The Art Of The Lie: How The Manipulation Of Language Affects Our Minds

257 Pages·2020·1.587 MB·

by  Marcel Danesi

THE ART OF THE LIE

THE ART OF THE
L I E
HOW THE
MANIPULATION OF LANGUAGE
AFFECTS OUR MINDS
MARCEL DANESI
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Danesi, Marcel, 1946– author.
Title: The art of the lie : how the manipulation of language affects our mind / by Marcel Danesi.
Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019014272 (print) | LCCN 2019981002 (ebook) | ISBN 9781633885967
(paper) | ISBN 9781633885974 (epub)
Subjects: Trump, Donald, 1946—Language. | Truthfulness and falsehood—Political aspects—
United States. | Rhetoric—Political aspects—United States. | Rhetoric and psychology.
United States—Politics and government—2017–
Classification: LCC E912 .D36 2019 (print) | LCC E912 (ebook)
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019014272
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019981002
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/
NISO Z39.48-1992
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgments and Dedication xiii
CHAPTER 1. LYING AS ART 1
Prologue 1
Lies and Lying 4
A Machiavellian Art 8
Language, Belief, and Reality 11
Discourse 16
Trump and Mussolini 19
Alienation 22
Epilogue 24
CHAPTER 2. ALTERNATIVE FACTS 28
Prologue 28
A False Equivalency 30
Doublethink and Doublespeak 33
Alternative History 40
Restructuring the Lexicon 46
The Power of Belief 51
Epilogue 55
v
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 3. CONFABULATION 58
Prologue 58
The Nature of Confabulation 61
Redemptive History 68
Otherness 74
Epilogue 80
CHAPTER 4. FAKE NEWS 84
Prologue 84
Origins 86
Occultism 92
Counterattacks 95
The Fake News Syndrome 99
Disinformation 101
Conspiracy Theories 104
Epilogue 108
CHAPTER 5. GASLIGHTING 113
Prologue 113
The Gaslighter 115
Artifice 125
The Great Pretender 130
Epilogue 135
CHAPTER 6. VERBAL WEAPONRY 137
Prologue 137
Blunt Speech 139
vi
CONTENTS
The Attack on Political Correctness 143
Attackonyms 151
Denial, Deflection, Distraction 158
Words Matter 161
Epilogue 164
CHAPTER 7. TRUTHFUL HYPERBOLE 167
Prologue 167
A Language of Business and Religion 170
Narcissism 177
Hucksterism 180
Bullshitting 184
Epilogue 190
CHAPTER 8. A MACHIAVELLIAN ART 193
Prologue 193
Machiavellianism 195
Lies and Mental Health 197
Manipulative Language 199
Cognitive Dissonance 202
Machiavellian Intelligence 208
Epilogue 211
Notes 218
vii

PREFACE
Half the truth is often a great lie.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
I
n the 1972–1973 academic year, I got my first job as a professor of lin-
guistics, at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was
the period of the Watergate Hearings in Washington, which mesmerized
my students and myself, becoming a major topic of discussion in two of
my courses—a general linguistics course and one on Niccolò Machiavel-
li’s The Prince. The focus of those discussions was on how Nixon’s skillful
deployment of language was a modern-day manifestation of Machiavel-
lian cleverness and on how he was able to strategize his words to manipu-
late people’s minds, especially his followers. In both classes, the linguistic
features of lying were examined, analyzed, and discussed in the context
of how Nixon’s falsehoods were destroying the moral and ethical fabric
of American society at the time. The conclusion we reached was that lies
that come from the top echelons of any powerful institution, such as the
White House, invariably lead to the unraveling of the principles of truth
and justice that hold a democratic society together.
Skillful liars are dangerous people. They have the ability to twist
words into weapons that can divide people against each other. Their
words are designed to frighten and unnerve people, spurring them on to
act in the interests of the liar, even if this goes against their own self-inter-
est. Mendacious and deceitful language that is used strategically by those
in power, such as the president of the United States, affects the mental
health of everyone negatively, especially if it is repeated over and over
like a nefarious, ritualistic chant. Nixon’s lawyer during Watergate, John
Dean, is recorded as saying to Nixon on one of the infamous secret tapes,
“We have a cancer within, close to the presidency, that’s growing.”1 The
ix