We seem to live in a society where lying is so prevalent that it's just become accepted- considered the norm almost. Politicians and the media, as two good examples, have gone way beyond the manipulation of facts to outright falsifying of information. We know this happens, but we accept it- why?
Not a day goes by when I don't read or watch some "news" story that contains blatantly false information designed purely to influence the audience and sway them in a direction they otherwise may not have gone. And I'm not talking about the so-called "fake news", I'm talking the mainstream supposedly non-partisan media.
Lately a fellow on my shooting forum held a vote on how the competition he ran was to be scored. The first option was to keep the status quo, the second to switch to a system that made the competition more accessible by omitting the lowest-scoring rounds. Without boring you to death, the latter basically meant those who had missed the start of the competition, or those that missed a round for whatever reason, wouldn't be penalised. It's a system with pro's but no con's. Anyway, for whatever reason, this guy had decided before the start that he didn't want the new scoring system to win the vote (possibly because of some misguided belief that it would create more work for him when it came to collating the scores).
So he made up this whole story about how the new system was exploitable by cheats; that in fact once upon a time it had been scored this way and that certain individuals had used it to manipulate their scores.
It was all pure fabrication, the system CANNOT be cheated. When challenged on this, he didn't respond. He kept his head down until the vote was over, by which time he had hood-winked enough people to swing the vote the way he wanted it to go, and when the truth of the matter eventually sunk in it was too late.
The whole affair drew parallels with the Brexit campaign, where again facts weren't just distorted, they were fabricated in entirety. Now I'd be lying if I didn't say I'd have preferred the result to have gone the other way, though it has little affect on me really- I've left the UK and I'm not coming back. But a vote is a vote, and you have to respect the result- as long as the vote is fair. Garnering votes based on lies is nothing more than rigging. If any other competition was found to be rigged (as has been the case in recent years) there would be outcry- people may recall not too long ago when the BBC had to stop running competitions when they were exposed for rigging them. Yet even in something as crucial as the Brexit referendum, because it was run by politicians who we know and accept cheat and lie, we likewise accept the result.
The only people arguing against a second referendum are the ones that won the first. They dismiss any suggestion for one as sour grapes on the remainers part. I say have one. Not because I want to see the outcome change particularly, but because now much of the truth of the matter has emerged, the vote will at least be a fair one. If the Leave camp were confident that the result would go the same way, it would only serve to bolster their own argument- but of course they aren't, and this is the crux of the whole matter;
If you have a good idea, with sound argument and reasoning backing it, you don't have to lie to people to convince them it's a good idea. It's only when you know your idea is flawed, or won't appeal to the masses, that you have to start fabricating "facts" to make it more appealing, or to make the alternative option seem worse than it is.
Surely then, at the point you realise you can't win the vote without lying and cheating, that would be the point to stop and question whether your good idea really is such a good idea after all?
