The "Big Lie" was a campaign technique invented and perfected by Adolph Hitler during the 1930's in Pre-WWII Germany. The premise was based on the assumption that (if a politician tells a lie big enough and often enough, people will believe it. In Mein Kampf (Hitlers rule book for campaigning) - As a general rule, the most effective big lies are outrageous enough to be unbelievable, yet appeal strongly to the prejudices of the listeners and are stated in as bland and matter-of-fact terms as possible. It is sometimes more effective to string several big lies together in a series of talking points (Rational Wiki, Chapter 10 Mein Kampf). Hitler also wrote "The great masses of the people... will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one".
I was having a conversation with a friend about how state lawmakers are suggesting tax increases for middle income Oklahomans as a way to fill the state budget hole, when another friend suggested that "school consolidation" would "fill the giant chasm" created by the state legislators themselves. The injection of The Big Lie into the conversation was immediately evident. The friend stated "Cut out the top heavy admin cost (sic) in our schools..." as a way to prevent lawmakers from raising taxes on the working poor and middle-class Oklahomans. The "friend" has evidently believed the big lie perpetrated by corporate politicians - Consolidating schools and cutting administrators is the only way to solve the state's budget crisis. Many Oklahoma politicians have continued to perfect the big lie technique, by making statements that have a small amount of truth - which entices the listener to infer a big lie. An example of this "perfected" campaign technique is: A politician was asked the leading question "Do you think public schools in Oklahoma are 'top-heavy'?" His (or her) answer was "Yes, as an example the school superintendents in my county earn $$$." The politician answers the question with a true statement that invariably leads listeners to believe that school administrators and administrative costs are the real "enemy of the state" and the cause of our budget crisis - when it's not true. His answer provokes listeners to believe an inferred big lie.
After I quoted a few facts concerning "our top-heavy public schools" like Administrative expenditures make up about 3% of total school expenditures and Superintendent salaries make up about 1% of total school expenditures, the "friend" said "...I'm not privy to the figures... but schools seemed like a good place to start...". My friend has no ill intent in quoting the political disparagement of public schools, and really believes the "political rhetoric" of administrative and school consolidation is the TRUTH. To find the real truth behind these inferred big lies, one only has to observe their own local senator or representative.
An example of a real big lie perpetrated by Rep. John Bennett, R-Sallisaw, is the statement that state agency employees are terrorists. He said to his fellow lawmakers last Wednesday: "The agencies getting the money are telling our constituents, 'Hey the sky's falling!' And the agencies telling our citizens, they're going we want to cut their services to the most vulnerable. That's terrorism. We should not be negotiating with terrorists, period." Bennett seems to be following Adolph Hitler's rule book for campaigning (Mein Kampf), in which he says "... the most effective big lies are outragious enough to be unbelievable..." which makes them believable to many listeners. To label all state agency employees (teachers, doctors, nurses, state transportation employees, district attorneys, state highway patrol, state prison warden, and all other state employees of ODOT, public schools, health agencies, public safety agencies, etc...) as terrorists is just outrageous enough to be believable to many people. Bennett evidently has no constituents in his district employed by the state, or he believes that most of his constituents will believe the big lie. Let's hope not...
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