If, as Ralph Waldo Emerson noted, “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” then foolish inconsistencies can be evidence of a demented one.
Take the nearly daily inconsistencies of former president Donald Trump, whose powers of memory are about equal to those of a raccoon on “bath salts.” On one day, Trump will bleat that he is the victim of political persecution. The next day, he will promise to politically persecute his political enemies. The next day, he will claim the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was a plot by “Antifa.” The day after that, he will call the people convicted of crimes on that day “hostages” and vow to pardon them.
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