Quantifying Political Lies: A Case Study of RFK Jr. and Buttigieg Speeches
2025-07-18
This article quantifies the percentage of lies in speeches by RFK Jr. and Pete Buttigieg through sentence-by-sentence fact-checking. The author found that RFK Jr.'s speeches contained a staggering 60% false claims, averaging over eight lies every five minutes, while Buttigieg's rate was significantly lower. This methodology tackles "Brandolini's Law" (the energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it) by exhaustively fact-checking a sample speech to establish a lie rate, eliminating the need for constant verification. While time-consuming, this approach offers a novel way to assess the credibility of political figures.
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political lies