Definition of a lie: “an assertion of something known or believed by the speaker or writer to be untrue with intent to deceive” (Merriam-Webster).

We live in a time when we’re being lied to with great frequency. Many speakers and writers fit the definition of liars because they intend to deceive. Lies are common in both foreign affairs and domestic issues.

Vladimir Putin, dictator of Russia, lied when he said he was not going to invade Ukraine. Then he lied again, saying he would only invade to protect the lives of Russian-speaking Ukrainians who were given Russian passports. Soon after, Putin stated he was only going to attack military bases but then started attacking civilians living in the cities.

The lies kept coming. His negotiators agreed to provide safe corridors to protect civilians fleeing those cities, but his air force and artillery promptly attacked those corridors, seeking to kill as many as possible. Why? Probably to increase a sense of terror and to destroy the morale of the Ukrainian population. Instead, it stiffened Ukrainian resistance and increased hatred for things and people Russian.

The problem with lying is that once someone lies, all boundaries are broken. The victims don’t know where or what the limits are anymore. They can’t know whether what they are being told is truthful or not. This results in deep anger, resentment, and a desire for revenge. Since Russia is just across the border from Ukraine, Russian citizens may very well find themselves being targeted by angry, vengeful Ukrainian terrorist groups. Terror will spread and relationships will be destroyed in an ever-widening spiral of death and destruction. This is the legacy of lying in foreign affairs.

Lying is common domestically as well.

I watch several YouTube videos every day. Before each video is an ad. Many of them promise miracle weight loss cures by drinking olive oil or eating some food. Sometimes it is doctors (or those claiming to be doctors) who make these assertions. We have returned to the age of snake-oil salesmen of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as seen in the start of the movie, the “Wizard of Oz”.

The ads are lies and are not worth watching.

Lying has also become more common in our domestic politics. Public officials and political candidates from Texas claim that building a 30-foot wall between the U.S. and Mexico will stop illegal immigration. In 2021 there were at least 3,722 times when those fences were sliced through in seconds by power saws. This wall was being built at the cost of billions of dollars to create the illusion that something is being done. It is a long-drawn-out lie started by Trump, the king of lies, who said he was going to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it back in 2016.

FOX News commentators like Tucker Carlson openly support Putin, a war criminal. Carlson condones Putin’s attempt to subjugate Ukraine, a neighboring democracy. It almost seems that Carlson has become a type of “Tokyo Rose” to a fascist Putin. Meanwhile Putin claims that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy—a Jew—is a Nazi!

Carlson’s broadcasts have been used as propaganda tools by the Russian media in support of Putin’s actions in Ukraine. Carlson claimed that Ukraine has secret biological weapons, even though Under Secretary of State for Ukraine, Victoria Nuland, testified in a Senate hearing that any biological attack would be carried out 100 percent by the Russians. Carlson twisted her words from discussing a biological lab used to make vaccines in Ukraine and turning it into a biological weapons lab (www.foxnews.com/transcript/tucker-the-pentagon-is-lying-about-bio-labs-in-ukraine). It’s possible that Putin will use Carlson’s broadcast to justify his use of biological weapons to kill thousands, if not millions of Ukrainians.

Back in 2020, Carlson successfully used what is now called the “Tucker Carlson Defense” in a court case: claiming that no reasonable person would believe what he says. Hmmm. Does that imply that FOX News listeners are not reasonable?

Hitler stated, “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” In this case, Hitler told the truth.