I know right? I read that and immediately thought Trump would LOVE that description.
“Yes, I am the most fabulist and the most successful, this country will be the most fabulist in the world”
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Mug shot.
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compulsive/pathological liars can often believe what they’re saying. lying is a habit. telling the truth can feel extremely uncomfortable. what he’s displaying doesn’t come anywhere near dementia or schizophrenia though, not at all.
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I’m inclined to agree and add that he’s definitely much closer to the antisocial personality disorder/narcissism/borderline personality disorder quadrant of the graph.
It’s not really that he lies that skeezes me out so bad. It’s the way he lies. He does it in the exact same pattern as the diagnosed psychopaths I’ve known. To them there’s no downside to being a constant liar, because the constant stream of preposterous bullshit is good for masking the important lies.
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Since he’s been something of a media celebrity for decades, he’s got to be aware of it. But I think he’s got the powerful blinders of narcissism and hired help who suck up to him and filter out any unpleasantries. He only hears what he wants to hear - that he’s powerful and respected. Any negatives are just others who are jealous and wanting to diminish his greatness.
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The rather similar Jeffrey Archer’s wife said of him that he suffers from “narrative inaccuracy”.
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But that guy could actually play the piano
Yeah, a lot of people are confusing lying for ignorance and an inability to admit to being wrong.
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It takes some effort to always make grandiose claims to knowledge, so that’s active ignorance compared to simply happening to not know something. When ignorance is deliberate, I’d say that it still amounts to dishonesty. They are not the same, but there is often an overlap.
I think that that’s more a matter of people being too attached to their own pet interpretations. An easy fix is to train oneself to always model scenarios in several different ways rather than insist upon One True Answer. I would say that a person cannot “be” wrong, but their models and opinions may be more or less accurate in any given instance. It is less a matter of identity than it is of probabilities.
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As full of shit as any could ever be and still draw breath
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Very reasonable, but a combination of extreme ignorance, a fragile ego and inability to admit to being wrong would present as very similar to compulsive lying. And constant lying isn’t clearly in his interests. I can see how lying can often serve his business interests (and he has clearly lied a lot in business) but a lot of the things people are presenting as political lies don’t make sense as lies since they don’t serve his interests. Occams razor would suggest stupidity and ignorance as a more likely diagnosis. Of course he might have a medical condition which means he can’t control his lying.
At the clear risk of annoying, Mrs Clinton was directly accused of “inaccuracies” by James Comey. Those “inaccuracies” were helpful to her campaign. So the case can be made that she is a liar as well.
I suspect the bigger problem with Trump is that he is a dumbass crass asshole. It seems to me that a lot of people have a problem with electing a dumb ass crass asshole into office. But I don’t see how overselling his many flaws adds much to the discussion.
I can’t tell if Trump is actively making people stupider, or merely shining a tremendously huge spotlight onto a horrifying preexisting condition
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Yeah, the way he lies seems extremely habitual and/or compulsive, like he’s been doing this most of his life. For most people, understanding that the lying is hurtful to themselves and to others can be enough to correct it. However, when lying is at a disorder level there can be downsides to halting the lying (like it being incredibly uncomfortable, as I mentioned). It can also reach a point where the person is no longer conscious of it, and if they’re enabled in it, it’s worse. It takes time and effort to change, how much depends on the seriousness of the issue and the willingness of the person in question to admit there’s a problem and take steps to correct it.
And of course, stigma plays a huge factor. What skeeves me out more than his behavior are the people just looking the other way and ignoring it or pretending like it’s not a problem. I’m sure THAT has been going on most of his life. 
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