Morality leads to the writings and research provided by Freud, Piaget and Kohlberg.Lying , for example, appears to be the norm especially in politics. Only when lying to Congress, under oath,and the FBI appears to result in consequences. Even the 10 Commandments: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" identifies lying as wrong. In any event, to lie is based on the perception of the beholder. A myth is also a lie and defined as a widely held but false belief or idea. It's been said" The tension between myth and reality does not undermine the country, it defines it." New York Times, January 8, 2023. This disposition pertains to lies and myths related to the R political party .
Lying behavior begins early in children. Developmentally , at about 4 to 6 years of age , a child's notion of good or bad behavior is based upon rewards and punishments administered by father and/or mother based on their standards within their superego. Telling a lie, for example, is likely to be followed by some form of physical or emotional punishment such as fear of disapproval or loss of love . Then while entering middle childhood, behaviors considered good or bad tend to be based on conscience development or an internal source. With conscience development , prohibitions against specific behaviors become less determined by external rewards and punishment, but by internal prohibitions with cognitive maturity and development .
It has been demonstrated, by Piaget and Kohlberg, that moral and cognitive abilities develop. A five-year-old does not have the same moral and cognitive capacities as an adolescent. The five-year-old determines right and wrong, good and bad based on praise and punishment from an external source. The adolescent, on the other hand, has the more mature moral, and cognitive development. As a result, right and wrong, good and bad begins to be determined by abstract thinking , generalized standards as opposed to highly specific, concrete prohibitions. Adolescents are more capable of shifting from absolutely rigid standards to more flexible with motivational intent, rather than simply the act itself . They also are capable of taking into account in assessing blame or determining guilt. Many cognitive functions play a role in conscience development such as time, future gratifications, consequences of right and wrong..Also, values and ideals assist so that they may become increasingly more aware of the effect of their actions as well as the perception about the feelings of others . They begin to see the logical necessity for people to cooperate with one another in the interest of all. Conscience development through maturation allows them to become more aware of values and standards, commitment to following them depending upon other factors such as identifications and probability of experiencing guilt for violations.
In other words, abstract reasoning, societal influences, parental identification, and ability to experience guilt also become factors in behavioral actions. As an adult, however, loss of love, approval ,disapproval ,and/or positive expectations for gain based on deceit, falsification, manipulation in one's quest for power, prestige, and possession are other reasons for lying with or without excessive guilt.
Historically, a story published in 1806, nearly 7 years after George Washington passed, was that George at about six years of age, was given a hatchet and one morning he cut down a cherry tree. That never happened and is just one of the myths about George Washington .
Returning to the present, is the voter fraud lie about the 2020 presidential election. One lie was that Dominion Voting Machine and the software firm Smartmatic were responsible for irregularities that cost Trump the election. Currently, there is a lawsuit of over $1 billion against Rupert Murdoch and associates scheduled to go to trial in April of this year.
On January 6, 2021, there was an attack on the capital called patriotic and a spontaneous reaction by attorneys representing the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. The Justice Department said no, their behavior was not spontaneous, it was a planned sedition. They were found guilty of sedition which is a conspiracy defined by Title 18 US Code of Justice. Chapter 15. It's essentially a federal crime for an uprising against or overthrowing the government through speech, publication or organization.
About 70 years or so ago, the Republican Party made deliberate efforts to bring white Southerners to its side as the Democratic Party grew more active and supportive of civil rights. The growth of right-wing media platforms, the Republican Party's declining commitment to truth have fostered lies . The reference to reshape the narrative about US history became a central theme of this Darkside movement in general and the Trump administration in particular. From Gingrich and now to DeSantis are efforts to change the reality around Critical Race Theory. CRT is a multidisciplinary review by social civil rights scholars, activists, of laws, social and political movements that are shaped by social conceptions of race and ethnicity. CRT is more than 40 years old and points out that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice but also something to do with our legal systems and policies. White supremacy lies about our reality of what happened to black slaves and Native Americans, in both pre-and post Lincoln's executive order and the Civil War.
One example was an article titled” Taking Liberties,” also found in the New York Times, illustrated the “Dark Side” in which white Southerners were free to brutalize, plunder, lay waste and call sadistic behavior peace to rape and humiliate, invade, conquer, uproot and degrade. These behaviors were propelled by J.W, Comer , a plantation owner, who in the late 19th century became the architect of the vast sadistic and extremely lucrative system of convict labor. In fact, Pres. Andrew Jackson attempted to bring order to the Creek Indian settlement of Alabama. However, a surge of whites into the new state became one of the fiercest tides of human migration in human history. There was an invasion of Creek homes, burned crops, and families being driven out and killings of these native Americans. It was simply an excuse for white entitlement . Alabama essentially made a mockery of the treaties with the Creek Indians as federal troops turned their backs and did not contain the white wave of hate and destruction. Instead, the Federal presence touched off a series of violent reprisals, created a cast of martyrs, heroes that gave rise to the mythology of white victimization ,self-rule by local authority. This will to power became articles of faith ,fervid as any religious belief that Alabama was wrought and consecrated through a bitter sacrament of blood, wrote one historian.
Later, George Wallace , of Alabama, entered politics against the "ungodly government"and the persecution of whites. Blacks were the perfect scapegoat for whites under strain and looking for someone to blame with their overt and covert reaction against the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act . Racism was central to Wallace's appeal. His grievance, and enemies included the elites, press and the federal government. Wallace declared “ Being a Southerner is no longer geographic, It's a philosophy and attitude.” Now we hear the same from DeSantis, who won his reelection in 2022 by banning CRT in classrooms and/or discussion of gender etc.. He called this individual freedom ?
Another myth was called American Exceptionalism. Exceptional can be defined as unusual, not typical ,abnormal and so forth. Roughly 20 years ago, politicians like Newt Gingrich popularized and hailed the United States as "the most unique civilization in history." However, they assailed anyone who did not bow before that concept. Yes, America has exceptional athletes like Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Tom Brady, Jim Brown and others . Our NFL players are predominantly from this country. However, when it comes to basketball, three of the leading players for MVP are Jokic, Antetokounmpo and Doncic, all born on foreign soil . Nobel Prize winners Linus Pauling, Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King, Bob Dylan, Barack Obama, Doris Lessing and others are without question exceptional human beings. The list of individuals goes on and on.
However, there are other statistics that challenge and suggest hypocrisy regarding US exceptionalism: 1. We have about 121 guns per individual. Yes, that's an unusual statistic that I would call abnormal. 2. Our Defense costs are more than all our major allies combined. That number is not typical but abnormal. 3. We have tremendous income inequality and many became billionaires during the pandemic. Roughly 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and income inequality is growing faster than ever . Those numbers are not typical but abnormal. 4. We have tremendous incarceration rates per population exceeding other countries. These numbers are not typical but abnormal 5. Our school age children have lower academic scores for reading, math and science compared to other countries. These facts are abnormal. 6. A pathological liar, was elected president, and recently another elected to Congress. On the front page of the January 15, 2023 The New York Times was an article titled "Santos's Deceits Weren't a Secret in GOP Circles" "Red Flags Seen In ' 21. These facts are not normal but abnormal 7. Healthcare costs are more than other developed countries. These facts are not normal but abnormal. 8. When was the last time two Wasp college football teams played for a national championship? 9. When was the last time a Wasp won the Boston Marathon? 10. Never has an all Wasp professional football team won the Super Bowl. In the 1960s, the football gods said that a black man wasn't smart enough to play quarterback. This year's Super Bowl has two black quarterbacks. Yes, we are exceptional, but ,sadly ,not in a positive way .
Conservative is defined as adverse to change, innovation and holding traditional values. Racism has been a traditional value in this country since Jefferson referred to Blacks as being 3/5 of a white male human. They were not given a chance for life, liberty, happiness and justice in this country. This is fact, not a myth.
Another example of R racism relates to abortion as "Abortion Opponents Attacked the Spread of Information" found in the December 4, 2002 edition of the New York Times.The GOP dismantled Roe v Wade. With abortion being banned in more than a dozen states ,abortion opponents still have confusion about the legality of not just having an abortion but even discussing the procedure. The ultimate goal seems to be ensuring that women are unclear about their options to obtain abortion or contraception in their home state or elsewhere .A few examples: 1. Nebraska law enforcement obtained a warrant to search a teenager's private Facebook messages. She told her mother of her urgent desire to end her pregnancy. Mother is now being prosecuted on charges of helping her daughter abort the pregnancy by giving advice about abortion pills 2. Proposed legislation in South Carolina would've made it unlawful to provide information about abortions. 3. In September, the University of Idaho issued guidance that it might be illegal for employees to promote birth control or abortion 4. In Texas , two abortion groups-groups that help people pay and travel for abortion this year received deposition demand letters from people tied to anti abortion lawmakers for information on anyone who has aided and abetted the procedure. 5. In Oklahoma, some library workers were warned about helping patrons find information about abortion, even uttering the word. In an Email, the employees were told they could face a $10,000 fine , jail time or even lose their jobs If they didn't comply.
Covid-19 and vaccination misinformation lies have been conveyed and boggles the mind. Covid-19 is easily transmissible. There is no vaccine that provides 100% protection from a virus, let alone the one in question. However, research has found that by receiving vaccination and or booster, one is not going to die or likely wind up in the hospital with serious symptoms. One recent lie was that Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills, who collapsed on the field, was not of cardiac arrest or heart arrhythmia, but caused by the vaccine. I also heard that a vaccinated person can infect another-the vaccine somehow jumps from one body into someone else's body to infect another ?
In conclusion, some voting R, have a primitive authoritarian conscience and cognitive development similar to young children . They please, fearful of disappointing, are obedient, obey and follow the authoritarian father figure . They are irrational, concrete and do not have the ability for mature abstract thinking in order to synthesize and assimilate dissonant information. Unfortunately, the truth, for them, is based on the external provided by the authoritarian leader and/or the lies provided by TV and social media platforms . Being a pathological liar and the spreading of misinformation does not matter-facts do not matter. Lies distort reality in one's favor. Motives vary and individuals are easily misled and believe all types of supernatural and preposterous things as man's history has shown us. The R party holds on to its power by its lies .Others , in power, associated with the R party, lie , falsify information and express hate with their masterful and sophisticated ability to fool and deceive the less intelligent and morally weak. Follow the money as millions are collected from online donations (extremists have raised at least $6.2 million between 2016 and 2022; Jones etc.), and find those that seek the gods of power, prestige, and possession. The means justify the ends. In other words, lying is the first commandment.
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