Victor Davis Hanson: The Lies We Have Lived Through

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” — Often attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

After last Thursday’s debate, Biden himself laid to rest the Democratic lie that he was robust and in control of his faculties. In truth, he demonstrated to the nation that he is a sad, failing octogenarian who could not perform any job in America other than apparently the easy task of President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief in charge of our nuclear codes.

In 2019, Democratic primary candidates often hit rival Joe Biden for his apparent senior moments and incoherence. During the 2020 campaign, Biden often became in bizarre fashion animated and nasty (“you ain’t black”/“fat”/“lying dog-faced pony soldier”/“junkie”).

His “corn pop” stories were grotesque and had a senile accentuation of his earlier “super-predator” and “clean” black riffs. As president, his mental decline progressed geometrically, in the sense that every three months, Biden became far, far worse than during the prior 90 days. His handlers long ago had determined that masking his feebleness at the expense of the security and safety of the nation was a small price to pay to retain power.

What followed was the most comprehensive deceit in presidential history, analogous to insisting that frail and dying FDR in 1944 was just fine as the November election approached or that Woodrow Wilson was expertly running the country as he lay bedridden and near comatose.

Any who questioned the vigorous Biden narrative was trashed as “ageist.” Special counsel Robert Hur was dubbed a “hack” for accurately describing Biden as so amnesiac he would win nullification acquittal from a sympathetic jury.

The point is, the propaganda channels marched on, even when the populace was well aware of it.

So it will be, here.

Agreed! Several years ago, Theodore Dalrymple made this astute observation:

"In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control." -- Theodore Dalrymple

Hunter Biden Sues Fox News Over Mock Trial Series; Fox News Hits Back At ‘Convicted Felon’

By medialite.com, July 1, 2024

Hunter Biden filed a lawsuit in New York City against Fox News on Sunday evening, alleging the network caused him targeted him “in an effort to harass, annoy, alarm, and humiliate him, and tarnish his reputation.”

Joe Biden’s son is suing over a six-part “mock trial” series called “The Trial of Hunter Biden,” a fictional program that included images of Hunter nude. Hunter suit alleges Fox News violated NY Civil Rights Law Sec 52-b, which covers so-called “revenge porn.” The series premiered in late October 2022 and was promoted as a look at “how a possible Hunter Biden trial might look.”

“Far from reporting on a newsworthy event, Fox sought to commercialize Mr. Biden’s personality through a form of treatment distinct from the dissemination of news or information. Indeed, the entire miniseries is fictionalized and based on a nonexistent criminal case,” alleged Hunter’s court filing.

Fox reacted to the filing in a statement to Mediaite, “This entirely politically motivated lawsuit is devoid of merit. The core complaint stems from a 2022 streaming program that Mr. Biden did not complain about until sending a letter in late April 2024. The program was removed within days of the letter, in an abundance of caution, but Hunter Biden is a public figure who has been the subject of multiple investigations and is now a convicted felon. Consistent with the First Amendment, FOX News has accurately covered the newsworthy events of Mr. Biden’s own making, and we look forward to vindicating our rights in court.”

Fox removed the series from its streamer in late April after Hunter initially threatened to sue. Fox told Mediaite at the time, “This program was produced in and has been available since 2022. We are reviewing the concerns that have just been raised and — out of an abundance of caution in the interim — have taken it down.”

Fox quietly scrubbed the mock series from Fox Nation and also took down a promotional video related to the series. At the time Hunter’s lawyers threatened Fox with legal action and cited revenge porn laws. Hunter’s leagel team alleged that the series used “intimate images of Mr. Biden depicting him in the nude as well as engaged in sex acts” adding “FOX knows that these private and confidential images were hacked, stolen, and/or manipulated digital material.” The letter cited “revenge porn” laws and demanded the immediate removal of the series.

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