Politicians have lied forever. But now, our supposed "friend" and "ally," the mainstream media, is pushing the lies too. Glenn lays out how the media's lies are actually a form of mental abuse. Glenn reads an article from The M3ND Project, which provides resources for people hurt by abuse, that lays out 6 kinds of mentally abusive lies: black lies, white lies, half-truths, broken promises, forgetting, and denial. "Hard to know if that was an abuse site you were reading from or an internal Democratic campaign strategy memo," Glenn's co-host, Stu Burguiere, says. And just like any abusive relationship, the media's goal is the same: "power, money, status, or control."
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: So, Stu, I found something on themendproject.com.
This is a place that helps people get away from mental abuse and physical abuse. And now I'm only reading it, just because, you know, I'm not tying this to anything. Because somebody said to me -- I read it here at home. My wife was like, I think I see what you're saying.
I said, I'm not saying anything. I'm talking about mental abuse. I'm talking about people unlike the people broadly in the United States of America. Being mentally abused. I'm just talking about people who are in a situation and need to get out. Okay.
Make no mistake -- this is from an abusive -- get away from abuse website. Make no mistake, lying is a type of abuse. We all lie sometimes, don't we? So when is it abusive?
Lying is one of the most common tactics an abuser uses to gain power and control over their victim. Lying confuses the victim's reality, while helping the liar to shrink from their responsibility in the situation.
Often shifting the blame to the victim. Bosses, significant others, friends, family, may use lying as a form of covert emotional abuse. Lying also paves the way for other types of abuse, such as physical abuse. While everybody makes mistakes, or even little lies. But they can quickly culminate into full-on manipulation of a person or situation. A central element to covert abuse is stressful confusion. You have an example maybe of that, Stu?
Stressful confusion. This is the emotion abusers want their victims to feel when lying to them. The covertly abusive tactic of lying, increases the victim's anxiety levels and their thinking to become clouded.
A confused victim is less likely to respond quickly, to go with their gut or confront the liar.
You know, that's the opening. Now, let me give you a few. And see if you can find any examples. I know you're not abused, Stu. But maybe you know somebody who is being abused.
Black lies, one. Black lies are bald-faced lies the abuser uses to gain something for themselves, at the cost of the one being deceived.
Think, for example, of a realtor who lies about the condition of underground plumbing into a home to get a higher price of its sale, and thereby gains a better commission. In other words, the realtor exploits the buyer's lack of current knowledge out of self-interest.
Similarly, a common lie used by abusers is, I deposited the check. However, if that check was deposited, into the abuser's personal account. Instead of the joint account.
The abuser has gained financial power over the victim. If the check was never deposited, the perpetrator then gains power of confusion.
And anxiety, when the victim wonders where the money went, or if the money ever existed to begin with.
Upon further inspection, some of these deceptions can be identified. However, at their core, these lies are statements used by abusers to gain something over the victim. Power, money, status, or control.
I'm sorry. You probably don't relate to any of this, Stu. Because I'm just talking to people who are being abused.
STU: Right.
GLENN: White lies. Everybody knows this type of deception, which is unfortunately common.
White lies are small, seeming dismissive obstructions of reality that are harder to disprove. They're sometimes used for food reasons such as telling a friend you like her new hair cut. When you don't. So you won't hurt her feelings.
Because white lies are less traceable, however, they carry greater power to manipulate others. Their most insidious use is when the abuser tells white lies about the victim to others.
Because those lies slowly influence others to view the victim in a different light.
Can you think of an example?
For an example, during particularly stressful times, an abuser may tell friends and family, that everything is good, we're just fine.
However, the victim's behavior makes him or her appear erratic, unpredictable. And at times, unstable to those close to the couple. Over time, this tactic effectively isolates the victim from others.
Each individual lie might be too small to notice or address it first.
But over time and with repetition. They will successfully shift other's perception of the individual.
Hmm. Three, half-truths.
Half-truths are versions of what happened that helped the abuser to avoid responsibility in a situation.
The liar relies on the fact that they are telling just enough of the truth, to seem credible. For example, recounting a disagreement by saying, he yelled at me, while leaving out the events which led up to the yelling. This omission of important facts paints a picture that is more favorable for the abuser.
Four, broken promises. This form of lying is difficult for abusers to accept, when confronted. They will attempt to give themselves the benefit of the doubt. An abuser who promises to come by your work party, then breaks that promise, by refusing to show up at the last minute is a liar.
They will try to excuse their actions by claiming they had a hard day, or they didn't think you really wanted them to come. Like the white lie, broken promises can make the victim look bad in front of others. Remember, a broken promise is the same as a lie.
Forgetting, similar to broken promises, claiming to forget a commitment or an obligation, such as, oh, I forgot, you wanted me to be home early tonight is manipulation. It can convince the victim that the abuser made a simple mistake.
Constant forgetfulness should not be dismissed. And then finally denial.
Liars are so comfortable with telling lies, that they will do anything to avoid getting caught or taking responsibility. Even if that means, flat-out denying the truth, no matter how obvious it may be.
If someone denies the reality of facts and evidence when presented, they are likely a liar. Remember, emotionally healthy people do not habitually lie. Especially concerning relationships with loved ones. Transparency should be sought after.
Because that's what connects people. A genuinely loving partner, parent, sibling, friend, et cetera. Will not continually lie, and that is what divides people and prevents authentic relationships. Any combination and frequency of these types of lies, should be noted and addressed.
If this blog helps you see the lies, you're facing from a partner or another. Maybe a president -- I just lost my place here. Anyway, thought that was interesting, about how lies are mental abuse.
And gosh, I don't -- I don't know if you saw any use in any of your own life. But if you're constantly being lied to, you should make a concerted effort to avoid that liar because they are manipulating you.
My gosh, I just thought of this. This could be applied to the media. And to the left.
I -- holy cow. Because black lives, white lives. Half-truths. Broken promises. And I forget -- did I say that? I said that.
Huh. Interesting.
STU: Hard to know if that was an abuse site that you were reading, or an internal Democratic campaign strategy memo. It really does describe --
GLENN: Or the press.
STU: Yeah, the press for sure.
GLENN: Yeah. The press.
STU: That's the thing.
GLENN: The one thing about -- politicians lie.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: Politicians have always lied, told half-truths. Et cetera, et cetera. The difference here now is it's a -- it's not just a politician.
It's the entire system around that politician.
It's the entire party, around that.
And then it's the one that is supposed be your friend.
If you had a friend, and you found out, they were in cahoots with the abuser, somebody who is lying to you, and they were telling you, it is you. It really is you. No. It's -- anybody who tells you that he's not a good guy, I'm telling you right now, they're part of the problem.
You know, they're probably abusive. You need to stay away from them. Because they'll abuse you.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: That's the real problem. Politicians lie all the time. We know that.
STU: And I don't know. There's something about this era, that makes it more difficult and the lies more toward the black lies than the white lies.
I was listening to somebody. Some analyst talking about this. It was in the realm of conspiracy theories. And they were saying, a lot of people online, that spread conspiracy theories, are more capable of doing it, because there's so much out there.
Like, they will -- they will make some crazy claim. This will happen at noon. You know, and it doesn't happen. But there's so much other stuff going on. So many other claims that person will wind up reading that day, so many other news stories, that in three days, they don't necessarily remember the guy who said something was going to happen at noon, and it didn't happen.
And so we get like immune almost to people making claims and being wrong. We don't discount them anymore.
We don't have that same process. You know, I constantly go back, and it's this antiquated history. But thinking that, you know, John Kerry arguably lost the election for the claim of, I actually did support the 87 billion dollars before I voted against it, or whatever that quote was. That was a big part of that.
It seemed like he -- he just was lying.
He had this stance. And he wanted to reverse it, to win this election. And the American people rose up. Like, that's crazy. We can't vote for a guy that does that.
Now that's so quaint. Like, saying that you voted for a policy.
GLENN: It's like a covered wagon.
STU: It feels like you're on the Oregon trail.
GLENN: Yeah, yeah.
STU: It's insane. And I think part of that is what's happening here.
They -- the media with I think the Trump era in particular, has taken the mask off, and said, we no longer can be this subtle force, leaning on the scale a little bit to push voters toward the thing we want.
It's -- this is too important. Donald Trump is too evil. Conservatives are too bad. We now have to straight-out be activists. We have to be left-wing partisan operatives. All the time.
And it doesn't matter if we just said Kamala Harris was actually abusive to her staff. And couldn't get anything done. And failed on the border.
And as the border czar. We now have to just say, she was never the border czar.
And she's wonderful, and everyone around her loves her. And this is Camelot. And we just have to reverse ourselves. And that's it. We just push through it. And that is a -- it is a -- it's not that much different. In goal. But it is totally different in approach. And it's so in our phase.
And yet, a good chunk of the American people don't see it. Because they don't want to see it. They want to believe their side is right. They want to believe their side is just.
That they're fighting this moral crusade. And so they just go along with it.
And I don't know. Is it going to work? It didn't work in 2016. Joe Biden is currently somehow president of the United States. So I guess maybe it did work in 2020.
Does it work again in 2024? The media did seem to control this election in a way that I didn't think was possible. They got the candidate thrown out. The guy who won the primary, is no longer the candidate. Because largely the media decided to become journalists for two weeks.
GLENN: It was a coup. It was a coup.
It was an orchestrated coup.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: And if they can do whatever they want, with the laws and the media and everything else, we know that there's all kinds of plotting and planning. Otherwise, the White House would have said, what they were doing to get all new registered voters. Which was the first one. I think the first executive order that he signed, was an all hands on deck register voters for the next four years.
All government-wide. And they won't disclose what that means or what they have been doing, which is an abuse, again, of our money and of our trust.
But they won't abuse that.
If they can fix the election, they will fix the election. And they will feel justified, because the threat is too big.
The ends always justify the means
