Why Do People Accept Political Lies?

I don't have the answer.

During a recent conversation with a former coworker, Joe (not his real name) the topic of immigration came up. We agreed that the nation's immigration policy needs to change. Joe then surprised me by stating that he was most worried about President Obama's encouragement of illegal Muslim infiltration.

Surprised at this patently false accusation by this normally rational person, I asked if he thought the President was a Muslim and he replied that “everybody knows he is, after all he went to school in a Muslim country”.

I received an email from a city council member a month ago that claimed, among other examples, that the President was so unpatriotic as to suggest that the National Anthem should be changed.

For the purposes of this post I carry no brief for Mr. Obama. I find several areas where reasonable people can disagree as to his performance as President. Why add outright and easily debunked falsehoods to our political conversations?

The following are examples of this phenomenon that can be verified by several online fact check services:

Not qualified by birth to be President.

The ACA (Obama Care) prevents seniors over 76 from receiving cancer care.

The health care law has "death panels."

From Wikipedia:

Allegations that Barack Obama is an atheist, secretly practices Islam, or that he is the anti-Christ of Christian eschatology, have been suggested since he campaigned for the U.S. Senate in 2004 and have proliferated since his election as President of the U.S. in 2008. As with conspiracy theories surrounding his citizenship status, these false claims are promoted by various fringe theorists and political opponents.

Ad infinitum - Ad nauseam

Paul Hunter