Cranking Up for 2016

Mark Thoma excerpts from Paul Krugman's article about Cranking Up for 2016.

The … modern American right seems to have abandoned the idea that there is an objective reality out there… What are you going to believe, right-wing doctrine or your own lying eyes? These days, the doctrine wins.

Look at another issue, health reform. … Then there’s foreign policy. … And don’t get me started on climate change.

Along with this denial of reality comes an absence of personal accountability. If anything, alleged experts seem to get points by showing that they’re willing to keep saying the same things no matter how embarrassingly wrong they’ve been in the past.

But let’s go back to those economic charlatans and cranks: Clearly, failure has only made them stronger, and now they are political kingmakers. Be very, very afraid.

Emphasis Mine

A decadent political and economic system, such as American Capitalism, is clearly more concerned with retaining power than with dealing with reality. These sychophants from the think tanks are simply telling the decaying elite fairy tales in order to make the alleged reality more palatable.

Facing reality means admitting the failure of Capitalism. Lies are so more comfortable.