Source: Washington Post
by Eduardo Porter
“Might he believe that there is no penalty for repeatedly lying, even if reality — polling numbers, inflation rates — can be so easily checked? In the framing of Gordon Tullock’s classic ‘The Economics of Politics,’ Trump seems to have decided that misrepresenting the world carries more benefits than costs. Has the voting public become that gullible? I offer a different interpretation of what is going on: Trump is not spewing lies in the narrow, precise sense of the term. He traffics in a commodity that is entirely different; unpacked in philosopher Harry Frankfurt’s memorable book: ‘On Bullshit.’ And it implies something quite different about the times we live in.” (03/11/25)