Pathological Liar

Ah... that was rough.

``Hey MT, we're sick of you complaining in a cryptic way that `that was rough'. Move on damnit!''

Sure voice-in-my-head.

So I was doing some thinking on and off the past couple of weeks. The question on my mind was, how does one deal with a pathologic liar?

Take the latest ah... US presidential election fiasco. Two geriatric men slugging it out. One's gaffe-prone but is generally a tad more gentlemanly, and the other is a pathologically lying cad.

Frankly, neither are good choices, but due to the way the US's politics is structured, it is now the race of ``the lesser of two evils''.

That's not my problem though---I cannot vote in the US by virtue of the fact that I'm not a US citizen.

The part that nerdsniped me is the observation that despite the pathological lying, somehow that person is still ``in the race''.

How?

The usual way to get someone to drop out of a political race is to demonstrate that the said person has some major [character] flaw that impinges on their ability to serve in said political office, and that often involves either fact-checking, or mud-slinging.

Fact-checking has been applied consistently at the pathological liar, and yet he bounces back from each one, stronger than before. And this includes both the regular ``inconsequential'' fact-checking to the stuff that the court of law rules---somehow that has done nothing to knock that person off his feet.

How?

Mud-slinging has been attempted, amateurishly in many ways since the other major political party that isn't supporting the pathologically lying person hasn't decided to stoop that low to play gutter politics just yet. Insinuations on character, on actual illegal and immoral behaviour have done nothing to dampen the zealous support of that person, even among those whose religious teachings were supposed to tell them that those illegal and immoral behaviours were wrong.

How?

Just how does one defeat a pathological liar? The orthodox ways that I just described don't seem to work. Maybe it is time to bring in the playground tactics, like out-louding the pathological liar, or resort to the age-old solution to all problems in life---extreme violence.

But either technique seems rather... inelegant. Perhaps there really isn't any other way that can achieve the outcome through elegance---elegance on its own suggests a certain level of self-awareness, and the willingness to cooperate, neither of which the pathological liar has.

So maybe the more primeval approach is the best. But are people willing to stoop that low?

Edit: Unfortunately, yes. There are some who are willing to stoop that low. That news article first came on 2024-07-14T06:48+08, and as at the time of this edit, was updated at 2024-07-14T14:45+08.