Thread by @SteB777

We need to have a discussion about disingenuous people, in positions of power, and disingenuity, in general.

Understanding this, is central to understanding why the world is in such a mess, and why we have such bad leadership.
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If you look up the term disingenuous in a dictionary, you find things like insincere, not frank or honest. This is far too mild for what I'm talking about, but there isn't really any other widely understood English term, that covers it.

2/vocabulary.com/dictionary/dis…

I'm talking about total disingenuity, where the whole of how someone presents themselves, is completely false, and most of what they say, is dishonest and misleading, because really they're only interested in their own ambitions, and the ends justify the means.
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Unfortunately, I have been at the wrong end of such people in personal relationships, so I have deep insight into the phenomenon. However, I don't want to get off track, talking about general personality traits. I'm only talking about people in positions of great power.
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All I'm going to talk about, generally, is that we know for certain such people exist. Where fake doctors, with forged qualifications, have practised in mainstream medicine, for decades without being detected.

5/bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

An internationally better known example, is Elizabeth Holmes, who ran a very successful company, attracting high profile investors, on the basis of supposedly developing a powerful blood testing machine, which was totally fake.

6/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth…

There are plenty of other examples of this, where charismatic fraudsters, have fooled just about everyone for a long time. How they conned everyone, tends to get swept under the carpet, because a lot of people, with big reputations, got fooled.
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All we need to understand for the purpose of the case I'm presenting here, is that such people exist, and they can be amazingly successful at taking everyone in, even when they are totally false, fake and disingenuous.
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It must be realized, that a lot of convincing fake people, have probably never been unmasked. For instance, take the fake psychiatrist. She had practised for 20 years, and only got caught after forging someone's will.
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Incredibly, when the fake psychiatrist was convicted of forging a will and received a 5 year prison sentence, the police never suspected that her medical qualifications were forged.

10/bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

In other words, if the fake psychiatrist, hadn't got greedy, and it wasn't for the work of an investigative journalist, it was almost certain, she could have retired, and no one would have ever been, any the wiser.
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The fact, that so many of these totally disingenuous, fake people, only got uncovered relatively late in their careers, by pure accident and bad luck, is what makes me think, we only see the tip of the iceberg, and most of them get away with it.
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What I'm going to suggest here, is that many leading politicians, leaders of countries, are this type of fake, totally disingenuous people. That they don't believe a word of what they say i.e. their supposed values. That they've only been serving themselves, not the people.
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I'm not suggesting, anything particularly original, or revolutionary here. Perhaps the majority of people, think that senior politicians, oligarchs, CEOs etc, are a bit insincere and not very honest.
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However, mostly it is wrongly thought, that they are just a bit fast and loose with the truth, but that most of what they say, is sincere. What if it's not, and they're totally disingenuous and fake. That they don't really believe in any of the political values they espouse?
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That they simply faked their affected political values, and are in effect, con-artists. That they just pretended to believe in the values they espouse, to get into public office, to rise up the corporate ladder, to get very rich etc.
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It's not that far-fetched, at all. We know such people exist, that there are quite a lot of them, and they are amazingly successful at duping people. We know, for certain, that they regularly lie in public office. So how do we know, that they are mainly sincere? We don't!
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You see, unlike fake psychiatrists, con-artists peddling fake blood-testing machines etc, it is very unlikely that a senior politician is going to be exposed as being totally disingenuous, even if some big lies they told, get exposed.
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Most people, will still accept they believed in most of what they said. Almost certainly, they are never going to reveal, even to those closest to them, that they don't really believe in a word of what they say.
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There's very strong circumstantial evidence, that the strong personal convictions politicians express, and which get them into high office, are totally fake and disingenuous. It's just wishful thinking, to believe, they only lie some of the time.
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Here's the former UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, giving a supposedly passionate speech about climate change, in his infamous "greenest ever government" speech, in 2010.

"I mean that from the bottom of my heart."

21/theguardian.com/environment/20…

Let's look at the 15 years after this speech. Has David Cameron done or said anything since, that is consistent with him supposedly believing passionately in reducing emissions, to address the climate crisis. Quite the opposite.

22/theguardian.com/environment/20…

If a Prime Minster, makes such an apparently heartfelt speech, about an existential threat to our civilization, where he self-evidently never meant a word of what he said, then I suggest, there are no values, that he and other senior politicians won't lie about.
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There is very strong circumstantial evidence, that most modern political leaders, don't actually believe in a word of what they say. That they are totally disingenuous, and just say whatever they think is necessary to get elected, because a lot of the public believe in it.
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Why do we allow ourselves to be governed and led by liars, who almost certainly don't believe in most of the values they espouse, and they only say this, to get elected and rise to the top.
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For clarity. I am not suggesting, that every politician has fake values, and lies about everything. However, I am suggesting, that most of the more ambitious ones do, and they always put ambition, before the truth.
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