(via) “For leaders like Trump and Putin, telling big lies isn’t about persuasion — it’s about power.” So states this short explainer from Vox, which details why consistently telling shamelessly obvious lies – aka “firehosing” – appears to work so well in politics. Of course politicians telling lies is nothing new, but I don’t think the torrent of falsehoods has ever been this thick and fierce, especially in societies that traditionally hold their leaders to account over things like objective truth. While it’s no end of depressing to be told that “reality is now about picking sides”, it’s even worse to have that statement ring so true. Thus it’s probably a good idea to train our ears to such amoral methods and practices, if only to better smell the bullshit.