Smokey Robinson Knows What He's Talking About

This year, politicians have created an entirely new approach to the old saw that goes something like this--"How do you know when a politician is lying?"  Oh, that's easy--whenever you see their lips move."  

"Say one thing and do another" has become-"say both things and keep everybody guessing."  With help from our fading memory skills, they can assert that--whatever they actually do--they told us the truth, conveniently ignoring the opposite statement either made by the same person at another time, or that voiced by a representative or subordinate of theirs.

Most of the latter statements arise when the speaker is saying whatever will please the particular audience they are addressing.  The former, it's hard to say.  Apparently this new development also pleases the media, whose spokespersons gleefully report the latest contradiction.  However, they have had to re-learn the lesson about not calling the statements that are, either inconsistent with earlier statements or with the actual facts, “lies."  Use another term, you all, you don't know what was in the mind of the person uttering said statement.  They might only be "inconsistencies," or "contradictions," "misstatements" or "errors."     

In the U. S., it breeds further mistrust of government.  In other countries, who knows?  But seriously, how can this keep up?

Short of an epidemic of senility, amnesia or apathy driven by the obvious one-sidedness of all the media--whether left or right, I don't see how this can go on.  I mean a single gathering of people at the Boeing plant in North Carolina actually produces three different descriptions.  One side views this as no more than a "campaign-like" appearance, where the President returns to the campaign rally persona people liked so well last year.  From another's viewpoint, it was merely a celebration of the creation of new jobs, boosting the area's economy, led by a President happy to have some good news to talk about.  From still another view, it was a show that people in North Carolina still love Trump, even as his administration has hit some bumps in the road as it has tried to get things off the ground.  Oh, and yet there is a 4th viewpoint, this was viewed as a gathering of those who opposed unions, celebrating the almost annual vote rejecting union representation a few weeks ago.  Come on people, report the event and then describe some of the views expressed by those in attendance--don't just portray it from one narrow viewpoint.  

There's another view on these practices--and it all revolves around smoke as a metaphor for speech, e.g., a person misrepresenting the truth or true intent can be said to be blowing smoke.   This next one applies to international relations and I think it can involve smoke, we are sending mixed signals to our friends and our foes.  Looking at the smoke signals they are sending, especially when amplified with smoke and mirrors can be confusing.  It might lead you to ask, what have they been smoking?  Or, like me, you may be experiencing again what it's like when, as the venerable Smokey Robinson put it "the smoke gets in your eyes."   Ok, that was a little "smoke" of my own.  It was really the Platters who recorded it, it just seemed like it might fit.  Blowing a little smoke really, Ain't That Peculiar? (and that last question is really a song that Smokey wrote for Marvin Gaye)