Lies Our Leaders Tell Us

Do politicians believe the lies they spout are truths? Or, knowing they are lies, tell those lies to manipulate the masses to get whatever it is they want.

Like votes.

Do the statesmen and women denying climate change believe it is a hoax?

I don’t know. The powers that be deny a lot when in power. It is not a new phenomenon.

On September 19, 1633 – almost 400 years ago – the scientist Galileo went before the Inquisition accused of heresy because he believed the Earth revolves around the sun. He expressed his position and wrote about the theory, first proposed by Copernicus 100 years earlier.

The political/religious power of the time – the Catholic Church – felt threatened by this usurper who denied what the Church taught to be true: the earth was the center of the universe.

Did anyone inside the Church believe Galileo’s beliefs correct? Did everyone think Galileo (and Copernicus) wrong? Did anyone carefully evaluate the scientists’ work? Or was the Church more concerned with power, prestige, and maintaining control over the populace than learning the truth?

The Church censored Galileo. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

On October 31,1992 – about 350 years after Galileo stood before the Inquisition - Pope John Paul II issued a statement conceding the errors of the Catholic Church in regard to Galileo’s scientific views.

Over 25 years later, in 2008, the head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences announced a plan to honor Galileo by erecting a statue of him in the Vatican. Later that year, during events marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo's initial observations, Pope Benedict XVI commended Galileo’s contributions to astronomy. But less than a month later the head of the Pontifical Council for Culture revealed that the plan for a statue had been postponed.

I have no idea how long it will be before climate change naysayers admit their stated positions are dishonest and downright wrong. Perhaps they never will.

I am sure there are Trump supporters who believe every denial the man utters, even when faced with written, verbal, video, social media and witness evidence, believing without any doubt everything he pontificates. Not that he is a minister or monk, reverend or rabbi, priest, padre or preacher, Buddhist holy man or fakeer – that word is not misspelled, although one thing he can be called is a faker.

I do not know how long it will take for the majority, the populace, the everyman, to realize so many of DT’s ideas are wrong. One day DT’s positions will be thrown on the trash heap of history, just like the Church’s belief that the earth is the center of the universe.

Admitting defeat sometimes takes a long, long time, occasionally never, illustrated by the fact that the Church, four centuries after Galileo announced his findings, still holds a grudge.