Ethics and Politics

[Kralizec]

The fact checkers seemed to have been more busy in our last election than previously. Of course that could just be an impression. Almost every debate at least one of the candidates slipped up and in most cases it wasn't picked up immediately by the others, but reported the next day in the media. One of them, a guy called Roemer (socialist party) "complained" on TV about fact checkers making it difficult for him to sprout numbers and "facts" for rethorical reasons. That particular guy has a poor track record as far as factual knowledge is concerned and never had my vote to begin with, though. He did extremely well in the polls a couple of weeks before the elections but eventually came in fourth - which I'm happy with.

As for lies and half-truths in general, they're bad, but it really depends on the specific circumstances. Political debates over here get so bogged down in detailed discussions that it's inevitable that you accidentally say something that's not entirely true. I fully expect my candidate of choice to apoligize and correct himself when called out on it, though.

At least as disturbing, if not moreso, is when someone is giving you half of the story - telling you something that is entirely correct, but leaving out stuff that gets in the way of using the story for your political points. A striking example is the way Wilders met with some fishermen who were concerned that they wouldn't receive subsidies if the Netherlands would leave the EU and that they'd have to go out of business because of it. Wilders not only ensured them that he would continue to pay the same subsidies to fishermen, but a couple of days later said something along the lines of "Those fishermen are trying to make an honest buck and are hampered at every turn by EU regulations, we need to get out!". He, too, did pretty badly in last election and I'm happy with that as well.