Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,[a] knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
Genesis 3: 1-7
The serpent was the first to deliver the “big lie.” He was hardly the last.
Rome’s Emperor Nero us the technique. When Rome was burning, he blamed the fire on the Christians. That rumor got repeated over and over until people believed it (for a time).
Hitler and his communications expert, Joseph Goebbels, described the big lie like this:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Today, politicians are the unchallenged champions of the big lie. Examples are easy to recall:
- Read my lips, no new taxes.
- If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.
- Peace is at hand (Vietnam).
- Mission Accomplished (Iraq).
Most recently, we’ve heard President Biden spew a string of big lies:
- There is no way the Taliban will overrun Kabul anytime soon.
- We will get every American out of Afghanistan.
- We managed the greatest airlift in history.
- The war is over.
Our government is pouring the big lie on us in every press conference and through a compliant, lazy news media.
The President (or whoever is pulling his strings) has abandoned scores of Americans and those who served the cause of freedom in Afghanistan. They even left the dogs behind.
They left somewhere between $20 billion and $80 billion worth of high-tech military equipment behind, making the Taliban one of the best-equipped fighting forces on earth.
Trustworthy sources report murder, torture, and rape as the business of the day in the new Islamic paradise of Afghanistan. Christians likely will be offered a simple, clear, choice: convert to Islam or die.
But the Biden bunch tell us everything is just great, and that they did a dandy job managing the situation. They are going to keep telling us that as long as they think we are buying the big lie.
Eve bought the Big Lie and passed it on to Adam and we humans have been passing it on ever since. At the lie’s core is the idea that we should depend on something other than God.
Many have looked to themselves. The liars leading our country want us to look to government.
How dare you.
Laughing Catholic 