There are key words that crop up in the vocabulary of immature people and that always give them away.
Among them are “trust / lies / promise”. We all have the experience of hearing a 4-year-old wail “But you promised, mommy!” The kid wants a predictable, easy-to-understand world, and the complexity of “yes, I did promise we’d go to the park but I meant we’d do it unless it were pouring rain” is confusing. Kids are completely dependent, so it’s crucial to them that everybody around them should be dependable. Adults make their own reality, so being able to place complete trust in anybody isn’t that important.
Remember the slogan “Bush lied, kids died”? I detested Bush then and I do now but, God, what a stupid slogan. It’s not an accident that “lied” is followed by “kids.” This is the childish attitude of the sloganeers that breaks through.
I’m not disputing that Bush lied, by the way. He’s a politician. It’s in the job description.
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