Yesterday President Obama’s most prescient and intellectually well-put-together speech was contrasted by Trump’s barrage of lies. One could not help but feel one was living in states of alternate realities. Then I read some prescient suggestions from Robert Reich.
How You Can Stop Trump’s Lie Machine (& Lying)
Trump is ramping up his lies through his three amplifiers: Fox News, his rallies, and his Twitter account.
His lies aren’t subject to the filters traditionally applied to presidential statements, because Trump doesn’t respond to questions from the mainstream press. He doesn’t meet in public with anyone who disagrees with him, and he shuns experts.
This means his lies go out to millions of Americans, unfiltered. So what can you do?
1. First, boycott Fox News advertisers. Many of Trump’s lies originate with Fox News; Fox News amplifies the ones that originate with Trump. Trump has even appointed Bill Shine, the former number two at Fox News, as his deputy chief of staff for communications. So you can vote with your wallet and starve the beast. Here’s the link to Fox News’s advertisers.
2. Second, stop his rallies from becoming free propaganda events rebroadcast by most TV and radio outlets. If Trump and his enablers hold a rally in your community, write a letter or op-ed to your local newspapers calling out his lies and outlining why you oppose his agenda.
3. Third, his tweets, also brimming with lies, go out to over 50 million Americans each day. You can write Twitter and tell it to stop enabling those lies. Twitter defines its mission as providing a “healthy public conversation.” Let them know that demagoguery isn’t healthy.
No democracy can function under a continuous bombardment of unmediated lies.
We’re not going to get Trump to stop lying but we can at least limit his ability to amplify those lies. It’s time for all of us to take action and defend the truth. Now.
Let’s share this with all our friends and families. We can make a difference.