When I was teaching I would tell Jadyne about conflicts in my class with a student or two. No doubt the student came home and described the event in his own words to his parents. I was only privy to my own account, but I suspect that the student’s story differed from mine, perhaps so much so that the two accounts never intersected. We were 180° apart.
Currently, Gwyneth Paltrow is being sued and is counter-suing a retired Utah physician following a skiing accident in 2016. Here are some quotes from reports about the case:
“Gwyneth Paltrow says Terry Sanderson 'categorically' crashed into her”
“While on the stand, Paltrow said she "was not engaging in any risky behavior" the day she alleges Sanderson crashed into her from behind on a beginner ski slope.”
“Mr Sanderson insists that the movie star smashed into him after racing downhill in an “out-of-control” manner, according to CourtTV. He claims that she struck him in the back with such force that he was left with “permanent traumatic brain injury, four broken ribs, pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress and disfigurement”. In his complaint, the plaintiff argues that Paltrow “got up, turned and skied away” without summoning help, leaving him “stunned, lying in the snow, seriously injured”.
The outcome of the suits is yet to be determined. Their statements reveal either faulty memories (my late uncle called them “convenient memories”), or something worse, a fabrication, a lie, an untruth, deception, fib, a whopper. That we see events through our own unique lenses is hardly surprising, but that they can differ so dramatically, 180 degrees, is a source of wonder.
The Former Guy
Steve Schmidt had this to say about The Former Guy:
“Donald Trump has been the worst president this country has ever had. And I don’t say that hyperbollically. He is. But he is a consequential president. And he has brought this country in three short years to a place of weakness that is simply unimaginable if you were pondering where we are today from the day where Barack Obama left office. And there were a lot of us on that day who were deeply skeptical and very worried about what a Trump presidency would be. But this is a moment of unparalleled national humiliation, of weakness.
“When you listen to the President, these are the musings of an imbecile. An idiot. And I don’t use those words to name call. I use them because they are the precise words of the English language to describe his behavior. His comportment. His actions. We’ve never seen a level of incompetence, a level of ineptitude so staggering on a daily basis by anybody in the history of the country whose ever been charged with substantial responsibilities.
“It’s just astonishing that this man is president of the United States. The man, the con man, from New York City. Many bankruptcies, failed businesses, a reality show, that branded him as something that he never was. A successful businessman. Well, he’s the President of the United States now, and the man who said he would make the country great again. And he’s brought death, suffering, and economic collapse on truly an epic scale. And let’s be clear. This isn’t happening in every country around the world. This place. Our place. Our home. Our country. The United States. We are the epicenter. We are the place where you’re the most likely to die from this disease. We’re the ones with the most shattered economy. And we are because of the fool that sits in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk.”
Well, that’s one side.
Here’s another:
One hundred and eighty degrees…I’m leaning towards Steve’s version
The 180 degree difference can be broken down into at least three components—memory, perception, and fabrication.
Memory.
Elizabeth Loftus is a distinguished professor at UC Irvine. She has testified about memory at trials of OJ Simpson, Ted Bundy, Rodney King, Michael Jackson, Bill Cosby, and more recently Harvey Weinstein. She’s unpopular with prosecutors because of statements like this: “False memories, once created — either through misinformation or though these suggestive processes — can be experienced with a great deal of emotion, a great deal of confidence and a lot of detail, even though they’re false.” Rape accusers find themselves accused of having leaky memories.
In another case, Judge Kavanaugh denied Christine Ford’s claims that he raped her when they were teenagers. According to the New York Times, “Judge Kavanaugh has emphatically denied allegations from Dr. Blasey that he tried to rape her when they were teenagers or ever committed sexual assault against anyone. Dr. Blasey and another accuser, Deborah Ramirez, have recounted their alleged incidents with both precise detail and gaping holes.” 180°
Recollection is part reconstruction, The brain, especially after traumatic experiences, engages a selective process that is prone to error. When Jennifer was a little girl she was sitting in a red wagon. I tried to carry them both. She fell onto a gravel driveway, cut in several places. We picked her up, carried her inside, cleaned the cuts, applied band-aids. She was scratched but otherwise okay. Jason, her older brother, said last year that she was injured and covered with blood. His memory of the event was colored not only by time but by the way he saw the world as a little boy. Which brings me to…
Perception
We perceive events through our senses, yes, but also through past experiences. In Jason’s case, age played a role. So did the passing of more than forty years. The Marx brothers line, “Who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?” Concerning the blatant disregard of our senses Trump is a master. To veterans he said, “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” 180°
We think we’re all seeing the same thing. We regard it as fact, as truth. When called out for falsehoods Kellyanne Conway, one of Trump’s minions, said, “Our press secretary, Sean Spicer, gave alternative facts to that…” Chuck Todd, who was interviewing her replied, "Wait a minute. Alternative facts? ... Alternative facts are not facts. They're falsehoods." 180° All of this was regarding Trump’s claim that his inauguration crowd was greater than Obama’s, a fabrication easily disproved with aerial photographs. “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,”
Why then, do people believe them? IMHO, the deplorables have no interest in what is true, what is false. Truth falls by the wayside when it conflicts with what we want to believe, with what conforms to our own thinking, or what we want to be true, not what is true. Problems arise on the national stage when deplorables are elected to govern, Right MGT? Lauren? Andy? Tommy?
Fabrication
The last stop on the train. Trump knew he lost. He knew the election wasn’t stolen. He created “The Big Lie” out of the knowledge that the deplorables who love him, who follow him, have no interest in truth. Seventy million of them. They wanted him to win, so he simply gave them what they wanted. Sixty judges affirmed what the rest of us all knew. The judiciary told the truth. Deplorables paid no attention.
We fabricate stories for a multitude of reasons. A policeman follows a speeder. The driver pulls to the curb, climbs out of the car and denies that she was the driver. We lie to get out of trouble. We lie to get someone else in trouble. George Santos, the lying congressman from New York, lied on his resumé to get elected. We lie because sometimes the truth is too painful to hear. We lie to hide our fears or cover up our inadequacies.
There are degrees of lying. We use the expression “white lie” to prevent the truth from hurting someone else. If white lies are the bottom of the pyramid, then what the Republican Party, what Donald Trump is doing, represents the top. Trump asked his constituents, “Are you tired of winning?, believing that winning and truth were the same. Of all the insults that Trump can’t accept, losing wins. To lose is inconceivable. Denying loss by claiming it didn’t happen isn’t. Trump knew he lost, but in his mind the loss disappears if he doesn’t acknowledge it. He lied. He’s still a winner. 180°
The last 180° comes from a lady who lives in the Ozarks.
