International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Review

The study uses the fundamental aggregate demand (AD) and aggregate supply (AS) model to show that some political leaders in the United States, the digital information technologies (DITs), and social media platforms (SMPs) have contributed to the propagations and amplifications of public lies, which some people willfully consume, thus the noticeable increase in the consumption of public lies relative to the truths. Simply put, some political leaders – who are truths-tellers or propagators of public lies – DITs, and SMPs are the key exogenous variables that can shift the aggregate demand and aggregate supply curves of truths and public lies. The AD-AS model is used to construct a monotonically increasing truths expansion path when people prefer the truths and a monotonically decreasing public lies expansion path when people prefer public lies. In addition, a unique social welfare maximization model is utilized to underscore the assertion that the truths generate positive externalities with social welfare-enhancing outcomes while public lies generate negative externalities with social welfare-retarding outcomes. Importantly, public lies undermine personal safety and security when political leaders use public lies to target certain individuals and groups. History shows that the political process of twisting the truths and spreading public lies existed in the 20th century with adverse consequences, but in this era of DITs and SMPs, some political leaders have rediscovered that public lies are the most effective lethal weapons of democracy destruction in order to achieve political power and control. Overall, public lies will undermine public trust and national security and defense.