An alternative fact (2017- ) is one that supports one’s beliefs and yet is somehow not just a plain fact – what others would call a “falsehood” if not a “lie”. The term was introduced on US President Donald Trump’s third day in office to defend something he had his spokesman say on the second:
“This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration – period – both in person and around the globe.”
Media left and right condemned it. Snopes called it “unproven”, PolitiFact rated it “Pants on Fire”. Right-wing Fox News and the Daily Caller said it was untrue. So did Glenn Beck. While conspiracy theory sites Infowars and Gateway Pundit did not call it out, neither did they defend it – but alt-right-friendly Breitbart News did.
The New York Times had tweeted side-by-side pictures of Trump’s inauguration and Obama’s 2009 one (pictured at top). Both were taken from the top of the Washington Monument about 45 minutes before they were sworn in as president. Way more came to see the 2009 inauguration.
Despite that, Trump sent Sean Spicer, his spokesman, to say his was the biggest:
“We do know a few things, so let’s go through the facts.
- We know that from the platform where the President was sworn in, to 4th Street, it holds about 250,000 people. From 4th Street to the media tent is about another 220,000. And from the media tent to the Washington Monument, another 250,000 people.
- All of this space was full when the President took the Oath of Office.
- We know that 420,000 people used the D.C. Metro public transit yesterday, which actually compares to 317,000 that used it for President Obama’s last inaugural.”
The first one might be true, but the second one seems unlikely based on the pictures. The third gives only the morning ridership for Obama – in 2013. Trump’s morning ridership was 193,000. In 2009, Obama’s was 513,000. The difference between those last two numbers is like in the pictures. It gets no better for Trump if you throw in Nielsen’s numbers for television or CNN’s for Internet streaming.
Kellyanne Conway, a top Trump adviser, was on “Meet the Press” the next day. She defended Spicer as presenting not “facts” but “alternative facts”!
Some dismiss it as a silly debate or say that the press does it too – but that turns a blind eye to Trump’s transparent lies. If he is willing to lie about something like this in the teeth of clear facts, what will he do when the stakes are much higher and the facts much less clear?
Remember, Trump built his political career on Birtherism.
Motive: Maybe he is a pathological liar or delusional or surrounded by yes men. Or maybe he is trying to create doubts about the press, which could bring him down based on the truth. Since he will not make his tax returns public and is therefore presumably corrupt, he would have good reason to fear them. Even more so if the Russians are behind his rise to power.
– Abagond, 2017.
Sources: Snopes, PolitiFact, Guardian.
See also:
- fake news
- conspiracy theory
- alt-right
- moral blindness
- thief-thief technique
- Guide to Trump
- RationalWiki media guide
- George Orwell: 1984
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Yawn, is this the best you can come up with? Trump and his minions are threatening war against China, attacking healthcare, net neutrality, etc., and you do a post on some stupid lie!? How about something serious like the chances of the USA and Russia ganging up on China as China and the USA ganged up on the Soviet Union after Nixon’s visit to China in 1972? Support for Pol Pot was the result of that alliance.
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@ Abagond
Lions roar, babies cry, chickens cluck and politicians lie. Well, at least 99.8% of them do. It’s what they do! (Although no one compares to your Queen, Momma of lies, Hillary when it comes to falsehoods!)
Gotta go with what gro jo said. You could have written about clouds or bananas or pollination or practically anything else and come out smelling way better than this.
This just makes you look like you want to continue the Hillary vs Trump debate that supposedly overwhelmed you and caused you to take a break.
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Beijing Pushes Back on Trump Admin Over Disputed Islands in South China Sea
This story has legs.
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I honestly believe that he has shady business with Russia. Why else will he not release his tax returns? As far as the election, several factors tilted it his way, voter suppression, Comey, wikileaks and the announcement that Obama care premiums would be going up. The narrative is Hillary was a flawed candidate, but she was doing fine before Comet reopened the email investigations. It was game over then. Now alternative facts Trump is in office we can only hope the “mainstream” Republicans rein him in. But I am not counting on that.
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I’m not sure that the “alternative facts” *cough lies cough* bother me as much as the over-the-top reaction to what Trump deemed a slight.
If his ego is so fragile that he had to send his minions out to argue about relative crowd size, how is he going to publicly react to criticism or pushback from world leaders on critical issues?
Are we going to end up in a war because some prime minister makes fun of his combover?
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If you want to talk about the South China Sea dispute, please do it here for now:
There is already some discussion of it in that thread going back to May..
There is a good chance I will do a post on it in the next week or so. If it leads to open violence by or against the US, then I will drop everything and post on it.
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Donald Trump is an imbecile. All of you pretending he is a shrewd undercover genius are crazy. We didn’t underestimate Trump, we overestimated the American public. Right now the President of the United States is crying about crowd size and illegal votes in an election he won. The inauguration crowd size comparison would’ve been over by Saturday if this idiot didn’t send his press secretary out to chastise the press. Waiting for the national investigation into voter fraud.
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The 2017 inauguration photo is a much longer shot down the Mall than the 2009 photo. The difference in crowd density is astounding.
As to the television ratings/numbers, I personally know a lot of people who could not stomach the inauguration this year and went on a 24 to 48 hour media fast in which they avoided TV news, radio news, web news sites and print news.
A normal president and administration would have kept silent on the disparities. Trump and his posse are not normal.
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Trump and his latest company: The White House, spends wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too much time covering insignificant things like how many people came to his inauguration. If he truly has this country in mind, he should just get down to business and prove to prove everyone that he has our best interests in mind.
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Have to agree with Abagond that “If [Trump] is willing to lie about something like this in the teeth of clear facts, what will he do when the stakes are much higher and the facts much less clear?”
Marshalling a press secretary and a senior advisor to go on television and blatantly lie to the public to sooth your baby ego is an egregious abuse of power and shows once again how ill-suited for the job Trump is. IMHO, over-reporting Trump’s lies is impossible. In fact, we’ll be in real trouble when his constant reality bending makes good people weary and cynical to the point of dismissing every transgression but the one we can’t recover from. Bent people such as Trump count on the rest of us being too polite, too worn out, and too intimidated to challenge their lies and manipulations. I say we prove them wrong.
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@Crystal Spraggins
“Bent people such as Trump count on the rest of us being too polite, too worn out, and too intimidated to challenge their lies and manipulations.”
Well said. Continuing to call out Trump’s lies will be one of many challenges in the coming years.
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Abagond? I like this post.
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Abagond,
Why is it, in your opinion, that no one who championed Trump’s opponent for office (HRC) thought her lies as nonexistent, meaningless, unimportant or inconsequential???
Where were y’all collective voices of concern when she was giving false testimony about the mis-use of sending government documents to her personal server and other associated lies pertaining to mishandled emails??
Her entire tenure in politics beginning in Arkansas as the first lady/lawyer then in Washington DC as the same then followed by her roles as a Senator and Sect of State is based on lies. Especially when her (and Bill’s) hand was caught in the cookie jar every other day.
Why was Obomber given a pass for his lies about “change” and stopping the bombing of places overseas. Why do you and your cheering section believe Trump’s lies are a big deal but look the other way when your boys and girls do it??
Hypocritical much??
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I think the topics/manner of Trump’s press conferences is just as significant (if not more significant) than healthcare, the TPP, etc… This is more than just lies – this administration is trying to gaslight the entire nation: whether Spicer lambasts the media and you hear people clapping in support, making it sound as if the audience is in agreement when it was really just Trump’s people on stage or Trump telling the CIA that the media made up his fight with them [and again you hear people agreeing with him, laughing, or clapping and its probable that those responses came from Trump’s people as well.]
This guy is orchestrating a false reality – as if his presidency is another of his crappy reality shows – and it makes Trump inherently more dangerous than any other political leader in the world. I wish this was only about a small lie but it is the tip of an iceberg that is much more sinister. The press better be relentless in calling him out everytime alternative facts/reality are alleged by this administration or else people here and overseas will begin believe the ish he is spouting and believe the US supports his ish. They also better have cameras on both Trump and the audience whenever he speaks to firmly disprove the false narrative he is trying to portray to the world.
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@JMac
“This is more than just lies – this administration is trying to gaslight the entire nation […] This guy is orchestrating a false reality…”
The only way the Press will keep the pressure on the Trump Administration is if the American people keep the pressure on the Press. In some ways, they are the weak link in the chain.
If the Press become bored, tired or accustomed to his lies like Crystal Spraggins mentioned upthread and begin to normalize his whoppers they will influence portions of the population to surrender to his false reality. That would be really dangerous.
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@ Fan
I have hated Hillary Clinton for a long time. A big part of it is that I do not trust her:
Nor was I a fan of Obama’s bombing:
Nor did I give him a pass for how he seemed to have changed:
If you want to take issue with my views on them, do it there, not here. I will be doing a retrospective post on Obama soon, so you will get a chance there as well.
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@ Abagond
“I have hated Hillary Clinton for a long time. A big part of it is that I do not trust her:
Nor was I a fan of Obama’s bombing:
Nor did I give him a pass for how he seemed to have changed:”
Thank you. I stand corrected! I should have chosen my words more carefully. Nonetheless in all the smoke that was billowing during and after the recent election the overwhelming impression from you and your camp was that Trump was, is and will be the bigger threat to Blacks (and others) in Amerika than Hillary/Bill/Obomber,etc was. Your side seemed oblivious to Hill/Bill/Bomber as the even bigger potential threat to ending ALL LIFE as we know it on Earth by their infantile-like insistence like a pack of wild hungry animals on provoking hostilities with a very prepared, stocked, loaded and equipped Russian mother bear.
“If you want to take issue with my views on them, do it there, not here. I will be doing a retrospective post on Obama soon, so you will get a chance there as well.”
Okay.
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Doubleplusgood.
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They are planning to outlaw protests too what will the alternative fact for that be I wonder.
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Trump’s adviser Kelly Anne Conway claims she has been threatened after the news of Martin Luther King’s bust in the White House have been removed. The Time Magazine and the Journalist who wrote the news have admitted that it was based on a mistake/misunderstanding and not true. But is it this news really false and not true? Can it not rather been called an alternative news based on alternative facts?
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I wonder if this is an attempt to paint the word “alternative” with a broad negative connotation brush — i.e. “alternative NEWS” will be viewed and judged by Amerikans as “alternative facts” aka fake news … resulting in only the mainstream news media left standing that’s run and operated by the compromised big corporate/official mouthpiece news cartels??
Not that I expect BP swallowers to question or grasp this apparent attack on non mainstream news sources.
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It is just so ironic. After 8 years of swallowing lie after lie from Obama -i’m gon close quantanamo, I’m for single payer, the nsa is not spying, assad used poison gas, and on and on- we are shocked, SHOCKED I TELL YOU!!! That President Trump lied to us! Want to talk about ‘gaslighting’? The last 8 years was a masterpiece.
@Fan
That is a weird invention though. One can have an alternative interpretation of the facts. But alternative facts? I think this was a simple mistake and not intended to smear alternative media, though that is in fact what it does.
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@Maurits
” But is it this news really false and not true? Can it not rather been called an alternative news based on alternative facts”
Yes. Fake news based on the alternative fact that the bust was not there. But its antiTrump alternative fact so its okay.
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@ nomad
“But alternative facts? I think this was a simple mistake and not intended to smear alternative media, though that is in fact what it does.”
Mistake? I don’t think so. The battle, smear, campaign and legislation against alternative (independent) media has already begun! What’s left other than getting the people to gradually believe/think/act in concert with this new reality/direction/programming?? Look how well it’s received here. The word “spin” (lie) has now been officially retired for a different phrase. Alternative facts.
Check out this link.
http://yournewswire.com/obama-alternative-media-illegal/
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@Fan
Yes, I definitely agree that this is the program. The mistake is Kelleyanne’s, who I presume to be on the side of alternative media, especially the alt right. In using the term she smears her own team. That’s why I assume it to have been unintentional. In this battle between alternative media and MSM. But maybe it wasn’t. Seems clumsy though, speaking as one who did not observe the event.
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that’s a big so what.
I’m a big believer in learning from past mistakes. The first step in that process is to acknowledge them. I don’t subscribe to the Obama doctrine of look forward not backward. If you don’t know where you been you don’t know where youre going how you came to be here or why youre here in the first place. Obama aint past. The mess he left is still with us, most of it piled up in the minds of misguided black people. What Obama did is history. I reserve the right to talk about history. And anything else I choose to discuss. Obama. Hillary Clinton. I talk about what I want. Disagree if you like, but don’t tell me what to talk about.
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“Trump’s wrongdoing is happening RIGHT NOW.”
Oh wow! Wrongdoing as in whose inauguration audience was the largest???
That has just got to be the most impeachable untruth (outright lie) ever told or heard in modern day politics. Did I say, EVER??
Am I in the twilight zone, the outer limits or some other unfathomable weird bizzaro place where people like Scrib live??
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Oh yeah. The objection is specious. The focus of the post is a comparison of Trump to Obama inauguration. So why not talk about Obama? It’s good when making unfavorable comparisons to Trump but not when it throws a negative light on Obama.
Past! I wish Obama had looked back at the past when he came into office, at his predecessor and prosecuted him. Don’t learn from the past? Get ready to relive it.
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An Scríbhneoir Gael-Mheiricéanach
“But what you seemed to be doing upthread was using Obama’s actions to dismiss what Trump was doing. At least, that was what came across to me ”
Well we all have our cognitive filters. Editors in our heads that add their own meaning to what they interpret for us.
“Dismissing what Trump was doing”. Such a minor thing when he is actually NOW doing some quite ominous things, geopolitically speaking. See. I thought I was calling out hypocrisy. I didn’t know what I was actually doing was dismissing what Trump was doing. Don’t have the same filter/editor I guess.
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@ nomad
“I wish Obama had looked back at the past when he came into office, at his predecessor and prosecuted him.”
Ah, the heady days of 2008, when I thought Obama might do exactly that. I had forgotten until you jogged my memory just now.
Bill Hicks had it right. I should have known.
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@Solitaire
Trump is coming in like a whirlwind. Can you imagine if Obama had come in like that? Kicking ass. But only on behalf of the people he proposed to care about? Had he done that, there would be no Trump. Nor the need for one. But of course working for us was never Obama’s intention. He worked for Wall Street.
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Interesting how some people are pulling all kinds of deflections to avoid taking Trump’s lying seriously. Just like White people talking about racism.
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@ nomad
“Trump is coming in like a whirlwind. Can you imagine if Obama had come in like that? Kicking ass. But only on behalf of the people he proposed to care about?”
I wanted that so bad. Hurts to think about it.
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@abagond
“Interesting how some people are pulling all kinds of deflections to avoid taking Trump’s lying seriously. Just like White people talking about racism.”
Probably need a better example of how his penchant for lying is any worse than his predecessors. A serial liar (Obama) and another that lied us into the invasion of Iraq. Who knows if his pathology will turn out to be more destructive than Obama’s or Bush’s? These guys are born liars. This one quite small, which is why its hard to take it seriously.
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Like i said.
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” But of course working for us was never Obama’s intention. He worked for Wall Street.”
And the billions he spent bailing out the Big Three Amerikan automobile manufacturing companies, and for letting the Too Big To Fail Banks off the hook without anyone going to jail. The Prison Industrial FREE LABOR Complex which he left in place and intact despite the (documented profitability) groundswell of states desiring to decriminalize pot for personal and medical use. Moreover the Military-Industrial Complex he aided and abetted by extending the supposed wars on terror beyond that of Bush 2. So much for bringing the troops home. Under Obomber’s administration the USA became THE LARGEST ARMS DEALER – EXPORTER of conventional weapons IN THE WORLD. Of course gun control only matters when law abiding Black people want to arm themselves for self defense.
Obomber apparently has plenty of friends in high places, but few if any in the low places. He was forced to have several seats (literally) on the Skip Gates Harvard break-in debacle when certain powerful factions didn’t want to hear from a supposedly Black president on the topic of how the police mistreated a famous and well known Harvard Black professor by arresting him …
Need I go on mentioning more substantial “alternative facts” — none of which seems to have much to do with easing the increasing financial burdens` of ordinary Amerikans??
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I find this lie troubling exactly because it is so petty and small. Trump threw a hissy fit over something that most incoming presidents would have shrugged off or declined to comment.
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@ nomad
The Time magazine reporter, unlike Trump, did not insist it was true. He corrected his mistake and apologized. You are conflating a mistake with a bald-faced lie.
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OFF TOPIC: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, unless you are comparing their style of lying to Trump’s.
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@ Solitaire
I am old enough to remember back before Trump was president, like it was just last week. Back then we had this idea called character. Anyone who told bald-faced lies was considered bad news. But that was then. Now that he is president we must all make excuses for him or look away, like he is an alcoholic father or something.
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Alternative Facts is just lying. New words to add to the lexicon in this era of Orange Crazy. Also the word “bigley.” This “alternative facts” horse manure is Orange Crazy’s way of pi**ing on the American people and telling them it’s raining.
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George Orwell’s 1984 is gaining a huge resurgence since Orange Hitler has come in office.
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“Back then we had this idea called character.”
No we didn’t. We haven’t had character for at least 8 years. If there was any around before that, it was in short supply.
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This is starting to get ridiculous. What’s next, parsing the meaning of “lie?”
I don’t give a hoot whose audience was bigger!
Men, women, mothers, fathers, boys, girls, you, me, even Abagond (The Great) lies. Everybody does it. Abe Lincoln & Geo Washington lied despite fables and myths to the contrary. It’s just part of the human condition. The only difference is that some people have an inclination to lie MORE than others. Some tell lies that are quite impacting, Some abhor lying yet still lie. Some (like kiwi) lie at every possible opportunity. Bottom line – people lie.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Good night.
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Mary Burrell
Yassss….please say it again for the people in the back. It is simply lying.
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excerpts from:
http://blackagendareport.com/corporate_media_enemies
“Donald Trump and the corporate media are locked in mutual hostility, but they are both enemies of the poor and oppressed. Media tell non-stop lies about foreign leaders abroad and Black people here at home. As servants of corporate power, the media usually kow-tow to whoever wins the White House. They’ve made an exception for Trump, but that doesn’t make them honest journalists — just flunkies for the other party.”
“The fact is that the corporate media in this country are our enemies. Media consolidation has left us with a handful of newspapers and television networks which are all controlled by international conglomerates. They hoped they would make neo-liberal heroine Hillary Clinton the next president but Democratic Party failures and her own weaknesses put Trump in the White House.”
“The news has been fake long before Donald Trump used those words. The cozy relationship between Bush and the press gave him cover to invade Iraq and kill 1 million people. The correspondents’ dinners and the private briefings create media haves and have nots, and taint the journalism that comes from this collusion.”
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Apparently those at BlackAgendaReport dot com aren’t digesting Blue Pills by the truck loads! Which may likely get their collective heads placed on the alternative/independent internet news chopping block.
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“Remember, Trump built his political career on Birtherism.”
That wasn’t a lie. That was a contention. Still not resolved one way or the other. Hope Trump releases Obama’s sealed records.
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