Thread by @SteB777

We need to have a talk about disingenuous politicians, commentators etc. As our societies are being ripped apart by these manipulative people. Before I go on, I am not saying only right wing politicians are disingenuous, only consistently more so.
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Disingenuous means basically means insincere, sly, knowingly deceptive. In terms of leadership, that they're effectively, a confidence trickster, drawing people in, getting their confidence, and manipulating and exploiting them for their own ends.
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Some people, groups of people, can be totally disingenuous, to the point that absolutely nothing they tell you, or very little of it is genuine. Or at the other end of the spectrum, people can be largely sincere and genuine, but be deceitful about some things.
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We are taught, no inculcated, to believe that people are genuine, especially people in authority, even more so, those with great power and money, and that questioning their truthfulness is grave disrespect. This is very dangerous when most of them are totally dishonest.
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I won't beat about the bush, because I'm talking mainly about the extreme right, Donald Trump, and politicians of this ilk. However, to be fair, I'm also talking about centrist neoliberal politicians/commentators, and even some on the left. We're talking about degrees.
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Trump and others of their ilk, want people to believe that they are fighting for them against the elite, and their deep state conspiracies. That they deeply believe in what they say. Trump want his supporters to believe he is a Christian, a moral and conservative person.
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Let's just deal with one part of this, Trump's claim to be a Christian, who reads the Bible. It's actually, very probable that Trump has never read the Bible in his life, there is no evidence of him ever practicing Christian principles. He's definitely a fake Christian.
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I only focus on this, because if someone lies about their Christian faith, for the purpose of deceiving their followers, then there is very little chance, that anything else they say is genuine and since.

So why does anyone believe what Trump says?
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On this subject, I believe that others on the Trump right, say the late Charlies Kirk, are genuine what they see as their Christianity. The reason I say, as they see it, is that this faith seems to be very little to do with what the historical Jesus taught.
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To be even-handed, as I said, I think the evidence shows that the neoliberal centre is also very disingenuous and manipulative. By this, I mean most recent Democratic Presidents and other senior Democrats. In the UK, Tony Blair and Keir Starmer etc.
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We also see strong evidence that left wing figures, communists, in positions of power, have been similarly dishonest and corrupt. I am being even-handed here. Although, as I say, it is about degrees. However, from evidence, I see the modern right as uniquely fake.
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For instance, Donald Trump claims to disbelieve in climate change. Oddly he wanted to build a large sea wall to protect his Irish golf course, from rising sea levels, caused by "global warming". The planning application very specifically states that.

12/politico.com/story/2016/05/…

Trump himself has repeatedly told us how involved he is in environmental assessments and procedures involving his businesses. Possibly another lie, but I very much doubt, a planning venture of this magnitude, was unknown to Trump.
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The same with the super rich, billionaire oligarchs, who Trump really represents. Whilst overtly denying climate change and supporting the suppression, of climate science, Yet they seem to be taking measures to protect themselves from climate collapse.

14/medium.com/the-thought-co…

It would take a very deep dive to deal with this whole issue, but the circumstantial evidence is massive, that the most powerful in our societies are totally disingenuous. That they are lying to their supporters, those who vote for them, and they are totally disingenuous.
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I regard the modern populist right to be the most egregious example, where its leaders, don't personally believe in most of the policy they promote, and this is just appealing to base fears of their supporters, that they promote and exploit.
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However, it is just a matter of degree, and the neoliberal centre, are not much better, and are in hock to the same billionaire oligarchs, and big corporate entities. That anyone vying for great power, is likely to be corrupted by it.
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I don't want to go too much into this here, but the core problem is giving so much personal power to those in leadership positions, which is completely unnecessary, and allows those with great wealth, to be able to influence, and indeed bribe those in power.
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A person in a modern political leadership position, is just an administrator. They don't need all the personal power and trappings, allowing themselves to be corrupted, as modern political leaders are corrupted. They should just be grey administrators.
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There are 2 sides to this problem. Firstly, the false belief, that people won't be corrupted by such great power and wealth. And secondly, the evolutionary weakness people have for being taken in by charismatic fraudsters.
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Although of course it is more complex than this, because the UK PM, Keir Starmer, is self-evidently devoid of charisma. People defer to the status he has. This is the problem.
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As I've explained before, people evolved to live in relatively small groups, where everyone knew everyone else personally, and it wasn't possible for a leader to be disingenuous, as everyone knew them by personal experience i.e. any deceit would be transparent.
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Humans became a successful species, because of their innate cooperativeness. This cooperativeness was coordinated by leaders they implicitly trusted, based on their personal knowledge of those they saw as leaders. This makes people very susceptible to disingenuous leaders.
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In the 100,000s of years, when these human traits evolved, there was no need for people to have a defence against disingenuous and deceitful leaders, because there's no way in a small community, that a future leader, could have hid this deceptive nature from people.
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Unfortunately, in modern societies, it's all too easy for modern leaders to hide their deceptive nature from everyone. Especially as they have powerful lawyers to silence anyone who speaks out about what they know, about the liars who lead us.
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This is just about what is happening, not the solutions. However, the solutions are obvious. Far more transparency. Everything a leader does, who they talk to and about what, should be known to us. If a person doesn't like this, they should not be in public office.
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