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When the truth hurts, the powerful reach for excuses
A culture of blame, evasion and euphemism has spread from the halls of power to the pulpit and the home, but the truth has a way of catching up.
By Morf Morford | FāVS News Columnist
The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News.
In the 2020s, a belief system has emerged that has yet to be named. It speaks the language of the bully and the abuser, and it has become the working creed of many leaders around the world.
Force, control and manipulation are the muscles of choice across national borders and political ideologies. And as often happens, the assumptions of the powerful trickle down, to the pulpit and into the home.
This belief system has no name, but it does have a premise, one as horrifying as it is simple: Any action, no matter how predatory or perverse, is justified if you have a convincing enough excuse. Or at least one that convinces the loudest people.
It needs no anchor in moral or ethical tradition, or even in basic human decency.
Despots and bullies have long insisted that might makes right. This is similar, but different. It is brute force with an imperative — a larger worldview that dismisses and dehumanizes everyone it touches. Victims, collaborators, sympathizers and perpetrators alike are stained by their association with corrupted power.
An excuse is, by definition, an evasion — a deliberate distraction from the truth.
The truth, it’s been said, often hurts. But evasions, excuses and lies hurt more, and their wounds run deeper and last longer.
Today, it seems, the truth is too stark to bear. So politicians, public figures, even friends and partners talk around it, speaking as if they have an answer. Listen closely: They tell us what they want us to know. They rarely answer a question directly or honestly.
Over decades of writing, I’ve learned that some words inspire questions, while others anticipate questions and answer them before they’re asked. Much of today’s public speech, from commercials to political statements, does neither. Words are used to muddle and confuse, or perhaps they simply come from a muddled and confused mind.
Consider how, in the U.S., fact-checking has been politicized, mocked and dismissed. Fact-checking simply confirms that a statement is true. In a saner era, mocking it would be seen for what it is: mocking evidence and reality itself.
That may be the point.
The vocabulary of deception
There are hundreds of euphemisms for lying, but very few for truth. Truth is simply what is reliably true, tomorrow as well as today, before one audience or another. It doesn’t need different words to say the same thing.
Deception, on the other hand, requires layer upon layer of obfuscation. From “mendacious” to “misleading,” from “unfounded claims” to “misrepresentations,” these terms are all around us. Here’s a collection of officially authorized euphemisms for deliberate deception.
We hear them nearly every day, usually from somber voices of authority who know we’ll assume their evasions mean something. They’re so familiar we rarely notice them. But they are noise, and they deliberately lead us away from the truth.
In the land of excuse-makers, anyone can be blamed: the past, the future, those people, the other political party — anyone but the one making the excuse. Excuse-makers live by one inviolable rule: They are responsible for no one and nothing. They are perpetual victims of systems, of others and of forces beyond their control. They’d never admit it, but they are deliberately irresponsible.
Lying comes naturally to them because it’s the only language they speak. Truth threatens their carefully constructed world, their identity and their destiny.
Beyond word salad
Sifting truth from falsehood is hard, especially when lies and evasions are constant. This article explores some telltale signs of a liar in action. The problem is that most public liars are professionals, with years of experience, possibly formal training and ever-growing motivation to deceive.
Self-deception is an occupational hazard. Humans are wired to believe ourselves, even when some part of us knows we’re saying nothing at all. You can watch that battle play out as professional liars hedge, qualify, talk too much or fall into a telling silence, as if they’ve been caught.
Then they take a breath, blame whoever is within reach, offer a muddled excuse and carry on as if nothing happened.
Watch for it the next time someone is asked what should be a simple yes-or-no question. The meandering that follows is almost a ballet of words.
The term “word salad” emerged a few years ago, but it no longer fits. It suggests something harmless, even occasionally poetic. Today’s evasions are more malignant: condescending, cruel and demeaning. But they do what excuses have always done, directing attention anywhere but at the one making them.
We’re watching master excuse-makers on the world stage perfecting their craft. Outrunning the truth takes a special set of skills, and as we’ve seen, it can be done.
They can blame and make excuses today, but you can see the fear of tomorrow on their faces. They know they’ll need bigger and better excuses, and that one day, it might not be enough.
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