Welcome to reality television, a place where alternative facts carry more currency than factual facts. You're now in the show.
It seems a lot of people are surprised Trump's crew had a moment of honesty amongst their normal alternative fact based narrative. They just told you what they were doing like they have all along.
It's pretty simple. There will be cherrypicked facts thrown in with the alternative facts to keep you sufficiently baffled. Remember if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull-oney.
You know that, right? Getting righteously indignant that one of them told you they'd been using the kind of "facts" we've gotten from Fox News and Breitbart over the years seems hopelessly naive. Doesn't it?
This is what happens when you throw a handful of Ayn Rand-ians in a space not much bigger than Graceland. Apologies to Graceland.
It'll really be fun to watch until we all get an eye put out.
This isn't new. Alternative facts have led the day on the fringes for centuries. There are times when they bleed over. Like now, for instance.
There is one group that might be righteously indignant righteously over the "slip" from the master Trumpets.
I received a blast email from an old friend who has roamed Capital Hill since the mid '80s. He's the president and creative director for a consulting firm called Licensed Independent Alternative Reality Services (L.I.A.R.S.). The firm is on alert because the Trumpers are trying to get a trademark on "alternative facts". That could put independent operators like my friend and the National Enquirer out of business.
No sooner had I finished reading the note, my phone rang. It was my friend. I'd tell you his name, but he'd kill me. That's a factual fact.
"It's a little scary around here SJ, Trump and his crew are trying to corner the market on tall tales. You know me, that's all I got!"
It is. My old buddy was a rich kid who had no business in college. He flunked out after 3 semesters but hung out to swarp an extra semester before his parents found out. They didn't take it well and wrote him out of the will. He caught a ride to Washington on a lark and the rest is history.
"Well, you've gotta admit, the Trumpets had some good ones."
"Typical Trump. His people didn't come up with anything. L.I.A.R. consultants scripted it all. He's just trying to get out of the bill. As usual."
"Well, what are you going to do?"
"We're independent SJ. We've spun both sides of the aisle since long before I came to DC. We're making sure the old birds in congress know if it comes to it, we're going to put everything we've done on Facebook. He's their problem, they need to act."
"Sounds like you've got the upper hand. What are you afraid of."
"I don't know if it'll work. Too many Republicans are drinking the Kool Aid, not enough Democrats to help. People like alternative facts. The truth might not matter."
That is not an alternative fact.