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Two reasons why “The Big Lie” is a bad name

Trump’s horrible, blatant, false claims that the election was “stolen”, even though everyone knew well in advance that because of mail-in-votes, there was gonna be a “red mirage” effect. Red would be in the lead and then blue catch up as those predominantly (but not exclusively) blue-voting groups were gonna be counted last.

We knew that, but of course they’re still gonna blatantly try to make it weird.

Which is pretty un-thought-through. If someone could “steal the election” they wouldn’t’ve made a red mirage effect.

Trump’s false claims are being called “The Big Lie” by our (the left’s) side.

Now, while I think “The Big Lie” is a bad name, I don’t think it’s bad enough to change it retroactively. I’m just asking if we please can take more care next time we come up with names like this.

Here’s why the name is bad:

It’s vague and ambiguous

“The Big Lie”. Whose lie? Some misguided confusionado could think it meant that the side who states that the election was legitimate was the lying side.

This could happen through ignorance or through malice. “Fake news” used to mean those fake news websites generated to get ad money. Trump stole that phrase to undermine trust in the mainstream media.

Instead, they could’ve said “Trump’s false claims” and “Trump’s false election claims”. Crisp and clear.

Trump’s side is using the phrase “the Steal” which has similar issues. It’s Trump’s side that is trying to steal the election yet they’re refering to the legitimate Biden/Harris win as a nounified “steal”. (Probably better known as a “theft”.)

(Trump’s associates have confessed in court that their claims were false —”so false that no-one could take them seriously”.)

It has horrific roots

Hitler coined the phrase “große Lüge” to describe the lie he (lyingly) claimed his opponents were making. He was trying to build support for the false Dolchstoß conspiracy theory, and he was (lyingly) saying that to deny Dolchstoß was a Big Lie.

That’s why it’s so weird how the phrase is used now to the point that I was had to do a double take and figure out what they meant since I know that the Trump supporters like Spencer likes to use Nazi terms like “Lügenpresse”.