Hegseth and the Big Lie

So, as everyone knows now, Trump’s Head of the DOD, Pete Hegseth, accidentally sent US war plans to a journalist at the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. 

What’s been interesting to me, though, is how the Administration, Hegseth, and their supporters are handling the situation. One of their responses is to claim that the incident did not occur. Hegseth said that “no one was texting war plans” and that Golberg is a “deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.” 

Meanwhile, on social media, I have seen postings from Trump supporters saying that the whole thing was a trap into which the liberal media promptly fell. (Though exactly what the trap was and how it worked is unclear to me.)

This looks like a strategy of overt falsehood. And, let’s face the grim reality, it could work. The Administration could just keep claiming that it didn’t happen, and, sure enough, the MAGAts of the nation will believe it. The Big Lie is a proven winner.

Of course, it may be that Hegseth will eventually be forced to resign. That would be a very good thing, indeed. But, in the end the real solution to the problem is teaching Americans to turn off Faux News and turn on their critical thinking.

Or, to put it another way, we are a nation desperately in need of civics classes in public schools everywhere and anywhere.