“Pathological disregard for the truth” … only reason for sharing: people need to know!!
Dennis Van Tine/Geisler-Fotopres/DPA via ZUMA Press
MOTHER JONES
There’s a legal term applied to advertising called “puffery.” For example, if Coca-Cola says Coke is the best-tasting soda in the world, that’s just puffery. They can’t prove it, but that’s okay, even if polls show that most people prefer Pepsi. Legally, statements like this are evaluated not as strictly factual claims, but as mere ordinary boasting, something that “ordinary consumers do not take seriously.”
The same concept applies to politics. Presidential candidates always say their tax plans will balance, they’ll crush every one of our enemies, and the current incumbent is the worst ever in history. This is just puffery. It’s worth pushing back on, but it’s not generally a hanging offense.
But Donald Trump is different. Sure, his picture is probably in the dictionary next to the word “puffery,” but he also tosses out wild howlers with a con man’s breezy…
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