Most people are pretty sensible in their everyday affairs, and don’t fall for common scams, yet a surprising number believe lying politicians without question. PolitiFact is a website (here) that fact-checks political claims. Here’s a sampling of their fact-checks from September 8, 2024.
(1) “Donald Trump stated on August 26, 2024 in an interview with a podcaster Vice President Kamala Harris ‘is a communist. … She really is a Marxist.'” Rating: Pants on fire. Read detailed explanation here. Summary: Her “positions do not align with those philosophies.”
(2) “Bernie Moreno stated on August 20, 2024 in a campaign ad U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown voted to ‘give illegals taxpayer funded stimulus checks, health care, even Social Security.'” Rating: False. Read detailed explanation here. Summary: “The three votes Moreno’s campaign cited would not have provided any federal benefits to immigrants in the country illegally.”
(3) “X Posts stated on August 29, 2024 in X posts President Joe Biden ‘did a campaign ad at the graves in Arlington in 2020.'” Rating: Mostly false. Read detailed explanation here. Summary: The “circumstances surrounding the two events are different. The photo of Biden at Section 60 was taken while he was performing his duties as vice president, not as part of a campaign.”
(4) “Facebook posts stated on August 25, 2024 in a post Kamala Harris’ ‘plan to tax unrecognized Capital Gains mean(s) if your house goes up in value you will have to pay that Tax Even if you don’t sell your House!'” Rating: Mostly false. Read detailed explanation here. Summary: The tax would only apply to the fewer than 10,000 Americans with a net worth over $100 million.
(5) “Rick Scott stated on August 28, 2024 in a post on X [that] ‘This month alone, more than 16,000 non-citizens have been removed from the voter rolls in 3 states.'” Rating: Half true. Read detailed explanation here. Summary: The 16,000 figure refers to flagged voter registrations, not verified non-citizens, or persons removed from voting rolls; is over several years, not a month; and some of those individuals may have become naturalized citizens eligible to vote.
Obviously, politicians and activists posting on social media aren’t reliable information sources. Then why do so many people accept their statements at face value? Many have neither time nor inclination to check out information themselves, so they rely on people who think like they do to do the work for them. Partisans don’t care whether attacks on the other side are true, and even if they correctly understood the issues, it wouldn’t change their loyalties. Finally, some people are simply gullible.