Quote Originally Posted by lardy View Post
I think its a question of scale. If you're saying that all presidents, prime ministers and governments fib and exaggerate so what Trump is doing is no different to them, then thats true. But the scale on which Trump has told flat out lies is incredible. This isn't merely spin, where you make something appear the way you want it to.

Just yesterday, his press secretary (Sean Spicer) came out and said that the inaugration was the biggest ever, which it clearly wasn't, and walked off without taking questions. At the same time, Trump is saying there were 1-1.5 million people there, which there clearly weren't, and the crowd stretched back to the memorial, which it definitely didn't. He has said the photos of the event, which were released by the government themselves, are fake.

Taken on its own, who cares if they fib about the crowd size but this is not happening in isolation.

If you have a president/government that flat out lies and then refuses to be accountable by answering questions on what they are doing, or even responding to people who say "that's a lie", then it's a very dangerous situation.
There is a school of thought (and not one I nessecarily subscribe to) that this obvious lie about attendance is designed to further drive a wedge between the population and the mainstream media.
Most people will believe the media, and what they've seen with their own eyes, but a small but significant section of people will choose to believe the lie and therefore turn even more away from the media.
This makes them more beholden to the people in power, and easier to control.