The danger of believing obvious lies

A Pew Research Poll taken 100 days into Trump’s second term showed that 72% of white evangelical Christians approve of his conduct in office. At the heart of this approval is a willingness to believe Trump’s lies, even when they are absurd.

The “big lie” is that Trump won the 2020 election. Now you can go on the White House website and read that the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 were “mere trespassers or peaceful protesters” and that it was “Democrats who staged the real insurrection.” Anyone who watched what unfolded that day knows that this is false, yet Trump’s MAGA supporters believe it simply because he said it.

We have just had another horrific example. An ICE agent shot Renee Nicole Good, the mother of a six-year-old child, in the face, killing her. The child’s father died in 2023, so this little kid is now an orphan. Witnesses at the scene reported that there were children’s stuffed animals on the dashboard of her car. But Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security called her a domestic terrorist.

Trump called her a “professional agitator” who “viciously ran over the ICE officer.” We have all seen the video. It shows that Trump is lying. But MAGA will believe him. Why?

As Voltaire said, “those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

Wiley Edmondson

Geneva