add a voice of support to what I'm confident SG will say.

I think she has made a pretty good case for it. Yes, I think our president is nuts, and that explains his need to lie about everything. Of course, he doesn't lie about everything, really. He only lies about things that he thinks make him look bad, or make his enemies look good, or make his friends look good if it would make them look better than him. I think SG will state it, and I think she's right.
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Maybe not everything, but damn close.
A lot of people will lie when backed ito a corner. And people will often attempt to put a positive spin on things. But Trump lies about so many things without a decent reason.

For example, Instead of saying that the companies are working on getting enough tests available, he lies about it. What does he think it will buy him when the words are demonstrably false?
 
acbytesla said:
For example, Instead of saying that the companies are working on getting enough tests available, he lies about it. What does he think it will buy him when the words are demonstrably false?
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Continued social and political support driven largely by a core base of nihilist driven 100% by spite and revenge.

Trump lying triggers the libs. It gets them angry.

That's the answer to everything Trump does. Does it make sane, rational, good people angry? Then that's why he's doing it.

Trump lying, even to the point he's constantly contradicting himself. Trump being a hypocrite 100% of the time about everything. Trump going down the checklist of everything that liberals support and crapping on it. It's all done for the same reason, trolling.
 
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acbytesla said:
You think it all comes down to a mental illness?
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Pretty much, yes.

His pathologic narcissism.

He cannot admit he is wrong.

He has to make up the world to keep his fragile ego from bursting.

For example, he imagined the pandemic would go away. When it didn't he imagined he acted to address it and he blames China (projection of his own lack of acting).

It's always someone else's fault, again projecting.

All his constant lies focus around his ego.


Name something you don't think his mental illness explains.
 
You know how American English and British English are different yet similar enough to allow for communication? Trump speaks BS English.

As an American, I can toss together a few “cheerios” and “blimeys” and “what’s all this thens” just like I can BS here and there. But none of it is authentically me.

Trump can, just barely and only rarely, manage to sound like he speaks genuine American English. But his pure native dialect is BS.
 
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I think this article sheds some light on the topic:
The Styrofoam Presidency
A normal liar still sees value in the truth, just as a general concept, and it is important for them to differentiate between truth and lies but I don't think that makes any difference to Trump.
Trump had no use for any of it: the magnanimity, the generosity, the awe (unless it’s inspired by him personally), the pride (unless it’s his own), the aspiration. Indeed, the single quality he displayed repeatedly was his lack of aspiration. Take his speech. Better yet, take the cake. On Saturday it emerged that the inaugural-ball cake that Trump and Vice President Mike Pence cut with a sword was a knock-off of President Obama’s 2013 inaugural-ball cake. Obama’s was created by celebrity chef Duff Goldman. Trump’s was commissioned from a decidedly more modest Washington bakery than Goldman’s, and the transition-team representative who put in the order explicitly asked for an exact copy of Goldman’s design—even when the baker suggested creating a variation on the theme of Goldman’s cake. Only a small portion of Trump’s cake was edible; the rest was Styrofoam (Obama’s was cake all the way through). The cake may be the best symbol yet of the incoming administration: much of what little it brings is plagiarized, and most of it is unusable for the purpose for which presidential administrations are usually intended. Not only does it not achieve excellence: it does not even see the point of excellence
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What is the difference between a styrofoam cake and a real cake if they look the same?
 
acbytesla said:
Maybe not everything, but damn close.
A lot of people will lie when backed ito a corner. And people will often attempt to put a positive spin on things. But Trump lies about so many things without a decent reason.

For example, Instead of saying that the companies are working on getting enough tests available, he lies about it. What does he think it will buy him when the words are demonstrably false?
Click to expand...

Understanding that is the key to realizing it really is a mental illness. Lots of people lie, but usually it's a scheme to gain something. Part of the decision to lie is assuming you can get away with it and not get caught. I don't think Trump ever gets to that point. He isn't trying to get away with telling a lie. He's altering reality to make it fit his needs. That's why he lies even when his claims are demonstrably false. He has shifted his world view to make them true in his head.

That's why it's a mental illness. I think he actually believes almost everything he says, and the next day, when something else would be more convenient, but it contradicts what he said yesterday, he believes that, too.
 
Regnad Kcin said:
You know how American English and British English are different yet similar enough to allow for communication? Trump speaks BS English.

As an American, I can toss together a few “cheerios” and “blimeys” and “what’s all this thens” just like I can BS here and there. But none of it is authenticity me.

Trump can, just barely and only rarely, manage to sound like he speaks genuine American English. But his pure native dialect is BS.
Click to expand...

Trump reminds me of the not so smart football player running for Student Body President who cracks jokes during his campaign speech. And the American electorate has turned into High School Students that God forbid don't want to listen to the smart guy or girl running against them so they don't.
 
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I read somewhere recently that when trump is just privately talking -- this was from someone who had listened to recordings of calls between trump and Michael Cohen -- trump sounds like a different person. Everything was different, the inflections, the cadence, even the sound of his voice. They said he actually sounded like a halfway normal human being. For trump that is VERY surprising. ;)
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
He cannot admit he is wrong.
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Certainly possible.

Also possible is it’s learned behavior. Hardfast rules first gleaned from Roy Cohn, and later refined by Roger Stone. Never admit you’re wrong. Take credit for everything good, blame others for everything bad. Praise those who are useful to you. Belittle and mock and caricature anyone who dare oppose you.

I think a sane person could just make a conscious effort to follow those rules. Which, we have to admit, got a very small man all the way to the White House. But I suspect over the years these rules have been internalized to the extent they are indistinguishable from a mental disorder. And as such, may have actually become a mental disorder.
 
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Fast Eddie B said:
Certainly possible.

Also possible is it’s learned behavior. Hardfast rules first gleaned from Roy Cohn, and later refined by Roger Stone. Never admit you’re wrong. Take credit for everything good, blame others for everything bad. Praise those who are useful to you. Belittle and mock and caricature anyone who dare oppose you.

I think a sane person could just make a conscious effort to follow those rules. Which, we have to admit, got a very small man all the way to the White House. But I suspect over the years these rules have been internalized to the extent they are indistinguishable from a mental disorder. And as such, may have actually become a mental disorder.
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I really wish a Democratic politician would bluntly and repeatedly refer to him as the Liar in Chief. I'm so sick of people not taking it to him. I'd make it damn clear that while decorum should be how politicians treat each other, it's ridiculous to play nice while Trump has broken all the rules.
 
I agree with SG: Trump is a full-fledged, unabashed, cream of the crop malignant narcissist and pathological liar. It's a severe personality disorder.

I think the primary reason Trump hates Obama so much is because, deep down, he knows Obama is everything he isn't and never can be. He hate him for that.
 
Trump lies as a matter of policy, to cover his other lies, because he can, because he always has, because he has never suffered for his lies, because he flatters himself, and because he likes it. He lies because he is nuttier than squirrel ****, though only half as smart.
 
newyorkguy said:
I read somewhere recently that when trump is just privately talking -- this was from someone who had listened to recordings of calls between trump and Michael Cohen -- trump sounds like a different person. Everything was different, the inflections, the cadence, even the sound of his voice. They said he actually sounded like a halfway normal human being. For trump that is VERY surprising. ;)
Click to expand...

That would have been from a few years ago. I'm certain he has lost a lot of his facility since then.
 
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