Washington, D.C. 11/12/2019. Tomorrow will mark the beginning of historic public hearings related to the House Intelligence Committee’s inquiry into impeachment of the president. The public is likely to hear what will sound like facts, corroborated by a number of credible, even heroic, witnesses. It will sound refreshingly like truth.
Storyguy offers the glossary below as an advance warning and guide to the expected (inevitable?) republican response to the truth. The response will include all of the strategies listed below and more.
The glossary also includes definitions related to possible outcomes of impeachment.
Please read and gird yourself for the assault on the truth that is sure to follow the public hearings.
REPUBLICAN RESPONSE TO IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY PUBLIC HEARINGS: A USEFUL GLOSSARY
LIE: An intentionally false statement. Synonyms: untruth, falsehood, fabrication, deception. Examples: See Washington Post Fact Checker for over 13,000 relevant and recent examples.
ALTERNATIVE FACTS: Most often derived from debunked conspiracy theories. See “Lie” above.
CONSPIRACY THEORY: A theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators. Synonyms: connivance, game, counterplot, sedition, treason, treachery. Example: the republican theory that Ukraine, not Russia, tampered with the 2016 election despite all evidence to the contrary.
DEBUNKED: To reveal an untruth, a myth, a conspiracy theory for what it is. Synonyms: belie, refute, disprove. Example: (see Conspiracy Theory, above) Mueller report confirming Russian interference, not Ukrainian, in 2016 elections.
DIVERSION: An action or event that attracts your attention away from what you are doing or concentrating on. Synonyms: deflection, digression, rerouting. Examples: See conspiracy theory (above). See also, list of witnesses requested by republicans in impeachment inquiry hearings. Also, Sunday’s performance on Fox News by Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.
OBFUSCATION: The action of making something obscure, unclear or unintelligible. Synonyms: fog, stupefaction, bafflement confusion, bewilderment. Examples: Any public statement by Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows or Rudolf Giuliani. Also, statements by presidential advisor presented as alternative facts.
GASLIGHTING: Psychological manipulation in which a person seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, making them question their own memory, perception and sanity for the purpose of gaining power and control. Synonyms: deceive, delude, dupe, fool, hoodwink, trick, contrive, hustle, swindle. Example: Republican efforts to create the idea of equivalence between the efforts of the current president’s illegitimate actions to “investigate corruption in Ukraine” with the legitimate efforts of the past vice president to do the same in accord with established US, NATO and EU policy.
FALSE EQUIVALENCE: A logical fallacy in which two completely opposing arguments appear to be logically equivalent when in fact they are not. This fallacy is categorized as a fallacy of inconsistency. Example: See “gaslighting” above.
PROPAGANDA: information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. Synonyms: promotion, advertising, manipulation. Examples: See gaslighting, false equivalence above. See also: Fox News.
FASCISM: An anti democratic form of government, usually a dictatorship that demands fealty to that dictator as evidence of nationalistic loyalty. Fascism puts nation and often race above the individual. Synonyms: totalitarian, dictatorial, despotic, Nazi, isolationist, xenophobic. Examples: Current US administration, Nazi Germany.
TREASON: Adhering to the enemies of a country, giving them aid and comfort. Synonyms: treachery, disloyalty, betrayal. Example: US retreat from northern Syria to betray Kurdish allies, US withholding military funds from Ukraine to aid Russia.
TRAITOR: A person who commits treason by betraying his or her country and/or oath of office, especially by taking action that aids and abets a direct enemy. Synonyms: conspirator, deceiver, snake, hypocrite, betrayer. Examples: a president who withholds critical military aid funds to an ally involved in conflict with an enemy of that president’s country in exchange for personal, political favors. A president who invites foreign interference in his own country’s elections.
JAIL: A place of confinement of people accused or convicted of a crime. Synonyms: prison, lockup.