Stop insulting our intelligence

Thaer Mukbal: “Your prime minister is very good salesman for Malta. He persuaded us in one minute.”

From my column in The Malta Independent today:

Who do these three stool-pigeons for a Jordanian millionaire think they’re fooling? I’m beginning to wonder at what point the government and its satellite speakers will be done with insulting our intelligence.

Back in the day, I used to listen to their hero Dom Mintoff feeding the crowds a constant stream of codswallop (while sneering at their stupidity) and could have wept at the ignorance, the fruit of deprivation and a bad education, that led them to suck it up in awe. But things haven’t been that bad for a long time.

People still believe lies and are unable to see through well-designed machinations, as the last general election demonstrated overwhelmingly, but the structure of those lies has to have a rational basis. Transparent insults to even the most basic intelligence are seen for what they are and people react badly to them, as well they might.