Lying Liars Lie

or, How Democrats break the Ninth Commandment

Lying is not necessarily a sin.

This is the somewhat controversial claim I made a few blogs back. I cited the example of George Washington lying to his Indian comrade during a battle in the French and Indian Wars. Had George (“I Cannot Lie”) not lied, the Indian would likely have deserted the English for the French, resulting in disaster and the deaths of many men under Washington’s command. Also cited was the case of a woman dying after childbirth who asks about her baby. The baby has died, but only someone inhumanely cruel would not assure her the baby was alive. Then there was the oft-cited instance of protecting an innocent person from the Stasi or the KGB — or the FBI — by giving them false information. Exceptions like these are why lying is not one of the seven deadly sins, and why a prohibition against lying in general is not found in the Ten Commandments.

I recently came upon one more example of gainful lying that bears retelling. In 1940, a 15-year-old English kid named Tommy Brown lied about his age in order to get into the Royal Navy. He became a submariner, and in 1941, his submarine engaged with and incapacitated a German U-boat. Tommy and two comrades, armed and acting on orders, boarded the U-boat to see what they could find. The two comrades didn’t make it out alive, but Tommy emerged, carrying some papers. They were German codebooks. This discovery shortened the war and saved countless lives, all because of one perfectly moral lie.

It was a moral lie because Tommy’s goal in telling it was selfless. This is the common denominator among acceptable lies. They are told out of loyalty to a just cause (as with Washington’s lie) or compassion for another human being (as in the lie to the dying mother) or the desire to serve (as in Tommy’s patriotic lie).

Take that, Immanuel Kant! (Kant asserted loudly that all lies are immoral.)

My emphasis on these exceptions may have caused some to conclude that I was defending the right to lie whenever it’s convenient. Absolutely not. It is wrong to lie 99.99 percent of the time, because most lies are told in order to profit from the lie in some way.

Is it okay to lie to make money? Never.

Is it right to lie in order to gain advantage in school or business? Never.

Is it okay to lie to get your way in an argument? Never.

Is it perfectly fine to lie to your spouse or partner about your activities? Never.

And there is one form of lying that did make it into the Ten Commandments:

“IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”

Here, “neighbor” should be taken to mean “anyone.”

To bear false witness is to testify that a person — a “neighbor” — has done something incriminating, when that is not the case. This sort of lie cannot be selfless. Accusing someone of wrongdoing when the person is actually innocent can only be done out of a desire to hurt or hobble the accused. If I hate someone and testify that I saw him in the act of breaking the law when I did not, a grievous sin has been committed.

Such is the sin the Democrats freely engage in, regarding Donald Trump and anyone else they oppose. They do it largely by quoting out of context.

In 2017, conservatives protested the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia. The protest, which was organized by mainstream conservatives, was marred when Neo-Nazis showed up and turned the protest violent, resulting in one death. Asked by the press if he would condemn the Neo-Nazis involved, then-President Trump said: “You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides." When Joe Biden launched his bid for presidency in 2019, he dropped the first part of Trump’s s statement and claimed that the second part — “There were very fine people on both sides” — was the equivalent of endorsing white supremacy. Biden repeated that claim in his goofily angry speech at the DNC convention earlier this month, unashamed to use a quote that has long since been exposed as out-of-context.

That’s bearing false witness.

On March 16 of this year, Trump, addressing representatives of the automobile industry, said there would be a “bloodbath” if he wasn’t elected. It was clear in the context of the speech that Trump meant the auto industry would experience an economic bloodbath were he not elected. Democrats dropped the context of Trump’s speech and claimed that Trump had threatened a literal bloodbath — one social-media poster even freely added the word “violent” to Trump’s quote — as though he might foster civil war if the election doesn’t go his way. That’s bearing false witness.

Then there was perhaps the biggest violation of the Ninth Commandment, ever: The Russia collusion hoax. For years, the Left, led by Hillary Clinton, loudly accused Trump of being in bed with Putin and his pals. Their only evidence was a fake dossier. The Russia hoax was eventually disproven, but I don’t recall any of Trump’s accusers being hauled before the court of public opinion and found guilty of bearing false witness.

There’s no room to get into the myriad lies the Dems have told in regard to the July 13 attempted assassination of Trump. We could begin with the assertion that no bullet actually hit Trump, and end with the absurd idea that the entire thing was staged by Trump to gain favor. In between we’d sandwich the efforts by Left-leaning media to memory-hole the entire event, which is not so much bearing false witness as it is trying to bury true witness.

Now they’re doing it to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Unable to face the fact that a member of the Kennedy clan was intelligent and courageous enough to point out the depth of their corruption and endorse Trump, Democrats quickly labeled RFK Jr. an “anti-vaxxer.” This is deliberate mislabelling: bearing false witness. “Anti-vaxxer” refers to someone who is “against vaccinations,” and Kennedy is not, nor has he ever said anything about being, an anti-vaxxer.

Kennedy was forced to release a video to clear things up. Like reasonable people everywhere, he knows that all medications, including vaccinations, have side-effects. He simply espouses weighing the side-effects of a given vaccination against its purported advantages and deciding for oneself whether to take it. He also believes that mandated vaccinations are not acceptable in a free society. In other words, Kennedy maintains a reasonable position, something Democrats apparently don’t understand.

It is nearly impossible to keep up with examples of liberal/Left violation of the Ninth Commandment. If you know of any I have not mentioned, please post them in a comment, blow. Likewise, if you know of any case when conservatives were guilty of bearing false witness, please post as well. It’s important to keep our team clean of errors by confessing them and guarding against future violations.

Lies told to favor your side in an argument are always wrong. Let the opposition lie. It’s clear they need to, because the truth is not on their side.

Tell the truth and let things happen as they may.

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