Borrowing a Cup of Hope #20 Trump’s Effort to Destroy Truth Itself
Reports from The Daily Show to Noam Chomsky
Let’s start with the cat fight between Trump and Elon (you can’t spell Felon without Elon). The point I want to make is how Trump praised Elon to high heaven, and then trashes him as soon as he’s out the door. Trump says on one day that Elon’s mission is accomplished, gives him the key to the White House, then the next he says “Elon was wearing thin and I let him go” and telling people he has a bad drug habit. He’s done that with everyone he’s chewed up and spit out over the years; and his audience never seems to say “Hey, wait a sec, if he was such a loser, why did you hire him in the first place?”
That’s because Trump has been massaging the gullibility of his audience for a long time now, calculating how to make them too confused to know what to think. His attacks on public institutions that help Discern the Truth are evidence of this systematic attack on critical thinking skills. “Truth Social” is a more commercial name than “Lies All The Time”; it doesn’t label the contents, it labels the Victim.
Examples abound. Trump is trying to destroy CBS News, and Columbia and Harvard Universities, as we all can see. It’s not a temper tantrum from a dumb ignorant baby. It is part and parcel of the effort of a dictator to unbalance the capability of the population to know what the truth is. And it is because the Republicans have shifted the conversation away from issues, and into values, that it is working; for their audience, it’s not what you believe any more, it’s about who you are.
The best example I’ve seen is this clip from Jordan Klepper, the gifted Daily Show correspondent who interviews Trumpistas outside of rallies. A woman was saying how Trump was innocent in his impeachment trial; Klepper said “If he was guilty he’d be trying to prevent people from testifying, right?” She said “Yes of course!” And Klepper said “Well, Trump Is trying to prevent people from testifying.” and she paused, and then she said “I don’t care.” She no longer cared about the facts, she felt like this election was about who she is.
How did the information pipeline become so befouled that we can no longer tell which way is up? It’s an intentional plan by Trump., and before him by the Republicans.
The New Yorker magazine interviewed CBS 60 Minutes corespondent Leslie Stahl, who interviewed Trump several times. Once, Stahl said to Trump “You know you attack the press every time you speak.…It’s kind of getting boring. Why do you do it in every speech?” Trump said “I do it so that when you …say negative things about me, no one will believe you.” “It sent a chill through me,” said Stahl. “He’s thought this through. It’s not a casual thing. It’s a strategy, it’s something he clearly has worked through” (New Yorker, May 31, 2025).
David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, points out that “now Trump pursues (i.e. attacks) institutions of the press, and the press buckles. The Washington Post and Jeff Bezos buckled, (Trump) sued ABC News because George Sephanopolous used language (Trump) didn’t like, even though the judge used the same language, and ABC settled, because Disney (it’s owner) has other business to do.” Now Trump is suing 60 Minutes for $20 billion, which is a goofy and ridiculous number, for how a piece on Kamala Harris was edited- a baseless argument by any legal measure- but Shari Redstone, owner of Paramount, the parent company of CBS, is trying to sell the damned thing, and has to get FCC approval of the sale. So she is offering to settle, to cave into the blackmail, for like $15 million- in other words, a a bribe- and Trump wants more, he wants $20 million. Trump does not respect weakness, and settling will not bring peace. When Trump is bought off, he doesn’t stay bought.
He comes back for more.
Trump has twice attacked Columbia University, NYC’s blue chip Ivy League institution. Trump canceled $400 million in Federal grants to Columbia unless they changed policies; Columbia agreed to the changes, hoping to have the funding restored.
But it bought no peace. Trump’s second attack hits their accreditation for certifying federal grants, like Pell Grants, which give scholarships to students in need of support- in other words, Poor People. But it is an attack on accreditation itself that jeopardizes their ability to function as a university.
In The Guardian, they relate how this is Step Two of the directed assault.
“It follows the cancellation of $400m in federal grants and contracts, after which the university yielded to a series of changes demanded by the administration, including setting up a new disciplinary committee, initiating investigations into students critical of Israel’s war in Gaza and ceding control of its Middle East studies department.” (Guardian, June 4 2025) This isn’t just Trump attacking institutions dedicated to higher learning; they are also sources of verified information in the life of the body politic. They Certify Objective Truth.
The misdirection game is something the Republican Party has been practicing for a long time. Noam Chomsky, Linguist from MIT and author of 100+ books, has been talking about the Republican attack on our ability to ascertain truth for a while now. Chomsky cuts through the clutter and describes how Republicans don’t talk about Issues, they talk about Values.
“The Republican Party is basically a party of the super rich, and they have to have a popular base. And one way in which they organize the popular base is what are called “Values” in the PR industry. Values keep away from issues.… In other words, don't let people think about the fact average real wealth has actually declined for about 90% of the population. Don't let them think about the fact that Americans have the highest workload in the world, the lowest benefits. You know that (we’re) the only (advanced) country with basically…no (public) health services. You can't take care of your elderly mother. I mean, don't let people think about that sort of thing. Let them think about rising to heaven when all the evil has been destroyed and the souls are saved. Or let them think about having a lot of guns that they can run around with and kill all the aliens who are going to attack them…. So yeah, you get a mobilization of the extremist fundamentalist group, which is big in the United States.”
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In an earlier interview, in the midst of COVID, ("Consequences of Capitalism" on C-SPAN (09/15/2021) Chomsky pointed out how the Republican base did not want to be vaccinated because they had been sold on the idea that there was a conspiracy about the shots. “It’s not what they think, it’s what they hear on the Murdoch news. “
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This re-cap video is called “Why the Truth is No Longer Relevant.”
Trump and Putin work together to clog the airwaves with crazy shit; this is standard procedure for Putin, to put out too much conflicting news so no one knows what to think any more. Note how Trump just re-posted a crackpot idea that Biden was actually killed a year before the end of his term and replaced by a robot. Why would Trump post something as stupid as that? So that his audience loses track of what is true. They don’t know what to believe. And Trump says “Don’t trust anyone but Me.” So they don’t; they just wait breathlessly for the latest news and then go along with whatever he says.
In my own experience, I used to be an Adjunct Professor at Augsburg University, and at one point the Administration said that every Freshman class had to have some of the lesson plan include Critical Thinking Skills. They found that almost no high school graduates had any understanding of it- many of my students were brought up being taught that the Bible is to be understood literally, which Bible scholars have poo-poo’d since the third century. Many Americans will believe whatever they are told.
We went from Walter Cronkite and three networks, building a common consensus, building a shared experience of truth, to a billion podcasts and YouTube videos, shattering the notion of common ground. There is no shared experience in processing reality any more. So the challenge is going to be in re-building a relationship to an agreed upon reality. That has to be built from he ground up But: good news, it is happening. As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put it, “Big money can’t be beat with out-fundraising them; they have to be beat with out-organizing them.”
Example: Here’s a basic resource guide for rapid response training to respond to ICE incursions:
And to get on the mailing list for Worth Fighting For, a clearing house of activist organizations that you can connect to, send your email to Michele Hensley at mhensley@usfamily.net
Forward! Avainti!
#30#
Good comments, Dean. Keep it up!