The 2024 Lie of the Year

In yet another year where dishonesty in politics and journalism continued to explode, the competition is tough. But one whopper stands out.

Ringside has noted many times that trust in journalism and politics is in a downward spiral. This is not because Americans are growing paranoid (although that could be coming next). It’s because those institutions, and others, have become more and more dishonest. It’s actually a sign of health that increased dishonesty earns, and gets, increased distrust.

(Parenthetically, this makes we wonder whether the next big push in what we call secondary education will be, “How to build your credulity.” Already we’ve taken quite a few steps down that path, what with the introduction of such phrases as “your truth” and “his truth” and “my truth.” What do we think we’re going to end up with when each person is talking about his inward-looking world in his own private language?)

A “private language” of course is no language at all, since the whole purpose of language it to transmit shared and commonly understood meaning. But it’s a great tool if your aim is to become known in academia as sophisticated or nuanced or something cool like that — as opposed to, say, a Big Fat Liar.

But I digress. There is still enough left of the old-fashioned concept of lying that we can spot it when we see it, and in 2024, that was lots. There were these, reported by the Free Press, complete with photos:

Biden’s vehement denials that he had any knowledge of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. Indeed, he consistently said he never even met with any of Hunter’s business partners, or spoke to his son about his business ventures. And yet, here we are, weeks before Biden leaves office, and one last incriminating piece of evidence has emerged.

Yes, well, we all know what’s worth a thousand words.

Then we were told that inflation was just a passing phenomenon. Only it forgot to pass. The prices we’re paying are conspicuously higher than when Biden came to office and, for most stuff you pay for, like cars and groceries and rent, they don’t seem to be going down and in fact are worse than ever.

Or remember when Kamala Harris was the “border czar”—until she wasn’t, and, really, had never been the “border czar?”

As I say, there are candidates galore. Still, the winner of the 2024 Lie of the Year Award has to be the insistence in the great majority of the Democratic Party that Joe Biden remained mentally fit and capable of discharging the duties of his office. Normal people with a working set of eyeballs had known for months if not years that this was (and is) false, but for those who missed it, it became undeniable even by MSM standards after Biden’s debate with Trump. Their encounter was, to be blunt, embarrassing to watch, and more than embarrassing, frightening. The man who could barely get his words out or speak a coherent sentence would be calling the shots if Cuban Missile Crisis 2.0 showed up the next morning.

Amazingly, this is still true, as Biden refuses to go.

The lying about Biden’s mental fitness was more and worse than mere campaign hi-jinks. The cognitive abilities of the commander-in-chief and the Leader of the Free World are a matter of national security. Lying about it to win an election is playing less with fire and more with thermonuclear fire. Still, Biden’s party didn’t throw him over because he couldn’t do the job. It threw him over because it became impossible to deny that he couldn’t do the job. The question, that is, was never whether it was OK to continue to lie; the question was whether they could get away with continuing to lie. When it became clear on debate night that the answer was no, the panicked race was on to find a replacement candidate. Its panicked quality became clear enough when the Democrats refused to hold a primary, and instead broke the emergency glass only to find behind it the garble-mouthed diversity selection Joe had put on the ticket four years earlier. Being the diversity selection pushed things from hard to impossible to pick someone else (e.g., Gov. Josh Shapiro) who might at least put up an intelligible fight against Trump.

So, some good things came out of it. Diversity worship had its costs; cowardice in fighting diversity had additional costs, and — most of all for purposes of this entry — lying had its costs.

Let it not be said that 2024 was all bad.

Bonus coverage: It might be too obvious to say so, but the accompanying award for 2024 Liar of the Year goes to Kamala. She said emphatically and repeatedly that “Biden was ‘sharp’ as a tack and at ‘the top of his game’.” I might have missed something, since I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I never heard the MSM call her on this. The most it would admit to was that she was loyal to a fault or something similar.

Double bonus coverage: Make money by betting in 2025.

Probably the loudest and most anguished claim against Trump was (and is) that he aims to become a dictator, i.e., President for Life. I’ve found that it’s no use arguing with liberals about this, since it’s an article of angry faith with them more than a statement or even a prediction. Solution: Bet them $10,000 that Trump will leave office on or before January 20, 2029. I doubt you’ll find anyone who’ll take you up, since their point is just to pretend to care about the Constitution — or, more commonly, just to bloviate. If you do find a willing better, however, please send me his email.

Second best bet: That Trump will imprison Liz Cheney, Christopher Wray, and/or Merrick Garland. The Left, while thundering about this at length, knows it’s not going to happen, so, again, they aren’t going to bet. But proposing it might save you their next Trump-is-Satan blast, at least until after dinner.